Hello, and welcome to Technology Connections 2!
This is the very first video for this channel where we are gonna be taking apart one of
these.
This is a 12 inch traffic light module.
Normally these are sitting up high in the air and telling you whether to stop or to go.
Now, these newer styles--I've always been a little bit curious about what the optics
are inside, how exactly the LED emitters are arranged and, you know, what's inside of these.
So today I'm gonna take one apart.
Now, this one I featured in my video on Technology Connections which is probably how you got
here.
If you didn't get here from seeing that you might want to check out this card, or there
will be a link on the end screen.
But in addition to this red one, I also have a yellow one.
You'll notice that their wires are color-coded -- Very handy!
And what's more, I also have
a green one.
Now, this green one is a little bit different from the other two because the green one--
its lens is clear.
So I did buy a set of three but this one probably does not match with the others.
So I'm gonna take this one apart.
There doesn't appear to be a way to take these apart without destroying them because they
are sealed.
So, uh, let's just take a look.
One thing before I take it apart.
Let me turn it back on.
This is what I've been using to power it for the video by the way, this is a, uh...power
pack but it has a 110V outlet.
These do run on 120V AC because that's what would be commonly used in America during these
installations.
Now, one of the things about these particular stoplights is you'll see they have a very,
pretty tight focus.
So I'm shining this at you.
And of course the reason why they have that tight focus is because they might as well
be pointed in the eyes of drivers so that way they can see them better.
So they're focused pretty narrowly that way you can see them.
So what exactly is on the inside of these to make that tight beam?
That's what I want to find out today.
So, let's take a look!
Alright, to make this just a little bit easier on myself, you are on a tripod on top of the table.
Hello!
And you're gonna just watch me do stuff.
Because that's fun.
So these traffic lights have a rubber gasket around them that we're gonna remove.
And as I was saying in my last video, these are designed to be sealed so if you take a
look around the edges, there's really no way to get into these.
On the back, there was a single screw right here, but that screw just covered the wire
terminal connections.
And really there appears to be no way to get inside this without being destructive.
You can sort of see around the edges here that you can see the clear plastic of the
lens, in fact--I'll bring the red one over.
Maybe you can see on video but that is red plastic you're seeing behind here.
So I think the easiest way to get inside of this is to just use a cutting wheel and, uh,
cut it open.
I might try just prying it open real quick with a screwdriver, see if that's productive
at all.
And after that I have, uh, a Harbor Freight Dremel tool.
That oughta get us in.
So let me grab that screw driver.
(sped up)
I think we're gonna make it without the Dremel tool!
(sped up)
Ahh!
We have layers!
OK.
So apparently this clear plastic thing--this is probably the only part that's colored on
the red and yellow ones.
So I would imagine that, uh, down below this is the same.
And then we have this sort of prismatic lens.
This is what gives it the look of the incandescent light.
And then there's a Fresnel lens beneath it.
That's a lot less interesting than I thought it might be! (laughter)
So let's take a look.
Right (said with a bad Scottish accent).
I'm just kidding, I'm not Big Clive.
I do not have his expertise here.
But, let's go ahead and turn this back on.
This by the way is how I've been driving these, this is a little power pack with a 110V plug
on there.
Really cool.
Let's see how painful this is.
Now, when these are running off of true line voltage they don't buzz at all, it's just
on the inverter that's it's kind of buzzing here.
But yeah it's just, let's see, four-- eight individual chips, probably eight 1-watt LEDs down here.
Let's blind you.
Oh it's not too bad actually.
So the Fresnel lens, here...
Oh wow!
That's really...
So this is basically magnifying them.
I'll show--I'll point you up at the wall so you can see how it's pointing at the ceiling
right now.
And then this distributes that so it's a little less crazy.
Here's the weather seal.
So this keeps moisture out.
In fact, you can see... let me turn this back off.
The interior of this is remarkably clean.
And I'm sure these were in service, I doubt these are new.
Their exteriors are a little dirty, especially in here, but inside it's almost immaculate.
(sped up)
Let's go further!
(sped up)
Oh!
OK
So this is the board that the actual LEDs
are on and I noticed this is aluminum.
Here, so this is its heat sink.
It's a bit surprising there's no thermal compound between the two.
But I suppose in, these aren't--especially for green, they're never--well none of them
really, they're never gonna be on for more than two or three minutes at a time before
they're off again, and even if there were a flashing red that would only be a 50% duty cycle.
(sped up)
Well that's one way to do it.
(sped up)
So that's it!
This is all that's inside there, it's just a big plastic shell to direct the light from
these eight LED chips, which the board says Lumileds here.
Or maybe it's "Lumi-LEDs" I'm not sure.
But on the back, in addition to a whole bunch of gibberish it says Luxeon so I'm sure these
are Luxeon chips.
And then this is basically just a 120V power supply here 'cause this is an American stoplight
so it's on 120V AC.
This is a pretty robust power supply board.
All the components on there--granted, I am no expert but all the components on here seem
generously sized, these resistors are quite large and the capacitor--what's it's temperature
rating?
Ehh, I can't see it.
Oh, I don't want to talk to Florida. (received a phone call while recording)
Ooh!
It says on here, "GELcore" Maybe Gel-core?
Or General Electric Lighting core?
I don't know.
I don't know what that would be.
Oh!
There's a lot of chips down here.
Integrated circuits.
If Big Clive would like to have a look at one of these and tell me more what this is,
feel free!
But yeah I mean, this board here is clearly just the LEDs themselves.
I would be curious to know if this is simply, like if Lumileds makes these knowingly that
they're for a stoplight or if this is just some sort of general purpose illumination
board that they have.
I should see, is there are year on these?
Not that I can see.
Well anyway, that's...
I guess that's about it!
So I'll close this video out.
I will add one thing little thing, the power rating on the fixtures themselves; these days
it's much closer but even now, they yellow lights use the most power.
And on the particular three that I have, red was rated like 11 watts, green was 13, and
yellow was 19.
So it's kind of interesting cause the yellow...the particular wavelength of yellow in stop lights
is apparently not that efficient, cause it needs a lot more power to produce the same
brightness.
But with it being a yellow light it's only on at most six seconds at a time so I guess
it doesn't really matter.
I may have wrecked a stoplight but I've got this neat Fresnel lens out of it--look at
that!
Can you see?...
Oh yeah, yeah.
So neat-o!
Nifty, nifty, nifty.
So thanks so much for watching, please subscribe to Technology Connections 2, head on over to
the original video if you got here without seeing it, and I'll see you next time!