Strobe / LED flasher help

[eeyore1351]

It’s a naïve question, but it’s the only way I’ll learn. Is there a power supply/flash controller that will handle strobes and LEDs simultaneously? Maryland law prevents POVs from having alternating supplemental warning lights, but allows for simultaneously flashing lights (set as widely apart as is practicable and used only if the car is stationary).

I’m a news photographer and cover all sorts of action on the highways and interstates, thus I’m hoping to beef up my rear warning beyond the OEM four-way flashers. I’d like to install a pair of strobes in the rear corners, plus something like a pair of dual, synched Talons or Dominators (better-packaged TIR3s) on the rear deck. The problem, though, is how to get them all flashing at once without having to install some billion-dollar control system. Is there a solution to my puzzle, please?

Thanks for considering this.

[PriorityOne]

Federal Signal makes models 460L and 660L that will flash LEDs and Strobes simultaneously or alternating. To get Talons or TIR3's to flash at the same rate you can set them to steady-burn and flash them from this power supply

[Adam]

Whelen UPS64LXA will do strobes and sync leds.

Two TIR3s will do simultaneous flash with 5 different patterns. TIR3s are self contained, bright as hell and synchronizable.

TIR3: http://www.10-4warning.com/shopping/rs-03zcr.htm

UPS64LXA: http://www.vlsusa.com/cgi-bin/vlsusa/UPS64LX.html
http://www.southwestpublicsafety.com/whelupstrobp.html
http://www.emergencylightsales.com/prod ... PartNo=106

[fd2119]

I'm one of my fire department's photographers, and faced a similar issue. My solution is a bit different in some ways. I purchased a Whelen UPS64LXA (4 outlet power supply) running 2 hide-a-ways (alternating) and 2 amber TIR3s.

My largest concern is the current draw by the strobe power supply (approx 4 amps with 2 tubes running).

You may want to consider something along the lines of 2 TIR6 500 LEDs.

Hope this helped some.

[Adam]

What's your concern about drawing 4 amps? Do you turn your vehicle off? You should be able to run like that for a long while.

[fd2119]

Yeah, the lights are generally run while the vehicle is turned off. Hence the concern over 4 amps.

[eeyore1351]

Excellent! This is tremendously helpful information, and I thank you all.

[Adam]

Yeah, the lights are generally run while the vehicle is turned off. Hence the concern over 4 amps.

"They" make devices you can get at Galls or elsewhere that are "Battery Savers" and when detecting low battery, start the car to let it charge.

You could go that route or install a second battery. I am not quite sure how people do this but it really works well for them.

[thebigphish]

how close to the scene are you gonna be parking? when i go to the local's scenes to take pics for ours, i park WAY out of the way and walk in.
or, i'd just put the TIRs on, rather than the strobe paks...
they draw a lot more juice.

or put a secondary battery in and an isolator like adam says, that will hold you over.

is it THAT necessary to be twinkling if you're gonna be taking pictures of a fire?

[edited for grammatical horrendous-ness]

[fireradio]

TIR3s only draw 300-something mA each - and they're self-sync'd, self-powered. Great product.

[eeyore1351]

I was thinking strobes would be the only way to get any real punch at the the level of the tail lights. Believe me, I'd much rather go all LEDs, but since my POV is limited by law in where I can place lights (must be set as far apart as "practicable") I figured strobes were the only thing I could install at that level. Since they've all got to flash in unison/ all at once (state law again) I thought it would be better to try to have three levels of light doing the flashing instead of just rear deck & headliner.

As for why I need the lights to begin with, I'd rather not have my car get plowed into when some joker either decides to take the shoulder to cut around stopped traffic or discovers too late he should have started braking a quarter mile earlier. I park as far off the highways as possible, but as a reporter/photographer I can't waste too much time hiking in to the scene. Before you ask - yes, of course I avoid blocking emercency vehicle access.

[thebigphish]

oh. ok.

if you have to put strobes in, split the individual circut pairs front / rear rather than left / right. this way the lights on the 1st output for each circut will flash at the same time (front) and then the 2nd lights on the right output (rear). I doubt that the entire car has to blink simultaneously. That should satisfy that synch problem w/ the strobes.