A company named OccuNomix Int. Inc. markets a flashing safety armband made from an electroluminescent strip powered by 2 AAA bats. that operates for more than 225 hours and is visible up to 5000 ft.. The light is yellow-green. I bought mine from a safety catalogue. They are advertised as being useful for road construction workers. I contacted the co. and asked if they would be interested in retooling the battery case to be sumersible rather than water resistant. I mentioned that there could be a market for sea kayakers and they wrote back that they werent interested in redesigning their product. This technology could be easily incorporated right into a PFD or helmet or even a hat or the boat itself. Anyone interested in tinkering with this can contact occnomix_at_aol.com and ask for the "WAY_TO_GLOW" #830 safety armband. It seems to have a better potential for boaters than leds. No? *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - All postings copyright the author and not to be reproduced outside PaddleWise without author's permission Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
<A company named OccuNomix Int. Inc. markets a flashing safety armband made from an electroluminescent strip powered by 2 AAA bats. that operates for more than 225 hours and is visible up to 5000 ft.> Two thoughts: have worked at sea with similar types of electroluminescent devices before, trying to use them as part of distress signals for flight data recorders. They take those little AAA batts and get one helluva lot of voltage to operate the chargers, and you can get one helluva shock from those little guys. Mine were powered by nine volt cells, and one almost knocked me off the crash boat. The more important point, as has been hashed and rehashed on PaddleWise in the past --- strobing or flashing lights, other than on nav markers, are distress signals, not neat things to wear so power craft will see you. Same applies to flashing LEDs. We're all better off if everyone uses standard issue white lights for signaling, per USCG standards (in the US, obviously) and not get fancy with strobes, flashing LEDs and light sticks. There are well publicized lighting rules for all size boats, and we, as a community of sea kayakers, would be well served if everyone would just live with the rules and not be too creative in our electrics. Jack Martin *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - All postings copyright the author and not to be reproduced outside PaddleWise without author's permission Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
My understanding of blinking lights in the marine environment is that they are the universal sign of distress. I.e., nautical protocol requires other boaters in the area to approach the blinking light assuming someone is in trouble. May not be the signal we wish to send out. Just a thought... Natalie Wiest Galveston TX ----- Original Message ----- From: Willaim C. Sanderson <eap_at_princeton.edu> To: <paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net> Sent: Tuesday, May 23, 2000 5:06 PM Subject: [Paddlewise] Electroluminescent lights > A company named OccuNomix Int. Inc. markets a flashing safety armband > made from an electroluminescent strip powered by 2 AAA bats. that > operates for more than 225 hours and is visible up to 5000 ft.. The > light is yellow-green. I bought mine from a safety catalogue. They are > advertised as being useful for road construction workers. I contacted > the co. and asked if they would be interested in retooling the battery > case to be sumersible rather than water resistant. I mentioned that > there could be a market for sea kayakers and they wrote back that they > werent interested in redesigning their product. This technology could be > easily incorporated right into a PFD or helmet or even a hat or the boat > itself. Anyone interested in tinkering with this can contact > occnomix_at_aol.com and ask for the "WAY_TO_GLOW" #830 safety armband. It > seems to have a better potential for boaters than leds. No? > > > *************************************************************************** > PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - All postings copyright the author and not > to be reproduced outside PaddleWise without author's permission > Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net > Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net > Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ > *************************************************************************** > *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - All postings copyright the author and not to be reproduced outside PaddleWise without author's permission Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
>My understanding of blinking lights in the marine environment is that they >are the universal sign of distress. I.e., nautical protocol requires other >boaters in the area to approach the blinking light assuming someone is in >trouble. May not be the signal we wish to send out. > I just picked up a PFD light at a local EMS here in Central NJ. Called a C-Light, made by ACR Electronics in Ft. Lauderdale, FL. www.acrelectronics.com for the website.. Basically an orange waterproof 2-AA cell light which twists to turn on. The front lens has a penlight forward lens for the usual stuff, and it is surrounded by a donut lens which sends the light out in a 360 deg. circle. Comes with a pin type arrangement and a velcro strap to attach to the shoulder of your pfd. I tried it out on the back so I don't get the light in my eyes and had no difficulty turning it on or off. Ten bucks. Joe P. *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - All postings copyright the author and not to be reproduced outside PaddleWise without author's permission Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
Joe wrote, "I just picked up a PFD light at a local EMS here in Central NJ. Called a C-Light, made by ACR Electronics in Ft. Lauderdale, FL" It's a great light for a PFD. You can also make a socket from the local plumbing supply from a PVC pipe endcap and mount it on your after deck on a recessed fitting machine screw. Back there, it gives you about 330 degrees of coverage with a bright, semi-directional white light, and use a waterproof flashlight as your forward-showing light. Gotta have someone with you to turn it on and off, but that's the only hard bit. Have used ACR C-lights to mark expensive deployed electronics gear at sea during testing sequences, and have always had good luck with them. And ACR always stands behind their products, too --- even slightly out of warranty strobes! Jack Martin *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - All postings copyright the author and not to be reproduced outside PaddleWise without author's permission Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
These work great - A lot of our more experienced club members where them pinned high on the back of their pfds for night paddling. Also cheap at 9.95 around here, and mine has been waterproof for over 6 years or so. It uses 2 AA batteries, which hold enough juice (I use rechargable ones) for about 8 hours. At 06:14 PM 5/24/00 -0400, Joe Pylka wrote: > I just picked up a PFD light at a local EMS here in Central NJ. Called >a C-Light, made by ACR Electronics in Ft. Lauderdale, FL. >www.acrelectronics.com for the website.. Greg Welker Current Designs Pisces CLC Cape Charles modified West Wight Potter 19, #448 "Wight Magic" "Good seamanship is using superior judgement to prevent the need to use superior skills." *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - All postings copyright the author and not to be reproduced outside PaddleWise without author's permission Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
My personal favorite is still the Krill light. It sells for $27.50 but the 180 puts out a lot of light for 50 hours on two AA's. The laser stik, LED light at $10 is nice too. Both avail. at diversdirect.com, plus a lot of other nice waterproof stuff of use to paddlers. -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dave Flory, San Jose, CA. daflory_at_pacbell.net ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Enjoy life, Go fly a kite!!!! ©2000 ------------------------------------------------------------------------- *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - All postings copyright the author and not to be reproduced outside PaddleWise without author's permission Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.4.0 : Thu Aug 21 2025 - 16:33:14 PDT