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There were six of these "saguaro cactus with octopus head" PVC pipe pathlights on the internal pathways of the Alternative Energy Zone in 2002. There were also two 10 foot tall "flag" lights with one LED (utilizing the "one LED" schematic and solar panels from salvaged roadside flashers): these flag lights were set up on the entrances to the AEZ from the main roads. The shorter pathlights were set up by pounding a 4 foot piece of straight rebar about 2 feet into the ground: the PVC pipe was set over the rebar and zipties were run through holes in the bottom of the pipe to the rebar to anchor the lights to the playa. The same method was used to set up the tall flag lights, except the rebar used was 6 feet long. This simple method worked pretty well, the lights didn't fall over nor did they grow legs. As far as providing light to mark the AEZ pathways, the pathlights did fairly well. High brightness LEDs were used: the yellow LEDs were rated at 8500 millicandelas and the red LEDs at 6800 millicandelas. However, the LEDs didn't stay lit all night: no good for you late night partiers! There may be some circuit design changes for 2003 that could help with this. Stay tuned for more details! Another lesson learned: don't mix and match LEDs in this two LED circuit: some of the playa lights had one 2.0 volt 50mA yellow LED and one 1.9 volt 50mA red LED. The result was that the higher voltage of the yellow LED drained the batteries down to the point where the available voltage dropped below 2.0 volts. At this point, the yellow LED turned off, but the red LED stayed lit for several more hours. Again, a circuit redesign may allow mismatched LEDs. The PVC elbow connectors that hold the bottles in place are not glued: you can turn the bottles up, down or sideways. The PVC pipe was painted with spray enamel paint. It does scrape off when it gets bumped...but it still looks pretty good. |
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