Tarp lighting

[Gelandangan]

Just want to share what I use to light up my tarp/tent on a camp.






The last image is taken without flash to show how much light I get from this.

I could read my kindle, prep food, eat, and clean my gun under the light.

The light string is one of these cheap eBay Christmas light you could get for a few dollars including delivery from China.
Plenty of light from 3 AA battery, so far I have get about 8 nights worth of light (maybe about 5 hours a night) with the same set and it still going strong.
The current drain measured to be about 30 mA and since standard AA eneloop have about 2000 mAh, I expect a set of battery would last at least 60 hours of use, thats about 12 nights with my average usage!! I dont even bother to bring spare batteries..
On longer trips (very rare) I may bring a solar charger to charge the battery, they are common for most of my other gears anyway..



I get the idea from someone called Leipmeister in BushcraftOz forum.
Damned shame to to share.

[Lead Freak]

Great idea! I need to get a set or two of these for my hammock. I thing Ikea sells these around Christmas time.

[Combat Diver]

Nice idea, thanks


CD

[Victor N TN]

I just told my wife about these and she came and saw the photos. We just bought ANOTHER camper in November. It's a little fold out popup camper. But it does have a canopy on the front. SOME of the places we like to go, these would be GREAT. Thanks for the idea.

[Victor N TN]

These came in a couple of weeks ago. But with all the crazy weather we have had we haven't had a chance to check them out. When we get the campers de-winterized and set up, I'll write a mini review.

[Junior1942]

I just told my wife about these and she came and saw the photos. We just bought ANOTHER camper in November. It's a little fold out popup camper. But it does have a canopy on the front. SOME of the places we like to go, these would be GREAT. Thanks for the idea.

Some 40 years ago I had one of those and loved it.

[Victor N TN]

I was sick over the weekend and decided to check and see how the little lights worked. Our bedroom has heavy drapes on the windows and it's pretty dark in there when the lights are turned off. (Carry over from working midnight shift a dozen years.) I opened one of the packs and opened the lights out across the bed. After fumbling with the battery cover for 5 minutes to get it open, I inserted 3 Duracell Red AA batteries and turned it on. (WARNING...! If you have any kind of epilepsy or have any kind of seizures, be warned that the middle setting is NOT a steady ON setting. It's a strobe. So if that bothers you, (our grand daughter and her father have seizures) be prepared to click it on over to it's last setting. It has 3 settings, Off, flash / strobe and steady burn. The steady burn is bright enough that if you were laying on the bed you could read the newspaper with little or no problem. I would estimate, like Gelandangan says, it would be plenty strong enough for MOST chores outside in dim light or dark when suspended from the tarp / awning of a tent or camper. I wouldn't want to try emergency surgery with it as the only light source. But it could probably be light enough to get splinter or festered hair out.

I did not try testing to see how long the batteries last because Gelandangan had already given a pretty good estimate on that. And I usually take a stash of extra batteries when we go camping anyway.

I don't know if the light sets I have are made by the same company or not. But they do look similar and were made in China.

I hope this may help someone searching for something like this. Thanks for the opportunity to post this.

[trebor44]

Old thread but here's a heads up to anyone interested. The solar thing has gotten awesome over the last several years. Check out HF for their inexpensive LED selection and sales. The down side to solar is the quality of the 'solar panels' and the amount of daylight (sun not clouds) available. I use a variety of cheap solar lights outside, some are switched, motion and constant on when dark enough. I have up'd the ante with longer life rechargeable batteries. All are useful, but they do have limits. On the other hand it does pay to have alternatives, like kerosene lamps, Coleman fuel lanterns and the third world "chain light".