Thanks for the clarification on red Fail. Question- when you removed the green field wire why did you get a multi indicator fault between green and yellow?
I would think its because a charge (to light up the green signal - like a capacitor or similiar) left in the load switch once it gets the yellow signal, and since there is no lamp to discharge it to ground (think like a bleeder resistor), theres still stray voltage on the green output terminal once it switches to yellow, thus it will register that as a "dual indication" for G+Y.
I believe sebastian answered the question below pretty well. The yellow indication turned on while the green wire was pulled out leaving a 'floating' voltage (no load) on the green terminal. Thus the CMU thinks its a dual ind. fault. Hope that makes sense...
I'm reminded of the time when I literally had a red fail in my traffic signal cabinet. I was running my setup one night when all of a sudden, the red indications went out on one phase. At the time, I had no idea what caused the red indications to suddenly go out. I was thinking that it would cause the conflict monitor would sense a red failure on that phase and throw the signals into flash mode. For whatever reason, it didn't. Thankfully, I had a spare load switch, so I swapped the defective switch out. It did make me wonder why the system didn't go into flash mode when the red indications went out.
Hmmmm....I would look at the conflict monitor. The age of the conflict monitor can cause sporadic behavior. Usually though, I see it place the signal on flash with random faults rather than the other way around. Great you were able to get it running again on a replacement LS. Great job!
I hope you removed the monitor and had it tested. As a technician you can be held liable for a accident at an intersection especially if someone gets hurt, city or state can be liable too. if you did not fully do your duty as a tech. You should always walk the entire intersection to make sure everything is working properly before leaving that intersection. It's a big responsibility as a traffic signal electricians.Especially if you are called out for trouble or you were the last one at the intersection and overlooked a problem. Like timing not matching the time sheet or a signal head turned the wrong way due to a truck or wind. Conflict monitor not working properly and you noted it and did not take further action. All documents in the cabinet can be used as legal documents. Watch your wording when documenting your find in the cabinet. It is the techs job to make sure the intersection is safe. I have refused to install timing given to me by engineers or turn on a intersection I upgraded. If I saw a issue with what they gave me I would give it back to them or my supervisor. If they installed the timing. I would noted in the cabinet and on my time sheet who installed or turned on the signal, to release me from liability and note the effort I made. 99.9% of the time they would fix the issue or have me make modifications that would work, and redline asbuilt. I once received a called from a lawyer working for the city who happened to be the wife of the engineer who installed the timing which caused injury accident at that city's intersection, because I noted it on my timesheet and in the cabinet that I did not install the timing and that the engineer installed it, he would not listen to me about a left turn backup entrapment, create a six figure lawsuit for the city. I didn't trust her or him so I stayed out of it. Not sure if you are required to document anything at your intersection, every city I worked, it was required. It use for study of problems at intersection intersection. For instance a pole that keeps getting hit. Maybe it needs to be relocated, due to the amount of times it's been hit by trucks making a right turn.
@@miluth2 There is no need to worry about safety with the cabinet I have except for electrical safety. I am a traffic signal enthusiast and the cabinet I have doesn't control any traffic. It runs the signal display I have at home. The monitor is working as it should since I replaced the bad load switch I had in the cabinet. Honestly, I'm not even sure if the monitor has been set up to detect a red fail. It's an old unit and probably only checks for conflicting indications. For now, everything is working as it should and haven't had any further issues when running my signals.
@GrnArrow092 I guess I should have caught (my cabinet). It great that you have one. I regret not taking the opportunity to make a setup for myself. Didn't think I would still be interested.
Yes Red Fail is a terrible description of the fault. I have a hard time training my techs with that one. I wish it was called Dead Channel or something like that. You should show what a stuck Mercury Relay does in flash!
Ah yes, the mercury relay. Actually I showed on a previous video 'When Storms Damage Traffic Lights' the intersection flashing green & red. I have fewer and fewer cabinets out there that have the mercury relay though. They're all getting replaced with solid state. BTW-when i recieve calls from contractors with a red flash + running colors intersection, they think its the neatest thing to give the cabinet a good donkey kick to fix the situation LOL!
How much baggage/complexity comes with breaking a pedestrian crossing into two sections, eg a wide highway? E.g. giving a pedestrian a green long enough to cross the entire intersection would delay vehicle movement too long. Does this make programming turn signals harder?
