Do you fly drones after sunset or before sunrise?
Concerned about FAA regulations about drone lighting?
Then the Anti-Collision Strobe for Drones is just what the doctor ordered!!!
This is a small, fully self-contained, VERY light weight (3 grams!) strobe that easily attaches to most any drone, and it's stupid bright!!! Even in direct sunlight, it left me seeing spots for several minutes.
It uses two 5-watt Cree phosphor white LEDs, and has three modes available with the simple push of a button. It also features a rechargeable battery so it doesn't use a single microjoule of your drone's battery -- and no silly extra wiring that could become hung up in props or otherwise become a nusiance.
And it is shrink-wrapped so it has at least a minimal level of water-resistance -- fog or light rain should not kill it.
SIZE
As with any rechargeable product, charge it first (see directly below) and then you'll be ready to rock.
Affix the unit to your drone using the furnished square of double-sided tape -- be certain that the area you intend to fasten the strobe to is clean and dry first.
To power it on, press & hold the small black pushbutton switch for two seconds. The unit should then blaze to life -- possibly causing you temporary flashblindness in the process!
To change modes, just click (press and then immediately release) the same button one or more times to get to the desired mode
Normal strobe mode -- units brightly flashes its LEDs (a quick double-flash actually) at 1Hz (1 flash per second).
Long flash mode -- unit turns its LEDs on and off with a duty cycle of 50%; blink rate is again 1Hz.
Steady-on mode (though it's not actually steady-on; it pulses the LEDs with low-AF pulses that have a short duty cycle -- it just looks steady-on due to the way the human eye functions).
Like it reads on the backs of many shampoo bottles, "lather, rinse, repeat."
In other words, a fourth button click returns the unit to normal strobe mode.
To neutralise the product when you are finished using it, press & hold the small black pushbutton switch for two seconds.
To check the battery's charge status at any time, quickly press & release the button while the unit is off. Fully charged, the unit should generate two long flashes of its LEDs.
To charge the battery in the Anti-Collision Strobe for Drones, plug the larger end of the furnished USB charge cable into any USB port on a PC or Mac computer, or into a USB "wall wart" charger often used to charge cellular telephone handsets, and plug the smaller end into the MicroUSB receptacle on the strobe.
You can also charge the Anti-Collision Strobe in the field if necessary, using a USB power bank often used for charging cellular telephones. I always have an Atomic Charge Wallet on my person; a product like this is perefectly kosher.
When charging, one of the LEDs on the product will turn steady-on; this indicates that the product is receiving power and is charging.
The Li:Po cell has inbuilt overcharge protection, so no damage will occur if you plug it into the charge and subsequently forget about it.
A full charge (from a totally flat battery) takes approximately 90 minutes; shorter if you didn't run the battery to the ground.
And a full charge can last up to 150 minutes in strobe mode.
This instrument is reasonably durable, but because it simply wasn't designed to take significant abuse, I won't perform, "The Smack Test" on it. I know you love to see me break things, but it ain't gonna happen today, folks.
I will also forego, "The Toliet Test" for much the same reason.
This is also not a flashlight meant to be used every bloody day, thrashed, trashed, and abused. So I won't try to drown it in the cistern ( toliet tank), bash it against a steel rod or against the concrete floor of a front porch in effort to try and expose the bare Metalmarineangemon - er - the bare Metalkumamon - um that's not it either...the bare Metalwargrowlmon...er...uh...wait a sec here...THE BARE METAL (guess I've been watching too much Digimon again! - now I'm just making {vulgar term for feces} up!!!), let my mother's big dog's ghost or my sister's kitty cats spring a leak (uranate) on it, hose it down with a gun, run over it with a 450lb Quickie Pulse 6 motorised wheelchair, stomp on it, use a medium ball peen hammer in order to bash it open to check it for candiosity, fire it from the cannoñata, drop it down the top of Mt. Erupto (I guess I've been watching the TV program "Viva Piñata" too much again - candiosity is usually checked with a laser-type device on a platform with a large readout (located at Piñata Central {aka. "Party Central"}), with a handheld wand that Langston Lickatoad uses, or with a pack-of-cards-sized device that Fergy Fudgehog uses; the cannoñata (also located at Piñata Central) is only used to shoot piñatas to piñata parties away from picturesque Piñata Island, and Mt. Erupto is an active volcano on Piñata Island), send it to the Daystrom Institute for additional analyses, or perform other indecencies on it that a flashlight might have to have performed on it. So this section of the web page will be ***SIGNIFICANTLY*** more bare than this section of the web page on a page about a flashlight that was born to be a flashlight and nothing but a flashlight.
