[Swlug] A crazy idea

[Rhys Sage]

As many of you know, I'm running for election. I had a crazy idea about sending a new message to the world about it.

I live close to a civil airport and frequently get overflights from military planes too.

The idea - I have an infrared floodlight, a spare Pi Pico and code already generated to send Morse Code. My idea is to combine the Morse generator with the infrared floodlight. The electronics is going to be the hard part.

The floodlight works on 12v and I have a few relays around the place. I could try a 5v relay powered from the 5v rail, a 1K resistor and a transistor to send Morse to the relay. I don't know how long the Pico would run from a set of D cells. My thought was 8 D cells powering a 12v to USB converter that runs the Pico and the relay then the other side of the relay going to the 12v from the D cells and the floodlight.

24x7 or if I found a photoresistor that I could employ to tell the Pico to stop sending in daylight, I could be transmitting skyward a Morse message saying "Vote Sage for Lex 1 School Board". It might be a vain exercise BUT if it gets seen, read and reported then it would be fantastic publicity. Because it's not a focussed beam of light like a lazer, it should not upset anybody. It could not be claimed to be a blinding light either as its not visible to the naked eye.

I'll have to look more into this. I have 2 weeks before the elections. I already have all of the components needed too. Tomorrow I have to take the center console of my Xterra apart to ascertain why the gear stick is apparently disconnected from the shift cable. 

Rhys Sage