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Fashion: Hi-tech
flashsuit   (+4)  [vote for, against]
an outfit covered in disposable camera flashes

I need help with the electronic circut needed to fire 100-150 disposable camera flashes once I have cut the crap out of my hands removing them from the plastic shells. Anyone? The finnished outfit will be used in a photographic project (coffeetable book) running into theatres screaming "Osama Bin Laden" while setting it off. No I do not live in the USA. thx the Mgmt
-- Mr Piddlesworth, Jul 25 2004

Code 3 - Flashing Strobing lights meant to get the attention of a crowd http://www.code3pse...catalog.asp?grp=cd3
Wear on your head the same thing they put on police cars. That will attract the kind of awed attention you want. [robinism, Oct 06 2004]

Paparazzi costume http://www.cockeyed...zzi/paparazzi2.html
What [bwv61] was talking about [robinism, Oct 06 2004]

Not quite getting the point of the theatres/Osama bin Laden bit, but the raw concept sounds interesting.

Is this an idea or a [MFD] request for consumer advice?
-- DrCurry, Jul 25 2004


Sounds like both. I've [+]'d it as a) I like the idea and b) [Mr Piddlesworth] is actually going to do it. I'm always swayed towards ideas that someone's really going to do - especially if they're a little off balance. [Mr Piddlesworth] - All I can say is that you'll have to wire them all in parallel and you'll need 150 times whatever current is needed to fire one flash. As flashes tend to require a lot of current at short notice, you might be looking at a car battery or the like.
-- wagster, Jul 25 2004


hope no harm comes to you as a result. i really do.
-- xclamp, Jul 25 2004


Are you trying to set them all off at once? or sequtialy? Play nice when you build this thing, the components in those little disposable cameras aren't designed to be played with and can pack QUITE a charge.
-- photojunkie, Jul 25 2004


Re: [wagster]'s point about battery size. I think you should consider trying a design in which you can pre-charge the units and then disconnect from the power source for your performance. The capacitors will hold the charge for a suitable length of time. Good luck and be careful. Hire an engineer.
-- bpilot, Jul 25 2004


Why dont you try it in Jerusalem first - just to make sure it attracts attention
-- tasman, Jul 25 2004


Why don't you just leave them attached to the cameras? This is a photographic project, after all. Rig something to hit the buttons all at once. In addition to a stupendous flash, you will have 100-150 slightly different photographs. In fact, I propose that they be set off sequentially. By the time #150 goes off you will be ready to go with #1 again. You can then paste the images into a movie. Waste not want not!
-- bungston, Jul 25 2004


I would like to see this one tried. Heed the Careful High Voltage sticker on the inside of the disposable camera. First time I saw that I thought, yeah right. I'm surprised my thumbs not still black.
-- 2 fries shy of a happy meal, Jul 25 2004


One - just one - of them capacitors, when fully charged, hold enough charge to burn the skin off your finger. 150 of them in close proximity to your body is just asking for trouble.

Do not remove them from the plastic shells.

If you can still get them, this seems to be just the thing for those magnesium wire filled flashbulbs.
-- neelandan, Jul 26 2004


There used to be a place on the web where some folks described their homemade railgun. They powered it with a series of camera capacitors. No joke - I don't think.
-- bungston, Jul 26 2004


/All of them terribly over-exposed./ - Seems to me that overexposure is the whole point of a flash suit.
-- bungston, Jul 26 2004


I am trying to set them off all at once (without losing any skin) thus creating an immense blinding flash to fill large auditoriums and outdoor events so that friends of mine can capture the image from different angles and distances. Any electrical engineers out there willing to try building the logic board or refer me to a good source of info?
-- Mr Piddlesworth, Jul 27 2004


How are your friends going to know the exact moment when the blinding flash is going to occur? It seems like you would have your friends shoot movies rather than still photos, so they can capture the moment.

Or you could have several flashes. Check out the link for "Code 3." Wouldn't you look great with one of those on your head? Especially the "beacons" or the "mini bars". You could push the car battery on a cart in front of you as you run...
-- robinism, Jul 28 2004


Got your legal defense fund started? That blinding flash in a darkened room is not going to make you any friends. I blindly hurl a fishbone at you.
-- gardnertoo, Jul 28 2004


Mr P, are your eyes bloodshot or what?
-- po, Jul 28 2004


To syncronise, use a master flash on a camera, and slave off it. But this means only one camera can time it right.
I suggest you use dark glasses.

Most flash triggers will work when the small input plug resistance goes low enough (I could trigger a flash by shorting the pins- it's low voltage on the trigger). I think the traditional slave trigger is probably a Cadmium Sulphide detector which changes to low resistance when it sees light. But I'm not sure about that.
You need to check the disposable flash - there is probably a low voltage switch on the shutter button. Make sure everything else is insulated, and NEVER touch any of the wires even if you think they are dead - the capacitors will hold a large voltage for a long time. Don't find out the hard way. A bleed resistor can be used if you know what you are doing, but it is best to leave it alone for an hour or so after charging.
-- Ling, Jul 28 2004


You might want to use a heavy duty rain coat as the base for this. Something with a thick layer of rubber, and run the wiring on the outside. Some way of grounding the whole thing out before you take it off wouldn't be a bad idea either.
-- the_art, Jul 28 2004


And hope you dont get "a call of nature " while you are wearing it
-- tasman, Jul 28 2004


flashsuit = trench coat?
-- half, Jul 28 2004


Didn't know they had coffee-tables in prison.
-- RayfordSteele, Jul 29 2004


I should have been more specific from the start and include that the suit is a modified Bear Proof chamber with flashes mounted around the exterior. Other photographers will capture the moment by exposing film with an open shutter. I will not be in the shot but only there to provide the light that captures true human fear on film.
-- Mr Piddlesworth, Jul 30 2004


Have you noticed that some people have entirely too much free time?
-- Ander, Jul 31 2004


A couple of questions: When do you intend to put this "modified Bear Proof chamber" on? I take it you don't want to have to have to wait in line with everyone else whilst wearing this bulky contraption. If you're intending to burst in halfway through the performance - have you considered that the foyer staff might not actually allow you to do so? Most theatres don't have bouncers per se, but as soon as some nutter in a bizarre bulb-covered suit wanders in, I'm pretty sure you'll find that even a lowly usher's job description can be pretty flexible.

Why do the other photographers have "open shutters" when you're going to detonate all the flashes at once? Being that most theatres (apart from operating ones) are usually pretty dark, all your compadres will only capture one moment, no matter how long their shutters and open. And that moment won't capture "true human fear" - it will just capture lots of people sitting watching a play or a movie. The reaction will come after the big flash, in the dark. And it probably won't be fear for long.

If you really want to capture "true human fear", have a little camera inside your suit, pointed at your own face, set to take a series of pictures at one-second intervals after the big flash. That should be enough time for the auidience to realise that the work of art that they have been watching (play, movie or whatever) which took many people many months (if not years) to construct, has just been shattered by an "artwork" that took one person about five seconds to think up. I think you'll find that fear is soon replaced by anger, and you'll be glad of that "bear proof chamber" as the auidience all turn on you as one.

Coffeetable book? I don't think so. At best, it would be like pasting lots of those free pictures that are taken at the end of rollercoaster rides into an album. There are plenty of images of "real human fear" out there - many of which are genuinely harrowing and disturbing - this is just a schoolboy prank, and a badly-thought out one at that.
-- lostdog, Jul 31 2004


I will appear from the front of the theatre under the screen before any art begins. (fire escape stairwell entrance usually not patrolled) Of course the suit will need to rapid fire more than once to capture a reaction! Regarding the book, I just don't see any of this as being novel material.
-- Mr Piddlesworth, Aug 01 2004


For multiple shots, you could wire the front and back sides as two separate systems. Might as well, since the audience can only see one side at a time anyway. Fire one, turn around, and fire two. This could also solve the problem of timing your friends' photos to capture the flash (at least the second one). Your second system could be timed to trip at a specified delay after the first. Your photographers' shutters would have the same delay triggered by standard flash slave units, activated by your first suit flash. Actually their delay should be a bit less to synch the big flash with the exposures (lead by 1/120 sec assuming 1/60 sec shutter speed).

I think it could evolve into an interesting performance.
-- bpilot, Aug 01 2004


How'd this end up turning out, [Mr P]?
-- Worldgineer, Nov 01 2004


Krytron switches, maybe?
-- bristolz, Nov 01 2004



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