As an unexpected bonus, when I'm travelling to one of my flight venues in my electric wheelchair, I can place the drone in the seatback basket, fire up the studly little strobe and have a nice little "taillight" to let oncoming motorists see me better!
Photograph of the product where it belongs -- on a drone of course.
Spectrographic analysis of the phosphor white LED in this strobe.
Spectrographic analysis of the white LED in this strobe; spectrometer's response band narrowed to a range between 438nm and 450nm to pinpoint native emission peak wavelength, which is 445.170nm.
The raw spectrometer data (tab-delimited that can be loaded into Excel) is at acs.txt
Spectrographic analysis of the red LED in the Anti-Collision Strobe for Drones; spectrometer's response band narrowed to a range between 620nm and 640nm to pinpoint emission peak wavelength, which is 631.990nm.
The raw spectrometer data (tab-delimited that can be loaded into Excel) is at acsr.txt
Spectrographic analysis of the green LED in the Anti-Collision Strobe for Drones; spectrometer's response band narrowed to a range between 505nm and 525nm to pinpoint emission peak wavelength, which is 515.800nm.
The raw spectrometer data (tab-delimited that can be loaded into Excel) is at acsg.txt
Spectrographic analysis of the red "Charge cycle in progress" LED in the Anti-Collision Strobe for Drones; spectrometer's response band narrowed to a range between 625nm and 640nm to pinpoint emission peak wavelength, which is 633.310nm.
The raw spectrometer data (tab-delimited that can be loaded into Excel) is at acsrc.txt
Spectrographic analysis of the green "Charge cycle complete" LED in the Anti-Collision Strobe for Drones; spectrometer's response band narrowed to a range between 505nm and 530nm to pinpoint emission peak wavelength, which is 520.290nm.
The raw spectrometer data (tab-delimited that can be loaded into Excel) is at acsgc.txt
Spectrographic analysis of the blue LED in the Anti-Collision Strobe for Drones; spectrometer's response band narrowed to a range between 460nm and 480nm to pinpoint emission peak wavelength, which is 470.880nm.
The raw spectrometer data (tab-delimited that can be loaded into Excel) is at acsb.txt
A beam cross-sectional analysis would normally appear here, but the ProMetric System
that I use for that test was destroyed by lightning in mid-July 2013.
Anti-Collision Strobe for drones.
Make your drone legal for twilight missions -- the FAA somewhat seriously pooh-poohs twilight flights unless your drone is outfitted with an anti-collision strobe.
When I initially fired it up, my first thought was, "CHRIST THIS THING IS BRIGHT!!!"
This product uses a rechargeable Li-:Po battery and does not use ANY of the drone's power. This also means that if your drone goes down and its battery pops out, this super intense strobe will continue to blink happily away and allow you a better chance at rescuing your drone.
I apologise for the poor video quality; I had to use the camera inbuilt into my cellular telephone handset to record this video; my only decent camera was on a drone which crashed and was subsequently stolen on 05-29-19.
Anti-Collision Strobe for Drones in use.
This very brief video shows the Anti-Collision Strobe for Drones (dual Cree LED version) by Firehouse Technology doing its job.