FANTASTIC QUESTION! I try to get my design engineers to understand this. YES! Much consideration needs to put in the design process when adding ped crossings to new and existing signalized intersections. Especially when they are added to coordinated signals. You have strict timing parameters to keep it running coordination and so you can drive thru a cooridor in a 'green band' without being stopped. An oversized ped crossing (term they use in the industry) means the ped timing exceeds the vehicle timing parameters. So if you have 15 secs allocated for side street but the side street ped crossing takes 20 secs, the controller has to readjust to make up the difference. During that time, it can take 3-5 cycles to readjust--meaning it's lost it coordination with the other signals during that time. If you wonder why your driving smoothly thru a cooridor but get stuck at a signal sometimes--look to see if there is a long ped crossing. Hope that makes sense!
The traffic lights don’t love you. You hurt them every day in your basement that is making a test subjects. They wanna be free from your Salinas, but I’ll do seriousness everything you’re dealing with is simple ohms, law, and electronics knowledge. I could do this myself because it’s so simple to me, but yet I can’t get a job for some strange reason in this area because for whatever reasonthis is supposed to be college degree crap but I can wire a signal up and I can understand how to operate. The only thing I have to do is figure out how to program your computers that run everything even that itself is not as hard as it looks you just gotta understand the lingo for people like me I understand it.
Actually you've got it all wrong! Most signals are left out on the streets to fend for themselves. They deal with all the elements of mother nature. Majority of the time no one even comes to visit them. I've given them a home and take care of them. I use them for a greater good in society. It's all how you frame it! As far as your background, I would find a local municapility's public works dept. to get started. You may have to do a ton of other stuff but find out if they work on signals. If you inform them what you just stated in your comment, they WILL give you a chance to prove yourself. Most municapilities are scared to touch traffic signals. Reach out to a few and let me know how it goes! Thanks for commenting
hey man, take it easy on yourself. You've just proven to us you're a human being!
Thanks for making us all smarter by doing these videos.
What up Nate!? Thanks-It's better to take shots at myself than others LOL 🤣
Thanks for helping me learn more about the CVM fault.
Absolutely! Glad it made sense! Thanks for commenting
Thanks for the clarification on red Fail. Question- when you removed the green field wire why did you get a multi indicator fault between green and yellow?
I would think its because a charge (to light up the green signal - like a capacitor or similiar) left in the load switch once it gets the yellow signal, and since there is no lamp to discharge it to ground (think like a bleeder resistor), theres still stray voltage on the green output terminal once it switches to yellow, thus it will register that as a "dual indication" for G+Y.
I believe sebastian answered the question below pretty well. The yellow indication turned on while the green wire was pulled out leaving a 'floating' voltage (no load) on the green terminal. Thus the CMU thinks its a dual ind. fault.
Hope that makes sense...
I'm reminded of the time when I literally had a red fail in my traffic signal cabinet. I was running my setup one night when all of a sudden, the red indications went out on one phase. At the time, I had no idea what caused the red indications to suddenly go out. I was thinking that it would cause the conflict monitor would sense a red failure on that phase and throw the signals into flash mode. For whatever reason, it didn't. Thankfully, I had a spare load switch, so I swapped the defective switch out. It did make me wonder why the system didn't go into flash mode when the red indications went out.
Hmmmm....I would look at the conflict monitor. The age of the conflict monitor can cause sporadic behavior. Usually though, I see it place the signal on flash with random faults rather than the other way around.
Great you were able to get it running again on a replacement LS. Great job!
I hope you removed the monitor and had it tested. As a technician you can be held liable for a accident at an intersection especially if someone gets hurt, city or state can be liable too. if you did not fully do your duty as a tech. You should always walk the entire intersection to make sure everything is working properly before leaving that intersection. It's a big responsibility as a traffic signal electricians.Especially if you are called out for trouble or you were the last one at the intersection and overlooked a problem. Like timing not matching the time sheet or a signal head turned the wrong way due to a truck or wind. Conflict monitor not working properly and you noted it and did not take further action. All documents in the cabinet can be used as legal documents. Watch your wording when documenting your find in the cabinet. It is the techs job to make sure the intersection is safe. I have refused to install timing given to me by engineers or turn on a intersection I upgraded. If I saw a issue with what they gave me I would give it back to them or my supervisor. If they installed the timing. I would noted in the cabinet and on my time sheet who installed or turned on the signal, to release me from liability and note the effort I made. 99.9% of the time they would fix the issue or have me make modifications that would work, and redline asbuilt. I once received a called from a lawyer working for the city who happened to be the wife of the engineer who installed the timing which caused injury accident at that city's intersection, because I noted it on my timesheet and in the cabinet that I did not install the timing and that the engineer installed it, he would not listen to me about a left turn backup entrapment, create a six figure lawsuit for the city. I didn't trust her or him so I stayed out of it. Not sure if you are required to document anything at your intersection, every city I worked, it was required. It use for study of problems at intersection intersection. For instance a pole that keeps getting hit. Maybe it needs to be relocated, due to the amount of times it's been hit by trucks making a right turn.
