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Zhulong Floodlamps
OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION
Intent: To create a starship component for future submissions and role-playing.
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Canon Link: N/A
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PRODUCTION INFORMATION
Manufacturer: VisTech Diversified Industries, LLC
Affiliation: Closed-Market
Model: Zhulong FL-432P Floodlamps
Modularity: None
Production: Mass-Produced
Material(s):
- LED Chip, the chief light emitter.
- Ultra-High-Efficiency Driver, regulating the input current.
- Heat Sink, drawing heat away from the chip, preventing overheating.
- Adegan Optic Lens, controlling the characteristics of the light’s output.
- Automated/Remote-controlled Multi-Directional Housing
- EMP/Ion-hardened Ballistic, Translucent Lamp Cover, similar to viewplates used in various helmet designs.
- 100,000-lumen floodlamps are incredibly powerful, and their adjustable beam can be narrowed to just a few meters or expanded to cover several hundred-meter areas, trading range for scope. Lamps are so powerful that when in low-orbit, the lights can be identified and spotted using the naked eye!
- Multidirectional recessed housings allow lamps to be directed 45-degrees in any direction, even following scan patterns for search-and-rescue or similar actions.
- Next-generation LED bulbs use much lower power than conventional lamps and boast lifespans in excess of 100,000 standard hours’ use, or roughly 20 standard years depending on how extensively they’re used or what condition they’re in.
- Powerful beams can be adjusted, ranging from narrow focused beams for intensive illumination, esp. at long distances, to expanded area lighting, able to illuminate large tracts of space or land.
- Multidirectional housing enables users to ‘point’ the lamps, directing their light as needed or following scan patterns for search-and-rescue missions and other applications.
- Protective anti-fog covers offer limited resistance against EMP/Ion and projectiles, preventing the bulbs from being damaged by low-grade projectile weaponry, debris, sand/dirt/dust, and even against rain, snow, or humidity.
- Due to their exceptional brightness and intensity, use of these lamps practically negates any stealth effects found onboard the same starships for so long as they are in use.
- Damage to the driver or heat sink used in the bulbs will overwhelm/overheat the bulbs, causing them to become disabled and potentially resulting in further damage to the housing if power is continuing to flow there, potentially melting various components and rendering the entire housing – not merely the bulb – to require replacing.
- Adjusting the beams involve a ‘trade-off’, as narrow beams only illuminate proportionately small areas, but reach much further and brighter, while broader beams illuminate much larger areas but with diminished intensity.
For many years, Gelieg had ‘cornered the market’ on starship floodlights. But using someone else’s technology was always something that had bothered Vis, and she knew she could come up with something to steal just a little bit of Gelieg’s ‘spotlight’. (See what I did there?)
After a bit of research, some good ol’ fashioned trial and error, and many words uttered which ought not to be repeated in mixed company (Not in front of the Ewoks!), Visanj would debut the Zhulong floodlamps. Innovations in LED technology permitted her to create extremely powerful bulbs, able to yield intense light over great distances or by opening the aperture, illuminate vast fields of space or land. And, because Vis is just ‘extra’ like that, she coupled these long-lasting bulbs with specially designed protective anti-fog covers and multi-directional housings, enabling the lights to be moved about independently of the starships on which they were mounted. Using this combination, Vis had achieved her goal, and took her place in the ‘limelight’. (See? Did it again!)
Now, there were some drawbacks, there always were. First, the covers were hardened against EMP/Ion, and protected against low-grade ballistic (kinetic) damage, but they weren’t very resilient against powerful or precision hits, just strong enough to take a glancing blow or three from a slugthrower, block debris and blowing dust and sand, and shield the bulbs from moisture. Next, there was the ever-present risk that damage to the bulb’s heat sink or power-regulating driver would cause them to overheat or become overwhelmed, disabling or destroying them altogether. To worsen this, if power was allowed to continue to flow into the damaged bulbs, extreme heat would become present, risking melting and damage to the entire housing unit, causing the whole lamp to need to be replaced. Further still, as the aperture widened, illuminating greater spaces, intensity and distance lowered proportionately. Finally, as useful and handy as these lights could be, using them carelessly would pretty much wipe out any stealth capabilities of the ships they were on, and continue to expose those ships to detection for however long they remained in use.
All in all however, Vis had built a lamp she’d put up against anything Gelieg had, and found yet another way to enlighten (three’s a charm, right?) the whole market to what VisTech could do!
