SignalTraffic Forums

Important note - pretend the 8-inch light has arrows in it! Sheesh.

My goal was to reproduce Maryland's Flashing Red arrow, used on left turns in several places, including up in Germantown, MD. Unfortunately, I was unable to find the proper setting to *properly* reproduce it.

Instead, what is actually shown here is a *Michigan* Left Turn arrow.

What's the difference, I hear you ask?

Well, a very small one -
In Maryland, the red flashing arrow goes solid when the thru-traffic goes yellow, not red.

I also find it interesting that all three items - Phase 1 FYA, Phase 2 FRA, and Phase 6 Ped Clear - flash at different times.

--Mike.

Good thing those two displays aren't used together, that was sort of mesmerizing...especially with the fading light of the McCain PV...

You should share your controller settings here on the forum so others can set this up with their Econolite controllers

-Dan

So what happens when the person with the Flashing still thinks it is Flashing 5 seconds after it had stopped????

2070 wrote:So what happens when the person with the Flashing still thinks it is Flashing 5 seconds after it had stopped????

I don't know.

Ask someone up in Michigan. :)

BTW, I'm diggin' that 4-section McCain for the FYA. If I had a shot in hell of finding another yellow LED for my 3M, I would have bought another section for it to make a FYA...maybe...

-Dan

RunsWithCrouse-Hinds wrote:You should share your controller settings here on the forum so others can set this up with their Econolite controllers

Sure. This is for an Econolite ASC/2-2100 setup instructions. Flashing red left is relatively easy:

Flashing Red Left:

• Requires standard phase setup. (i.e. Phase 5 is a left turn for Phase 2 through. Phase 1 is a left turn for Phase 6, etc.)
• Change write protect bits 0x0DB, 0x0DC, and 0x0DD to set the phases to flash. To quote the Write Protect:
  0x0DB - Red Arrow Perm. Phases 1-8.
  0x0DC - Red Arrow Perm. Phases 9-12, Flsh. Phases 9-12
  0x0DD - Red Arrow Flsh. Phases 1-8.
  I have not figured out what "Perm." phases mean, and in testing couldn't find out what they did. However, set the bits for the left turn phase that SHOULD flash. i.e. In my example, phase 5 is the one flashing red. So I set 0x0DD to "10".
• Wire up signals as normal.

Flashing Yellow Overlap (Left, Right, Whatever):

• An overlap needs to be chosen that will be the left-turn for our phases. (Using O/L A in this example, left signal is Phase 1.)
• Since there are four lights, wiring as needed:
  1. Signal Red, Yellow, Flashing Yellow: Connect to O/L A Red, Yellow, Green.
  2. Signal Green needs to run to Phase 1 Loadswitch green.
  3. A dummy light needs to be connected to Phase 1 Loadswitch yellow.
• CMU needs to have Red Check *disabled* when Phase 6 (thru) is on.
• O/L A needs to be programmed:
  1. Protected on Phase 1.
  2. Permissive on Phase 6.
  3. (Unknown if necessary) do not select 'Standard' for either of those phases.
• Change write-protect bit 0x09 to: hex 10 for O/L A to flash. 20 for O/L B to flash, 40 for O/L C to flash, and 80 for O/L D to flash. (These values can be added together - i.e. 30 to make O/Ls A and B to flash.

Much much easier to get a flashing red. :)

Michigan never leads an arrow with flashing red. Always ends with it. For the reason Phil has stated. No clearance between flashing and solid red. The only time flashing red would immediately go solid is if there were no vehicle calls placed at actuated intersections using this setup. Phases are run with phase-pair reversal implemented. (instead of phase 1 then phase 2...phase 2 then phase 1, for example)

EPAC-EPIC-MARC wrote:Michigan never leads an arrow with flashing red. Always ends with it. For the reason Phil has stated. No clearance between flashing and solid red. The only time flashing red would immediately go solid is if there were no vehicle calls placed at actuated intersections using this setup. Phases are run with phase-pair reversal implemented. (instead of phase 1 then phase 2...phase 2 then phase 1, for example)

Aaah... I think you said this backwards, meaning to say that Michigan never leads with a green arrow, only lags.

That makes sense. I haven't been up to Dearborn Heights in YEARS, so I didn't remember that.

So the proper operation for a flashing red arrow is, essentially, LAG only?

coyttl wrote:

EPAC-EPIC-MARC wrote:Michigan never leads an arrow with flashing red. Always ends with it. For the reason Phil has stated. No clearance between flashing and solid red. The only time flashing red would immediately go solid is if there were no vehicle calls placed at actuated intersections using this setup. Phases are run with phase-pair reversal implemented. (instead of phase 1 then phase 2...phase 2 then phase 1, for example)

Aaah... I think you said this backwards, meaning to say that Michigan never leads with a green arrow, only lags.

That makes sense. I haven't been up to Dearborn Heights in YEARS, so I didn't remember that.

So the proper operation for a flashing red arrow is, essentially, LAG only?

I didn't say it backwards. End is different than Lag in my opinion. Lag refers to the green arrow coming on with the green ball at the end of the cycle. End means its on its own phase sequence after the main phases turn red. The green arrow does not come on with the green ball in Michigan flashing red. Its on its own phase independent. Lagging left turns and lead/lag came about during FYA

Cycle would be like this (Using Eagle's phase pair reversal feature)

Phase 1 2
Signal Left Thru
R R
FR G
FR Y
FR R
G R
Y R
R R

coyttl wrote:[*]Change write-protect bit 0x09 to: hex 10 for O/L A to flash. 20 for O/L B to flash, 40 for O/L C to flash, and 80 for O/L D to flash. (These values can be added together - i.e. 30 to make O/Ls A and B to flash.[/list]

Does 0x09 actually make sense as an address? I searched the write protect doc and didn't see anything that referred specifically to 0x09 that had anything to do with flashing overlaps...

-Dan