need help

[ronnoc1010]

My mum has asked me to help her with a christmas parade float.
She wants people walking along side holding long bamboo poles with flashing led tubing to represent data transmitting along a phone line.
any ideas?

 

[blueroomelectronics]

Tell her not to do it when it's raining.

 

[Hero999]

A phone line shouldn't be a problem, it's power lines that pose a potential electricution hazard.

 

[microtexan]

How about stringing LED "rope lights" between the poles? I've seen them at discount and Dollar stores.

 

[Menticol]

Its better if you use the pre-made xmas lights, don't try to wire single LEDS by yourself, is extremely monotonous and frustrating

I had to wire 100 leds manually and I hated them (fortunetly the love returned some days later)

What kind of batteries the people is going to carry?

 

[ronnoc1010]

Thats what im wondering i want to know what type of bats would be best.

 

[Menticol]

Thats what im wondering i want to know what type of bats would be best.

Any expert on this forum can tell you what batteries would be the best, but its more important to know what are your requeriments (space, money, etc)

 

[ronnoc1010]

I want to know if i can actually run them off batteries?

 

[blueroomelectronics]

LEDs can run off batteries just fine, depends on how bright you want them and how long you expect them to last. Most LEDs may not be very visible during the day and the bright ones usually have a focused beam.

Flashing a 12V blub will be brighter and easy to build, you can even use a car flashing relay to simplify things.

 

[Andy1845c]

Can you draw a sketch of what you want to do? Bamboo poles with LED tubeing? Like rope lights? Does this go on the pole or between 2 people with poles? I don't quite follow.

Ready made rope lights will most likely need AC line voltage to light. No going to work with batterys.

Its better if you use the pre-made xmas lights, don't try to wire single LEDS by yourself, is extremely monotonous and frustrating

I had to wire 100 leds manually and I hated them (fortunetly the love returned some days later)

I did close to 300 on a project I made. My love for LEDs died for a bit too!

 

[Menticol]

Ready made rope lights will most likely need AC line voltage to light. No going to work with batterys.

That's right Andy, 110V are needed.

The first way is to attach 10 car batteries to each person back

And the other... correct me if I'm wrong (english-spanish-english issue), is a float parade a group of people with costumes, saying hello, on top of a adorned vehicle?

In that case, a power inverter could be connected to the vehicle electrical system, and the 110V output distributed to each of the crew via hidden wire.

I hope they use good isulation, and not doing it with rain!

 

[ronnoc1010]

thanks

thanks guys we got it all sorted!
you've been a great help.