Testing Light Visibility - Bright Sunlight

[RCMoeur]

Sure, almost any light looks great up close at night or in an indoor garage.

But how does it look in bright sunlight at 1/4 mile away?

At 75 mph, 1/4 mile is a mere 12 seconds. Having lights visible at that distance or farther could be useful out on streets and highways.

Yesterday, I took my vehicles (which are equipped with rear warning lights) out on a bright day in sunny Arizona and took video & photos at 1/4 mile (1300 ft), 1/8 mile (600-700 ft), 250 ft, and close up. Although video and photos don't often record light output as faithfully as a human eye, it's at least something shareable. Apologies in advance for the shakiness of the 1/8 mile and 250 ft videos (I used a tripod for the 1/4 mile video).

First up is my faithful 31-year-old pickup truck, with red 2 STT LEDs, an amber oscillating Federal FB4 Magnabeam, and an amber "retired" FB4 converted into a stationary flashing light.



Next is my Toyota Yaris. This little "jellybean" doesn't have a lot in the way in 'authoritative image', but the nimbleness and 40 MPG makes it great for field work and travel. It has an amber FB4 Magnabeam mounted in the rear window next to a "resurrected" amber FB4 rebuilt as a stationary light.


Finally, we have our Honda Odyssey minivan, which travels thousands of miles a year across the nation on family and business travel, plus is the wife's daily driver. This also has an amber flashing stationary light in a FB4 housing plus a FB4 Magnabeam side by side in the rear window. The tint's a bit darker on the Odyssey, which does affect light output a bit, but it still shines sufficiently.


Let me know what you think...

 

[RCMoeur]

Regarding the stationary light: over the years, as Magnabeams (some of which were used in light bars) conked out (typically due to burned-out motors or chewed-up gears), they'd get dismantled and tossed into a parts pile for fixing survivors. Inspired by a recent posting here by dmathieu, I realized that these could be assembled into a usable stationary light by fixing the reflector in place (in this case, with tie wire) and using a 2-pole flasher to flash the H1 bulb. As you can see from the video, it seems to work well. This is what it looks like opened up:

 

[Skulldigger]

The flasher seems to be the most visible. The other seems to flash to quickly for proper effect, a problem with a lot of modern lighting. Could be it is just out flashing the sync rate of the camera and just not as effective in video.

 

[RCMoeur]

The Magnabeams on the right of each vehicle are about two decades old. They’re set at the “high” flash rate. Even though they’ve been well-maintained, I’ve found at that age that if you set the speed on “slow”, there’s a possibility that the motor can stop completely, which is a Bad Thing.