I have it affixed to the upper half of the fuselage of my JJR/C JJPRO X5 "EPIK" drone; even in this mounting position I can see it blinking from the ground if the drone is somewhat facing me.
Video was shot at 8:41pm PDT in Fresno CA. USA.
Anti-Collision Strobe for Drones in use (2)
This very brief video shows the Anti-Collision Strobe for Drones (dual Cree LED version) by Firehouse Technology doing its job.
I have it affixed to the upper half of the fuselage of my DJI Phantom 3 Standard drone; even in this mounting position I can see it blinking from the ground if the drone is somewhat facing me.
Video was shot at 8:38pm PDT on 07-21-19 in Fresno CA. USA.
You may safely disregard the time/date stamp along the bottom edge of this video; that became fuxxored some time ago and I've yet to figure out how to correct it. :-/
Anti-Collision Strobe for Drones in use (3)
This brief video shows the Anti-Collision Strobe for Drones (dual Cree LED version) by Firehouse Technology doing its job. Actually there are four of them mounted to the drone: one dual-Cree white on the top of the drone's fuselage, another dual-Cree white mounted in front and facing primarily forward (used for orientation purposes), and a dual-Cree red & dual-Cree green mounted to the landing sprigs using brackets originally intended for the Phantom 4 series of drones -- but they fit the Phantom 3 Standard just fine thankyouverymuch! :-)
The music that you hear is the song, "Staying Alive" by The Bee Gees.
I chose this song specifically because my best friend Kim told me on the telephone this morning (07-30-19) that it looked like a frickin flying disco ball, and I tend to agree!!! :-)
Video was shot at 8:29pm PDT on 07-29-19 in Fresno CA. USA.
You may safely disregard the time/date stamp along the bottom edge of this video; that became fuxxored some time ago and I've yet to figure out how to correct it. :-/
Brief video showing the Anti-Collision Strobe for Drones (dual Cree LED version) on my C-Fly DREAM GPS 5G WiFi FPV R/C Drone being cycled through its three modes.
The music that you hear is zax from the coin-op arcade video game, "Afterburner ][" aka., "Afterburner Deluxe" by Sega from 1987.
This product is not audio (sound)-sensitive in any manner; the music may safely be ignored or even muted if it piddles you off.
TEST NOTES:
I purchased this on Ebay on 06-28-19 and it was received at 12:24pm PDT on 07-01-19.
UPDATE: 07-26-19
The "charge cycle complete" issue I am having is ***NOT*** a defect after all!!!
From info. that I got right from the horse's mouth, they were having some issues with charge monitoring, so they just made the, "Charge cycle complete" indicator a simple Power indicator.
In other words, it's perfectly normal for your strobe to behave this way when charging. The cell ("battery") has intelligent circuitry built in that will prevent overcharging; e.g., there's no need to set a timer.
UPDATE: 07-30-19
The white LED model has been upgraded!
It now features a bright red, "Charge cycle in progress" LED and a bright green, "Charge cycle complete" LED.
Now there can be absolutely no doubt when the unit has taken a full charge and is ready for a little twilight/night/dawn action!
UPDATE: 07-31-19
Scott L. at Firehouse Technology has sent me two mounting clips designed to fit the landing sprigs of the DJI Phantom 4 series of drones; he was curious if they also fit the Phantom 3 drones.
Short answer is: YES THEY DO!!!
He also sent me their red and green strobes plus the new-version white -- all are the dual-Cree LED with no outer case *AND* three different types of double-sided adhesive pads to try. So I used a Velcro pad for the white strobe on the upper surface of the drone's fuselage, a thin double-sided tape for the other white strobe mounted to the front of the drone's fuselage (this strobe is there primarily for orientation purposes), and finally, both pieces of double-sided foam tape on the landing sprig brackets to which I've affixed the red & green strobes to for use as port (left) and starboard (right) indicators.
