From: John De Armond Newsgroups: rec.outdoors.rv-travel Subject: Re: Back from flat spotting Date: Mon, 22 Mar 2004 21:10:17 -0500 Message-ID: <hr6v50t6vuq8gprnisgjcvp95o8nkfart6@4ax.com> On Mon, 22 Mar 2004 23:37:50 GMT, "Jon Porter" <jonporter@notverizon.net> wrote: >A friend of mine moved into a house in town and had one of those street lamp >type of lights in her yard that she had to pay the electric bill on. Didn't >like the light, and sure didn't want to spend money on it either. Couldn't >get it turned off. Well, one evening she sat out on the back porch with a >.22 loaded with a few shorts. Only took one trigger pull to fix the problem. > I like to sleep in my RV even when it's in the lot next to my restaurant. I'm like Bill in that I just hate for my dark to leak out at night. I figured out a less permanent solution to the (city owned) street light causing dark leaks. I have one of those cheap chicom laser levels, the kind Harbor Freight sells for $10 occasionally. Not good enough to be a level so it was being used as a cat exerciser. Came with a cute little tripod. All I had to do to stop the dark leak was aim that laser at the photocell window on the street light. Voila!! Dark all around. And when I need light in that lot I just turn the laser off. The only modification necessary was to wire in a wall wart to replace the two AAA batteries it formerly required. John From: John De Armond Newsgroups: rec.outdoors.rv-travel Subject: Re: Back from flat spotting Date: Tue, 23 Mar 2004 00:35:58 -0500 Message-ID: <eqiv5052bls00qmgj8k3a8fdgdpok7t9in@4ax.com> On Tue, 23 Mar 2004 03:21:59 GMT, "James Summers" <news7y@mcsummation.com> wrote: >> I have one of those cheap chicom laser levels, the kind Harbor Freight >> sells for $10 occasionally. Not good enough to be a level so it was >> being used as a cat exerciser. Came with a cute little tripod. All I >> had to do to stop the dark leak was aim that laser at the photocell >> window on the street light. Voila!! Dark all around. And when I need >> light in that lot I just turn the laser off. The only modification >> necessary was to wire in a wall wart to replace the two AAA batteries >> it formerly required. > >I wouldn't have thought it was that bright. Is it this one: >http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/Displayitem.taf?itemnumber=41895 No, not that one. I have that one too. Bigger POS than the other one. I stripped the laser out for a project and tossed the level. Anyway, the one I have is a bullet-type level, plastic, with a laser in one end. came with a little tripod in the package. Basically this one except that when I bought mine it didn't come with a wall wart plug http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/Displayitem.taf?itemnumber=41102 I caught 'em on sale for $9.99 at the store in Winston-salem, NC. The laser is more than intense enough to trigger the CdS cells in the lamp controllers. Ironically it is because it's such a crappy laser with a lot of beam spread that it works so well. A well collimated laser, as from one of my HeNe tubes, doesn't illuminate enough area of the cell to work. I got a look the other day at the new photocell the local utility is using. Instead of a simple CdS cell and a relay it contains a PCB with a small phototransistor facing out. That one is going to take much better aim than the old style. Darn! Hope the one on "my" light doesn't fail anytime soon. John |