Congrats man!

Soldering is a skill that some of us take for granted. Years of practice, and learning what works and what doesn't.

Hope your neighbors don't think the cops are at your house at night.

 

Thanks, and thanks for the encouragement to tackle it! I looked outside an hour ago, with the sun starting to go down, and it was flashing pretty darn bright. An hour to go until dark and we'll get a good test... I do live at a high point in the neighborhood, pretty well surrounded by trees, so most likely no neighbors will have a direct line of sight at it.

 

Official verdict: It's bright.

Too fully take advantage of the brightness, I imagine it needs a redesigned plastic lens on the black box piece to spread the light out from the tip.

If I have to go back in at any point and reattach my shoddy solder work, I'm following Rhoderman's implied suggestion and adding a blue LED in series. If bright red and blue lights don't scare off prowlers, nothing will!