UPDATE: 08-09-19
The red and green strobes have begun to malfunction. 1: The red dual-Cree strobe has one of its two LEDs that has gone out. It still blinks (short and long) and steady-on still functions, but with just one LED now instead of two.
2: The green dual-Cree strobe is completely nonfunctional. It will randomly (and very dimly) flash its LEDs, but the unit as a whole does not function in any of its three modes.
Battery charging appears to still be functional (it emits a dim flash every couple of seconds when the charge cycle is in progress and operates steady-on (though rather dimly as intended) when the charge cycle has completed). But none of its normal operational modes function; same with the battery test function.
When it is plugged in, it appears to function quite normally.
Has the battery gone to pot I wonder?
Therefore I have no choise but to appended the dreadful, " to its listings on this website.
UPDATE: 10-18-19
On a flight that I made on the morning of 10-17-19, my DJI Phantom 3 Standard FPV R/C Drone (to which these strobes were affixed) experienced what is known in the hobby as a, "fly-away". I watched helplessly as it flew over a stand of trees approx. two city blocks away and vanished.
As a result, I no longer have them.
UPDATE: 02-10-20
I have purchased another white strobe and a blue strobe; the white one is now in my custody and is affixed to my new Hubsan Zino drone.
UPDATE: 02-14-20
I now have the blue strobe; again it is affixed to my new Hubsan Zino drone.
UPDATE: 02-20-20
On a flight of my Hubsan Zino drone that I made at at 11:03am PST on 02-19-20, the Zino was struck by a truck travelling approx. 40mph (~64.40kph) and I thought for sure that the drone and the strobes were goners.
But when I turned the drone rightside-up and performed a cursory examination, something very queer caught my eye. The white dual-Cree strobe was now one white LED and one sky-blue LED.
Let me perform spectroscopy of the sky blue LED and show you...BBS...
Spectrographic analysis of the "denuded" white LED in the Anti-Collision Strobe for Drones.
See how the blue peak is significantly higher than the white phosphor output now?
The raw spectrometer data (tab-delimited that can be loaded into Excel) is at acsw2.txt
UPDATE: 03-13-20
This strobe literally saved my bacon the day before last.
I was flying my C-Fly Dream, it crashed high into a tree, and I heard it tumbling to the ground. I went to the other side of the fence and looked for the drone where I thought that it had gone down, and then I returned to the launch site and slowly cruised the area on the side of the fence where I was flying...after several minutes I spied, with my little eye, a flashing white light near the base of a tree. It was of course my drone. Its flight battery had popped out and was found a couple of feet away -- had I been using a light that relied on the drone's power, I would have most certainly been SOL.
UPDATE: 04-19-20
The white strobe that I had been using on my C-Fly Dream and recently moved to my Bayangtoys X22 Brushless Gimbal Drone appears to have petered out. It behaves as though there is an intermittent somewhere in the primary power circuit; the charge status indicator switches from red to green WELL BEFORE the battery has received sufficient charge so that it dies shortly after activation and most of the time it does not function at all unless it is stragically squeezed.
Therefore I have no choise but to appended the dreadful, " to its listings on this website.
As a side note, my DJI Phantom 3 Standard FPV R/C Drone was found and returned to me a couple of days ago, but some asshaberdasher took the camera & gimbal ass'y and the four Anti-Collision Strobe for Drones units that I had affixed to various parts of its body.
UPDATE: 04-24-20
The blue strobe has now gone to pot.
On a flight of my Bayangtoys X22 Brushless Gimbal Drone, it was functioning correctly at launch, but when I landed the drone, it had switched from two blue strobing LEDs to one continuously-on LED; toggling modes and power-cycling the unit failed to get both LEDs on.
Since I've experienced such a high failure rate, I've regrettably decided to derate the product SIGNIFICANTLY! It goes from six stars to zero stars.
