TylerHam
Well-Known Member
Hi All!
I decided to make this a new post because I thought the info might be useful to others.. As many of you may have seen in the the jaws thread, a bunch of us are making NEO TRACKERS. The props base is a vietnam era flashing beacon light.
The problem is these originally used mercury batteries. You can buy a conversion piece made out of brass, and use 2 "123" style batteries to get it working on batteries, but the brass piece is 20$, and 123 batteries are $10 each... Thats $40 total.. Too much for me, so I hacked the thing and got it flashing for $3...
First off, 2 "123" batteries produce 6 volts, so first, I bought a 12V duracel battery at the hardware store for $1.80. I came home, took it apart, and took out the 8 1.5v batteries inside...
At the hardware store I also got a 3/4 inch nylon hole plug for 60 cents... I put a spring in there for an experiment which didnt work, so ignore that.. The nylon plug is the black thing...
Then I took 4 of the 1.5v batteries and taped them together positive / negative... I left the tape off the NEGATIVE end, since THAT is the end that goes INTO the flasher. Then I took some copper wire, stripped both ends, taped one end to the positive battery top, and left the other end exposed.
After that, I wrapped my taped batteries with foam tape until they became the size of the battery compartment..
I stuffed that into the flasher, and made sore the exposed wire end made contact with the brass threading at the end of the flasher.
After that, I put the plug in and made sure it pinched the wire to the brass threads and turned it on, and it started flashing!!
Total, it was $1.80 for the battery, and 60 cents for the plug... so total was $2.40 (I had the wire and tape) instead of $40...
Now, its not screen accurate yet, but the beauty is that you can now make the knob that is on the end of the one onscreen out of anything.. Balsa, a metal nut, etc.. paint it orange and glue it on.. Way cheaper than spending $20 on a brass one you still have to paint!!
I couldnt get a picture of it flashing (my camera is acting up so these are blackberry phone photos) but I assure you it works!
Anyhow, discovered this tonight while goofing around with electricity! Hope its helpful to some of you!
I decided to make this a new post because I thought the info might be useful to others.. As many of you may have seen in the the jaws thread, a bunch of us are making NEO TRACKERS. The props base is a vietnam era flashing beacon light.
The problem is these originally used mercury batteries. You can buy a conversion piece made out of brass, and use 2 "123" style batteries to get it working on batteries, but the brass piece is 20$, and 123 batteries are $10 each... Thats $40 total.. Too much for me, so I hacked the thing and got it flashing for $3...
First off, 2 "123" batteries produce 6 volts, so first, I bought a 12V duracel battery at the hardware store for $1.80. I came home, took it apart, and took out the 8 1.5v batteries inside...
At the hardware store I also got a 3/4 inch nylon hole plug for 60 cents... I put a spring in there for an experiment which didnt work, so ignore that.. The nylon plug is the black thing...
Then I took 4 of the 1.5v batteries and taped them together positive / negative... I left the tape off the NEGATIVE end, since THAT is the end that goes INTO the flasher. Then I took some copper wire, stripped both ends, taped one end to the positive battery top, and left the other end exposed.
After that, I wrapped my taped batteries with foam tape until they became the size of the battery compartment..
I stuffed that into the flasher, and made sore the exposed wire end made contact with the brass threading at the end of the flasher.
After that, I put the plug in and made sure it pinched the wire to the brass threads and turned it on, and it started flashing!!
Total, it was $1.80 for the battery, and 60 cents for the plug... so total was $2.40 (I had the wire and tape) instead of $40...
Now, its not screen accurate yet, but the beauty is that you can now make the knob that is on the end of the one onscreen out of anything.. Balsa, a metal nut, etc.. paint it orange and glue it on.. Way cheaper than spending $20 on a brass one you still have to paint!!
I couldnt get a picture of it flashing (my camera is acting up so these are blackberry phone photos) but I assure you it works!
Anyhow, discovered this tonight while goofing around with electricity! Hope its helpful to some of you!
