Home Traffic Signal Setup

[roadwreck]

Our office is moving this weekend (which is why I have today off) and in the purge of office "junk" I acquired this.

Seemed like a fun thing to put up in my "Wreck" room. (GT grad, I have to spell it that way )

Now I just need to find the best way to hook the thing up. I'm not about to assemble my own controller, I just wanted to find a cheap controller that will allow me to have the lights flash in sequence, have some control over the length of each light duration and if possible hold a light on indefinitely.

I've done a little searching of the interwebs and found some items on eBay and a few other sites. The device that seemed to hold the most promise was this

http://www.ecrater.com/p/2045756/traffic-l...er-sequencer-3#

but I wanted to see if anyone out there had any better suggestions before I purchase anything.

Also, anyone have any advice for getting the hanger off the traffic signal? It's rusting and making a mess and it adds considerable weight to the signal. The signal itself is plastic and I'm afraid that If I exert to much force on the hanger I'm going to break the signal box.

 

[Supe]

What input voltage do those things work on?

 

[cableguy]

As for the signal controller, 50 bucks is cheap and worth it IMO.

I built an LED sequencer for my son's pinewood derby car last Saturday. Took me several hours to build it (wirewrap, solder, point-to-point connections, etc). Granted, I was goofing around and watching movies with my son at the time, so the time spent was "worth it", but I guarantee you that it'll cost you at least $25 to buy parts to build something, plus several hours of time.... for $50, it's worth it.

 

[IlPadrino]

but I wanted to see if anyone out there had any better suggestions before I purchase anything.

Get an Arduino and make your own controller. You can get some fairly inexpensive ones off of ebay: search for "Arduino Duemilanove" and make sure you get one with a USB connection for easy programming. You'd just need some 5V relays and a few lines of code to make them do whatever you want.

 

[IlPadrino]

Our office is moving this weekend (which is why I have today off) and in the purge of office "junk" I acquired this.

The image isn't working...

 

[roadwreck]

Our office is moving this weekend (which is why I have today off) and in the purge of office "junk" I acquired this.

The image isn't working...

fixed it

 

[Road Guy]

you know during our last move i acquired a similar signal.. i was amazed how much space the thing took up.. I had fun with it (it was already hooked up to a sequence) but it was one of those things i was as happy to see it go as i was to bring it home! but mine wasnt led's and it put out a lot of heat!!!!

i want to come check out your new digs, i heard its very european looking..

 

[roadwreck]

Got the signal working last night after a few hours of tinkering. I'd post the video of it working, but the video file is pretty large and I'm sure you all know what an operational traffic signal looks like. It does take up a decent amount of space, although it's on the small side as far as signals go. Other than the metal hanger most of the signal is plastic, so it's pretty lightweight. I'm hoping to get the hanger off of it as it adds considerable weight, then I'll hang it on a wall in my room in the basement. At least that's my plan.

If by "european looking" you mean barren wasteland, sure, it's european looking. It's very plain in appearance and the big whigs have been very resistant to allowing us to add any personality. The best description I've heard for our new office is "call center". There are virtually no offices anymore. You either have small cubicles or big cubicles. It's very open since the walls of the cubicles are low, which means you have no privacy, but it also means you get a lot more natural light. The higher walled cubes and offices are in the interior, while the low walled cubes are along the windows. I lucked out and got myself a window cube at the end of a isle. This actually affords me a lot more privacy then most offices. The real important folks have offices with glass walls. Walking past them is kind of like walking past an animals cage at the zoo. I'm waiting for signs reading "do not tap on glass" or "please do not feed the animals" to appear.

 

[testee]

Our office is moving this weekend (which is why I have today off) and in the purge of office "junk" I acquired this.

The image isn't working...

you want to see his junk?