The back of the 3M Programmable head has a seperate door that contains the 150 watt PAR incandescent lamp. the lamp is unplugged from the signal when the door is open, theres also a resistor tied to the bulb between the photocell and the lamp itself. On the back side of the housing are the two programming lenses. The white diffuser mounts on a clear limiter lens. The limiter is where the programming/lane limiting takes place.
its a bulb with three prongs in the back. The whole lamp, filament and reflector is in a sealed beam housing. These bulbs arent cheap, I paid almost $100 alone for a set of new ones for this signal. As soon as these go I'm buying the LED retrofits.
Can you take a pic of that lamp by itself? I am curious as to what it look like. Saying these are expensive says these aren't your average PAR-38 flood lamps.
LED retrofits can be used only to achieve low-energy costs. They don't perform the programmability as good. The photocells need to be disconnected at the terminal strips in each section.
I cant take the bulb out the way it's mounted now. Too many other signals are in the way. Its a PAR46 incandescent light. This is the actual bulb for sale at Light Bulb Depot: Programmable Signal Lamp As you can see they are not cheap. Almost $40 per bulb.
I have one of these signals and I want to purchase lamps and realized how expensive they are, I was able to find abput 8-10 or so slightly used. Seeing they dont get used a lot I got a good deal on them. Another solution I came up with was the use of some 40-60w globe style lamps. Not sure whah sixe the are but something you would use in your bathroom and with some modification to the lamp housing you can still have all the functions of the dimmer and f you want to go back to the par lamps you can very easily. Ill try to get a pic of the set up im talking about and you can see. Its a lot cheaper and worked very well. Not too bright but still had the same effect as the par lamps.
We have LED 3M lamps that start to flicker as they get older, they lose rows of LEDs and makes it difficult to see at different points in the road. Also when the street gets widened or re-striped, I have to cut out some of the progrmming tape.
3M and McCain's programmable signals have too many disadvantages. They weigh alot, the whole back door for the bulb is a pain in the ass if the signal is astro-bracketed to the mast arm (the original design). The lamps were the shortest life of any signal bulb. And they need extra parts like pipe adapters to mount them to ordinary slip fitters or weatherheads. Plus the 3M was around $450 per section. Multiply that by three for one signal. Add in the man hours to actually limit the signal at the intersection. They were a maintenance disaster. They were a good idea in 1970s and 80s. Intelight developed the programmable signal of the future. Programming is done remotely with software and a steerable beam LED array. Video detection is built into the signal and so is communications. Intelight built upon the old platform that was once "OptiSoft" I have a shot at getting an OptiSoft signal in May.
This is an Intelight/Optisoft The programmable head of the 21st century.
These lights have 3 wires. Hot, Neutral, and Switched. The switched output goes through a resistor to the photocell. These bulbs run very hot and have short lives. Only about half a standard signal lamp. They also cost about $35 a bulb. One of the main reasons 3M signals are pulled from service so frequently--expensive to maintain
I saw one of the PAR LED retrofit lamps today, when I was talking to that guy in Lakewood he showed me one of the LED retrofits for these programmable signals. It looked different then I thought, kind of like a headlight or something. It probably is expensive. I wonder how long those PAR LED lamps last.
The par LED lamps are about $75 a bulb bought new. They have a high failure rate, especially if the dimming circuitry is left in the signal. They work just like any other kind of LED fixture with nice bright indications, but the actual optically programmable head is such a bear to work with that its actually more economical to just put up a regular LED signal. But if programmability/shielding is needed then either louvers are used like Pelco's Geomertically Programmable Louvers or Intelights Electronic Steerable Beam signal
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I cant take the bulb out the way it's mounted now. Too many other signals are in the way. Its a PAR46 incandescent light. This is the actual bulb for sale at Light Bulb Depot: Programmable Signal Lamp As you can see they are not cheap. Almost $40 per bulb.
and i Believe PAR itself stands for Parabolic aluminized reflector.
i used to have Two GE PAR-64 Sized 500 watt Incandescent Lamps....though they had Two Pin Bases verses the Three here.
This is an Intelight/Optisoft The programmable head of the 21st century.