@@miluth2 There is no need to worry about safety with the cabinet I have except for electrical safety. I am a traffic signal enthusiast and the cabinet I have doesn't control any traffic. It runs the signal display I have at home. The monitor is working as it should since I replaced the bad load switch I had in the cabinet. Honestly, I'm not even sure if the monitor has been set up to detect a red fail. It's an old unit and probably only checks for conflicting indications. For now, everything is working as it should and haven't had any further issues when running my signals.
@GrnArrow092 I guess I should have caught (my cabinet). It great that you have one. I regret not taking the opportunity to make a setup for myself. Didn't think I would still be interested.
I always thought of it as "Dark signal" for a better description.
Mike--anything other than red fail! LOL
Yes Red Fail is a terrible description of the fault. I have a hard time training my techs with that one. I wish it was called Dead Channel or something like that.
You should show what a stuck Mercury Relay does in flash!
I love being told an intersection is "Christmas treeing"... However a bad merc relay can also cause red fail, lol.
Ah yes, the mercury relay. Actually I showed on a previous video 'When Storms Damage Traffic Lights' the intersection flashing green & red.
I have fewer and fewer cabinets out there that have the mercury relay though. They're all getting replaced with solid state.
BTW-when i recieve calls from contractors with a red flash + running colors intersection, they think its the neatest thing to give the cabinet a good donkey kick to fix the situation LOL!
@@mondorevolver6686 dammitt. Another revivision??!! lol
Where's the light bulb for the cabinet interior light? HA HA
How much baggage/complexity comes with breaking a pedestrian crossing into two sections, eg a wide highway?
E.g. giving a pedestrian a green long enough to cross the entire intersection would delay vehicle movement too long.
Does this make programming turn signals harder?
FANTASTIC QUESTION!
I try to get my design engineers to understand this. YES! Much consideration needs to put in the design process when adding ped crossings to new and existing signalized intersections.
Especially when they are added to coordinated signals. You have strict timing parameters to keep it running coordination and so you can drive thru a cooridor in a 'green band' without being stopped.
An oversized ped crossing (term they use in the industry) means the ped timing exceeds the vehicle timing parameters. So if you have 15 secs allocated for side street but the side street ped crossing takes 20 secs, the controller has to readjust to make up the difference. During that time, it can take 3-5 cycles to readjust--meaning it's lost it coordination with the other signals during that time. If you wonder why your driving smoothly thru a cooridor but get stuck at a signal sometimes--look to see if there is a long ped crossing.
Hope that makes sense!
The traffic lights don’t love you. You hurt them every day in your basement that is making a test subjects. They wanna be free from your Salinas, but I’ll do seriousness everything you’re dealing with is simple ohms, law, and electronics knowledge. I could do this myself because it’s so simple to me, but yet I can’t get a job for some strange reason in this area because for whatever reasonthis is supposed to be college degree crap but I can wire a signal up and I can understand how to operate. The only thing I have to do is figure out how to program your computers that run everything even that itself is not as hard as it looks you just gotta understand the lingo for people like me I understand it.
Actually you've got it all wrong! Most signals are left out on the streets to fend for themselves. They deal with all the elements of mother nature. Majority of the time no one even comes to visit them.
I've given them a home and take care of them. I use them for a greater good in society.
It's all how you frame it!
As far as your background, I would find a local municapility's public works dept. to get started. You may have to do a ton of other stuff but find out if they work on signals. If you inform them what you just stated in your comment, they WILL give you a chance to prove yourself. Most municapilities are scared to touch traffic signals.
Reach out to a few and let me know how it goes!
Thanks for commenting