Cheap Line Markers

[BareThrills]

Just thought id post up a little alternative to glow light markers for your tarp lines. These are little led units i knock up. All you need is a CR2032 lithium battery (£1.48 for 10 delivered on evilbay) a bog standard 3mm or 5mm led of your choice (pence on evilbay but dont go to maplin) and a couple of neodymium disc magnets (couple of quid on evilbay)



put the led legs either side of the battery (longer leg is +) put a magnet on one side to secure the leg to the battery, slip over your line and then add the second magnet. The last one of these i timed went for 5 days on one battery (that was a 3mm led). The only thing you will need to replace is the battery and at 14.8p for 5 days its pretty cheap.

[spandit]

That's a great idea

[Mesquite]

Neat little idea there Paul

[SiWhite]

Does the voltage of the LED need to match that of the battery?

[BareThrills]

Does the voltage of the LED need to match that of the battery?

most bog standard leds of the type shown are about 3.2v - 3.5v depending on colour. the CR2032 is 3v so the leds are working within their designed voltage limit. it means they are bright but not at their brightest. this aids the length of burn you get from a battery without noticeably affecting light output.

[Wild Thing]

Paul

That follows the kiss rule (Keep It Simple Stupid)

Love it.

I think this might just catch on.

Regards

Phill

[BareThrills]

Cheers, just a little update. The light is still burning strong on the original battery. 6pm tonight will be 72 hours

[Buckshot]

Could you just tape the legs of the LED to the battery?
I'm wondering about water proofness

Good idea though

[Bosun]

In a similar vein, I'm constantly pinging my tarp's 2mm guy lines in the dark, so I've been looking for a way of illuminating them.

So, I wondered if the angling community had anything to offer. They must sometimes have a need to see thin lines in the dark. I found this stuff:

Super Lumi Glow tube, Glows in the dark after charging with a headlight or torch. Even glows in Sunlight. Inside diameters of 2mm, 3mm or 4mm in lengths of 5m or 10metres. 5m for about £5 from UK Hooks (http://www.uk-hooks.com).

My thinking is that I could slide a length of tube on to my guy lines or leave it off if I want to go "tactical".

[BareThrills]

Yes you could tape them. ive used them in rain plenty of times and they dont seem to go out. When immersed in water they just go out. Remove from water and the light comes back on. its very hard to put them out even in heavy rain. Using tape is fine but it might lift off in wet weather

[BareThrills]

In a similar vein, I'm constantly pinging my tarp's 2mm guy lines in the dark, so I've been looking for a way of illuminating them.

So, I wondered if the angling community had anything to offer. They must sometimes have a need to see thin lines in the dark. I found this stuff:

Super Lumi Glow tube, Glows in the dark after charging with a headlight or torch. Even glows in Sunlight. Inside diameters of 2mm, 3mm or 4mm in lengths of 5m or 10metres. 5m for about £5 from UK Hooks (http://www.uk-hooks.com).

My thinking is that I could slide a length of tube on to my guy lines or leave it off if I want to go "tactical".

Looks like interesting stuff. Let us know how you get on

[Bosun]

Will do. I've got a question in to the supplier to see how long this stuff glows on a "full charge".

There are other clip on, luminous guy line markers on the market, and MSR have a set of reflective markers. However, none of the ones I've seen have my required ID of 2mm.

[BareThrills]

100 hours and we still have light

[Bosun]

Will do. I've got a question in to the supplier to see how long this stuff glows on a "full charge".

There are other clip on, luminous guy line markers on the market, and MSR have a set of reflective markers. However, none of the ones I've seen have my required ID of 2mm.

Mike Taylor from www.uk-hooks.com has responded to my query. The tubing will have a "couple of minutes bright glow" after it's been fully "charged".

I'd be interested to see whether there's any kind of longer term, residual glow that would make my guy lines visible throughout the night.

I'll buy a fiver's worth, do some experiments and update this thread.

[Native Nathan]

great tip mate thank you

[Humpback]

Gary
Thanks for this tip. I've been using tiny fishing disposal cylumes on my lines since pulling out a tie-out from my tarp! The LEDs and batteries have arrived and am awaiting the magnets. My white 5mm is now well into its 3rd day and going strong.
Alan

[Shewie]

I use the Niteize Glowrings on each corner of my tarp, they're expensive but they do last a long long time

[BareThrills]

Gary
Thanks for this tip. I've been using tiny fishing disposal cylumes on my lines since pulling out a tie-out from my tarp! The LEDs and batteries have arrived and am awaiting the magnets. My white 5mm is now well into its 3rd day and going strong.
Alan

No problem Alan

Who's Gary

Bosun

in my experience with GID paracord the glow does last for about 10 mins but there is no residual glow after. Will be interesting to see if this stuff is better. From memory Wayland had some glowy stuff at the last RC meet that was pretty good. be interested in knowing what that was if he's listening

[Shewie]

I think Gary uses the stuff from Clamcleats ..

http://www.cleats.co.uk/home/default.asp

[BareThrills]

Cheers Shewie, Thats a good site

[ged]

I'd have thought that a betalight would be cheaper in the long run, and certainly more robust, convenient and reliable.

Here's an example, just a random search engine result, I bet you can get them cheaper than this.

http://www.inovatech.co.uk/shop/prod...p?productid=50

The brightness will halve approximately every 12.3 years as the radioactive content decays, so the typical useful lifetime of these things is a quarter of a century.

It's a continuous light, you can't turn it off to save power for example, and if you wanted to go 'tactical' you'd have to put it in your pack or something.

[Humpback]

I have a couple of bivy zip markers from Soldier of Fortune ref: Code: MAC477 in various colours. Unfortunately these are no where near as bright as these the "barethrills marker" such that I haven't used them for some time.
A

http://www.sofmilitary.co.uk/military/select.asp


Paul - I've no idea where Gary came from? my apologies for renaming you.

[BareThrills]

That made me chuckle Alan. A Bare Thrills Marker sounds like some sort of dodgy marker for folk seeking other pleasures in the woods

[cbkernow]

if you google "LED Throwies" you'll find a few links to similar projects, they first emerged online as a means of urban pranking and grafiti!

You could evolve the design by fitting a light dependant resistor so they only come on at night, then with a bit of duct tape to seal it, they'd last for ages.

[BareThrills]

Good thinking batman, self time built in would be most excellent. That said my original LED is still going stron on the same battery

[dean4442]

I get my GID paracord from here: http://dx.com/p/glow-in-the-dark-lum...tensile-108557
It's pretty good and does glow for a while, not really strongly but enough to see it in a dark wood!
Colin
PS sorry for the damage to any wallets you sustain after going on there!