Beacon3

Beacon3 will be a beacon for the top of our flag(less) pole for Burning Man 2011. It will be simpler than Beacon2 as time is limited to get it done, but we want a brighter beacon.

Ideas

• Less LEDs, but much much brighter. Thinking either a triangle or square with a 1, 3, or 5W RGB LED (either integrated or discrete) on each side.
• Planar PCB that fits onto the spindle, then LED PCBs that plug in vertically seems like it would work
  • LED PCBs may need heat sinks, which could fit into the middle space around the spindle
• Single MCU this time, as there are fewer LEDs
• Same enclosure as Beacon2 can be used to save time, just remove PCBs and replace with these
• Same light sensor and (lack of) charging circuitry as Beacon2 can also be used
• Having a remote that would make the beacon extra-noticeable when a button was pressed would be cool
  • To get long enough range to be useful, we'd want ~50mW
  • XBee is probably the best way to go, but need to look at power draw for the RX side and would have to custom-design a remote control unit
  • Control unit could just be:
    • Arduino Fio
    • XBee Series 1 RP-SMA (plugs directly into Arduino Fio)
    • Rubber-duck antenna
    • LiIon pack (plugs directly into Arduino Fio)

Project Status

2011-07-19: Initial design started.