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Wednesday 5 November 2008

The dawn of a new ..er...dawn...







The other day I bought three little LEDs. The total cost of this purchase was £2.99 (probably a severely discounted price) These LEDs are switched OFF by placing a very small, but very strong magnet next to them. Remove the magnet and they come on. Stick the magnet close, and they turn off. The idea is that you can fix the thing to a cupboard door or toolbox or something and when you open the door, the light comes on.
My recent wild snoozing session (in the previous post) was illuminated by these lights by placing the little beggars in one of those little mesh bags you get in boxes of detergent, for putting in with the dirty clothes. I tied the thing to the one of the little loops on the roof of the Akto.
The arrangement weighs 60 grammes.
I won't be using this system on the TGO Challenge as, in my previous eight crossings, I've only witnessed darkness after coming out of a pub, and fiddling with magnets and little nylon bags would be just too technical.
As you can tell, I'm not very busy today.

2 comments:

AktoMan said...

Cunning idea. Unlike the arrangement I use (link), the LED shines downwards too. Just a shame that the magnet control isn't the opposite way round (i.e. light on when magnet close).

Mike Knipe said...

To switch it off completely for transport, I put one little plastic tag between two of the batteries - each led holds 3 little watch batteries and left the magnets safely attached.
Its very faffy!
I like the idea of colouring the light somehow.... give this a bit more chance and we'll have Akto disco lights....a rare treat for passing police helicopters...the bag tends to swing around quite a bit when the wind blows!