Revolving Light Question

[Lord Fett]

Someone I know online who is on a FIRST team is doing a paper on the revolving light and I don't know all the specifications about it. Can anyone tell me how the light revolves and information along the lines of that. Thanks

[rbayer]

Umm...

It's 12V
There's a motor in the base
The mirror on the motor focuses the light, making it appear brighter in that area.

That's all I can think of.... anyone else?

[Katie Reynolds]

Other than that ....

it has to be mounted upright on your robot and the light cover is a lot easier to change than it was in 2000 That's all I know.

- Katie

[Andy A.]

It has a wonderful habit of grounding your robots frame, so much care must be taken to ensure no part of it touches any conductive matieral.

The grounding problem is because most of the light's frame is it's self ground (much like car frames). You'd have to take one apart to really understand how it works. It's really rather simple, but confusing at first. I've played with one, but can't remember any details, other then the bulb gets very very hot very quickly.

-Andy A.

[Andrew Rudolph]

We took apart our old one to see what was inside of it, there is a little DC motor with a gear box. The i dont rember if the new lights have a revolving mirror or they have the 3 revolving fresnel lenses. Either way the lightbulb just sits in the middle.

[Al Skierkiewicz]

If you assemble all of the above posts you will have a good idea of how the light works and how to interface it. Let me add that most accessories designed for cars are intended to use the frame of the vehicle as one side of the electric circuit because it reduces the amount of wire needed by 50%. You need to mount the light on an insulating matierial. We use a thin sheet of lexan. You must then make an electrical connection to the shell or to the mounting hardware in order to complete the circuit. The downside of this light is that it draws about 4 amps continuous. That is a lot of current when you are near maxed out on the battery.
Al

[Josh Hambright]

our team found that you could have fun making the light spin in the oposite direction by switching the polarity of the voltage going to it....

[DaBruteForceGuy]

We like to have fun watching the light skip a turn as it gets radio interferance!

[Elgin Clock]

If you put the light, without a lens on, upside down in those halloween pumpkin containers that the kids use for candy, it looks cool!

It heats up pretty fast though so you have to keep an eye on it!

[MattK]

Is there a way to make your light turn into a roating stobe light!?

[Andy A.]

While I imagine you could hook up some strobe circut to the light, I don't think the bulb is well suited to strobing. My bet is that it would either not strobe well or just burn out, depending on what you're using to strobe it.

Try and run the motor on that kind of current and it won't last to long either.

-Andy A,

[Al Skierkiewicz]

You could put a strobe in place of the bulb but then you wouldn't need it to rotate. Circuitry for the strobe could easily fit inside the base if you take out the motor. This is an illegal mod to the light though, so don't do it for a competition robot.
There is a place in Chicago called the American Science Center that sells all kinds of stuff like that. Their website is http://www.sciplus.com/
I am lucky they are just down the street from work. They also sell surplus motors and FP transmissions that look a lot like what are provided in the kits. Their stock varies from day to day.
Only a few more days...

[Katie Reynolds]

Originally posted by MattK
Is there a way to make your light turn into a roating stobe light!?

If your radio is cutting in and out, it looks like a strobe light ... ... ...

- Katie

[dlavery]

Originally posted by MattK
Is there a way to make your light turn into a roating stobe light!?

Sometimes we spend a whole lot of time developing overly complex answers when the simplest ones are perfectly acceptable...

Put vertical stripes of electrical tape on the inside of the light cover (the colored lens). As the light rotates, the beam will alternate between showing through the light cover between the tape stripes, and being occluded by the tape, simulating a strobe effect.

This method is dirt cheap, requires no additional electronics, and is easy to reverse if necessary.

[MacZealot]

illegal mod to the light? Why not stick a halogen in there and blind everyone in range. :evil grin: