There are 34 weeks until Burning Man 2007. Every week I’ll post a new idea, tip, or suggestion. Some of these will be things I’ve learned the hard way, other ideas are clever solutions my friends have developed.
Week 01 idea: Because hydration is so important at Burning Man, and it gets pretty dark at night — the Firefly water bottle light.
The Firefly water bottle light, by Guyot Designs, turns your water bottle into a cool looking lantern. I saw a similar effect the first year I attended Burning Man. Someone had dropped a glow-stick into a water jug — creating an eerie blue glow.
I received a Firefly as a holiday gift from my partner. You install (3) AAA batteries in the upper part of the lid which houses the electronics and the on/off/dim switch. You have to loosen three small philips-head screws to access the battery compartment. A bit of a hassle, but I suspect that the batteries won’t need to be replaced that often. Press the button to turn the light on. Press and hold to dim the light. Press again to turn the light off.
This is a photo of the Firefly lid on a grey Nalgene bottle with ice water in it. I have dimmed the light to the middle of the range (roughly). I haven’t removed the original Nalgene lid yet. The Firefly comes with a cord that is adjusted with a small hex key wrench (provided). The cord is how you attach the lid to the bottle.
Pros: Well-constructed. Dimmable. Good low-level ambient light
Cons:Remains to be see how well the attachment cord works. Unknown battery life. Pricey ~$22.00
Alternatives:
SolLight makes a water bottle, the LightCap, with a built-in solar-powered light. According to their website, you get one hour of light for every hour of solar charging.
Pros: It’s solar-powered. If you’re only going to use it at night, you can leave it out to charge during the day, or fasten it somewhere where it’ll receive a lot of sun. Cool concept. Somewhat eco-friendly.
Cons: It’s solar-powered. It has to be charged before it can be used. The NiCd batteries will eventually need replacement. Run-time is proportional to charge time, pricey ~$25.00.
MAKEer and Instructables types might want to experiment:
- Modify a solar powered landscape light from a DIY home improvement store
- Make your own light with two white LEDs, a resistor, power switch, and batteries
- Use a control circuit (555, PIC or AVR microcontroller) to make your homebrew light dimmable
- Adapt an LED dome/tap type light
- Drop a glow-stick in your water bottle