# Compact handheld strobe use/make?



## orlokoclock (May 18, 2012)

I wasnt sure if this was classified as props or tactics, because its a bit of both.

Ive worked many haunt events, but my second year haunting I got to learn a lot of amazing tactics and methodology from one guy in particular. He changed how I saw haunting, and im forever grateful for that.

But one tactic he used back then was he had a spent disposable camera that he would just juice up the flash and he would snap it around corners or from dark spaces before invading personal space and being eye to eye with people. Guy was like a ****ing panther. He would flash, and while the customers were disoriented and adjusting he would fluidly and silently be right there, and it never failed to get a scare.

Ive been wanting to experiment with this myself. But disposable cameras aren't much of a thing anymore, and im wondering if there might be a better way of doing it. Ive seen you guys do cool stuff with homemade led lighting, so I wanted to see if anyone had suggestions or ideas on effective ways to do this without having to resort to a disposable camera.

Happy haunting!


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## David_AVD (Nov 9, 2012)

You can still get camera flash units starting at around $10 on eBay.

Some have a small button as well as the hot shoe trigger.


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## orlokoclock (May 18, 2012)

Thanks! I'm looking them up now. I can't tell if they have their own power sources though. Do you need to. Buy the flash and hot shoe together to trigger the flash?


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## fontgeek (Jul 24, 2006)

You might consider the little tech-lights that are really popular now. They are flashlights that have multiple modes, one of which is a strobe. They are ty06pically a 5000 lumen light and that lets you use either 3 AAA batteries or (even better) a rechargeable battery (18650), they last a long time and you, the carrier can carry a couple of backup batteries too, if you wish. They give you the strobe, but also a very bright flashlight with a variable beam width so that they can serve multiple uses in the haunt and throughout the year. You can get them for $6 on ebay.


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## FrightRisk (Nov 4, 2010)

This is little late for this year, but here are ideas and things I have used:

1. The battery powered strobes from Wal-Mart, etc. that have 4 or 5 LED's in them. Instead of using the knob to turn it on and select the flash rate, wire a momentary contact switch in series to the power wire to the potentiometer. Now it will flash for however long you have the button pressed. It could be just one or two flashes if you turn the pot to slow flash and hold the button just briefly. They are brighter than you think in the dark.

2. Go to any drugstore with a photo department and ask if you could please have one or 2 disposable cameras from their recycle bin. They break them open to get the film and then give the guts to the manufacturer to re-use. There is probably some battery left in them or you can wire your own. I used the guts for lots of fun projects because it is a high-voltage power supply that takes a few volts and up-converts it to 300 or more volts to arc a xenon tube. Look up "joule thief" for ideas and the actual circuit inside the camera. Be very careful it you attempt this and remember if you open the camera, the capacitor inside there can still hold enough charge to hurt you. You can modify it to fire a few times.

3. Use an external flash from an SLR camera. Most flashes, and you can buy some dirt cheap, have a test or manual button. They will only fire once and then need a few seconds to charge.

4. Build something with 2 chips, a dual 555 and a logic gate. LEDs can take a lot more voltage in pulses to make them even brighter. If you don't want to spend time buying parts and an hour or 2 soldering them together, there are kits out there. 

5. Roxant makes some really bright strobes. Just google "ultra bright led strobe" and you will find some. An easy mod is to break the battery plus wire and put your switch button in there between the battery and the wire.


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## imax (May 22, 2006)

I have great success with this scare tactic using a simple LED flashlight. You have to find one with a momentary capability (the ones with click on-click off won't work well, you want to be able to flash the bulb). I use the little streamlight ones you can get on amazon for about 20 bucks. Bright, quick flash, easy to store and carry with you, and it lasts a long time. I consider my flashlight to be the equivalent of a baseball bat and the scares are 100x more effective with it.


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