UPDATE: 04-25-20
Here's a brief video on YourTube showing how the blue Anti-Collision Strobe for Drones has gone to pot:
The music that you hear is zax from the coin-op arcade video game, "Afterburner ][" aka., "Afterburner Deluxe" by Sega from 1987.
This product is not audio (sound)-sensitive in any manner; the music may safely be ignored or even muted if it piddles you off.
As you can see, one of the LEDs no longer comes on, regardless of what mode the unit is placed in.
UPDATE: 05-13-20
I've decided to add this product to my The LED (and Laser) Museum website because it uses LEDs in its primary function.
Although it is called the Anti-Collision Strobe for Drones, you can use it on more than just drones.
UPDATE: 05-13-20 (Same-day update)
The blue LED model that I had been using even though only one LED functioned went to pot yesterday; neither of its LEDs work.
UPDATE: 01-06-21
I've decided to give Firehouse Technology another chance by purchasing another Anti-Collision Strobe and seeing if it has a greater device lifetime than the previous units that I purchased.
That is, potential engineering "fails" that may have existed when I last purchased these may have since been ironed out and subsequently I may see longer device lifetime. :-)
UPDATE: 01-20-21
I've found a possible issue in the replacement: very short battery life coupled with an unusually fast charge cycle.
This will reequire additional testing, so please stay tuned.
UPDATE: 01-26-21
I went to use it the day before yesterday and it was deader than a doorknob.
So I plugged it into the charger after returning home and nothing happened -- that is, the red LED failed to turn on. But after fv¢k¡ñg with it for several minutes, I got the red light to come on. But it only stayed on for ~ten minutes and then the green light came on. So I unplugged it and then plugged it up again -- much as I expected, the red LED came on. After repeating this action several times, I just said the hell with it and put the drone (with this light affixed to its fuselage) back in its case.
Prior to yesterday morning's systems check of the drone, this light fired up beautifully.
UPDATE: 08-04-21
I've been having excellent results with this light on my DJI Mavic Mini FPV R/C Drone -- so much so that I'm going to boost the rating that I gave it!
PROS:
CHRIST IT'S BRIGHT!!!
Very light weight
Rechargeable
Does not use drone's power; fully self-contained
No messy wiring
NEUTRAL:
Water-resistance could be a bit better -- but since I don't fly in the rain, this is not a negative!
CONS:
Unexpectedly high mortality rate -- that's what just killed its rating.
MANUFACTURER: Firehouse Technology
PRODUCT TYPE: Anti-collision strobe light for drones
LAMP TYPE: Cree high-power (5W) phosphor white (or nonphosphor colored) LED
No. OF LAMPS: 2
BEAM TYPE: Wide flood
REFLECTOR TYPE: N/A
SWITCH TYPE: Momentary pushbutton on the PCB
CASE MATERIAL: No case
BEZEL: None
BATTERY: 3.7 volts, 90mAh Li:Po rechargeable cell
CURRENT CONSUMPTION: Unknown/unable to measure
WATER- AND URANATION-RESISTANT: Very light sprinkle-resistant at maximum
SUBMERSIBLE: ¡¡¡SATANÁS LLEVA UN PAÑAL SUCIO, NO!!!
ACCESSORIES: Battery, USB charge cable, square of double-sided tape
SIZE: 0.75" L x 0.5" W
WEIGHT: < 3 grams
COUNTRY OF MANUFACTURE: USA
WARRANTY: Unknown/not stated
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SIZE
- now I'm just making {vulgar term for feces} up!!!), let my mother's big dog's ghost or my sister's kitty cats spring a leak (uranate) on it, hose it down with a gun, run over it with a 450lb Quickie Pulse 6 motorised wheelchair, stomp on it, use a medium ball peen hammer in order to bash it open to check it for candiosity, fire it from the cannoñata, drop it down the top of Mt. Erupto (I guess I've been watching the TV program "Viva Piñata" too much again 
to its listings on this website.
