Battery Powered Lantern

Just ordered this: http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/WarmWhite...ht_3551wt_1141
I have a 6m spreader bar on my tarp set-up so I'm gonna run it right along the top. Can't wait to try it out!

if you have a square speader bar, magnetic tape, that is, like a fridge magnet with adhesive on one side, might make a good way of sticking that strip to your spreader bar. You'll need to wrap the cable around the bar or similar or the weight of the wire will probably peel it off.

Should be a lovely light. Very little shadow etc. Be interesting to know how many amps?

What I have noticed with having a well lit tarp and reasonably spacious tarp is that our primary school age daughter likes to colour in etc under it - and it can turn out to be a bit of a kid magnet because they gravitate to the well lit area to play. That isn't always a good thing from my perspective, but she enjoys it, so I deal with it :-)

LED's all the way. I have nearly 2.5m of 800 lumen LED on my awning and it's sweet. I will be making up some movable strips for around the campsite / tent with 9v setup. They will last upto 72 hours constantly on but alonger with intermittent use.

The new ones that I am making will have the option to be tied up, hooked on, staked in the ground etc so they will be more versatile

Hmmm, think I will wrap some led strip around my gaslight !

The 5m LED strip arrived the other day, hooked it up to the power pack and was blown away! Just need to hook up a dimmer now... might be a bit too bright otherwise. Not sure how many amps are being drawn... I'll get back to you on that.

I've been looking at my favourite Hong Kong based cheap-stuff site for a Lantern solution myself. They have a section dedicated to camp lanterns. http://dx.com/c/sports-outdoors-1699...r-lantern-1634
Don't be put off by some of the really low prices, most of the stuff on there is sold at retail here under other names for a lot more.

Site is also full of DIY electronics parts for those who want to mess with Light Strips and more.
Note: There are some NSFW (not safe for work) sections on there so tread with caution

Best part is almost all of the stuff on there is free shipping (albeit rather slow).

I just installed about 70 feet of high-density (18 LED's/ft) 5050 LED strips in my new office. They are white only, not 3-color. They produce a LOT of light. I'm using a single strip to illuminate a 2ft high double-sided frosted plexiglas strip at the tops of our walls. Each linear foot of LED strip is illuminating 4 square feet of frosted plexi, and it looks great. Powering them in large quantities can be a challenge. My complete installation draws about 16A at 12VDC, and I'm using a power supply that was not intended for LED's. It's important to understand the driving requirements for these LED strips. They are NOT just LED's. Bare LED's require dedicated constant-current drivers matched to the requirements of the specific LED product. These strips do not. The strips are composed of segments consisting of multiple LED's in series along with a current limiting resistor designed to allow the unit to operate from an unregulated 12VDC supply. This is convenient, but somewhat inefficient. It also prevents you from using most dedicated LED driver products to control them. This is compounded by the problem that virtually no commercial LED drivers are available that can handle enough power to run long lengths of these strips.

Stay away from flouros its old school now. I'll PM you. LED is the go more light less power, why would you use flouro if thats the case, Also have 120 LEDs a mt on the awning in cool white.This 10 watt flood light will amaze you .3 of these use less power than a versa or piranha flouro and your campsite will look like the Queen Mary has docked
800 lumens each

Hubby and I have embraced LED lighting in our tent. We have put sticky back velcro on the frame of our tent and have stuck the other side (the fluff) to the back of the light strip, plug it in to the battery pack on the trailer, stick it up and hey presto! We do have in-line switches, but I really do have dimmer envy now!!!

We need a few more, a bit for the bedroom area of our tent to read by and one for the toilet, but they are so easy to make, I even managed to do some of the soldering myself!!

I totally agree, LED is the way to go. Ours roll up really small and are soooooo bright!!!

Sorry AB those Flouro are old hat now try these led jobs .I can run 3 of these and still use less power than a flouro.

and yes I do sell them with 5mt lead and waterproof inline switch