Federal signal TA wiring

Jun 24, 2015
76
Andrews TX
Can someone give me insight on what each wire in the nine wire TA's function is please. I have searched to no avail

White:
Brown:
Green:
Orange:
Purple:
Gray:
Yellow:
Blue:
Red:
 

MtnMan

Member
Dec 20, 2012
1,533
Eastern PA
Red is + power. The others are negative control for the individual lightheads.

I don't know the color code off the top of my head, but if you connect red to power and ground the other wires one at a time, it will be self-explanatory.
 
Jun 24, 2015
76
Andrews TX
I know how to I was hoping someone would know each wires function as I am installing a different TA from a different manufacturer and will be trying to utilize the SM ll pin connector
 

chief1562

Member
Mar 18, 2011
5,840
Slaterville/NY
What are you trying to wire to it?
 

buddek09

Member
Aug 15, 2012
339
US, Ohio
The TA on the SM is made for TA's that have each light individually wired. It goes from left to right, so white would be your far left light head and blue is the far right one. If you only have a 6 head instead of 8 you would start with the brown wire and go to the yellow. However, the light you are trying to wire to it is only a 2 wire TA which will not work. You have to use 2 of the aux outputs on the SM or put in separate switches for it to work.
 

JohnMarcson

Administrator
May 7, 2010
10,971
Northwest Ohio
For those wanting more info on types of traffic advisor controls...

Taken from the thread:
http://elightbars.org/forums/threads/traffic-advisor-arrow-signal-master-etc-info-thread.32740/

Negative Switched- Usually halogen. The lightheads are powered constantly with one or two power wires and each head is grounded by an individual wire. The required controller grounds the lights in sequence to make the patterns.


Positive Switched- Usually halogen. The lightheads are grounded constantly with one or two ground wires and each head is powered by an individual 12v wire. The required controller powers the lights in sequence to make the patterns. Sometimes this is accomplished with a common/group/housing ground, other times each light has it's own ground.


Self Contained- Usually LED, the controller is included in the bar. Usually these bars have a ground and control wires that in various combos select function and pattern.


Strobe- A bar comprised of strobe heads wired as they normally would be with three wire plugs. The arrow function is 100% controlled by the power supply.


Notes-

Sometimes lightheads are grouped, ie one wire may power or ground two or more lights in the bar. This can be problematic when mixing controllers and arrows from different brands.

Occasionally you may see light heads in a arrow style setup where each individual head has a positive and a ground. These would need the grounds or positives grouped in order to use a standard arrow controller.

How to determine what type of halogen bar you have:

First, if you have a major brand bar, you can often find the installation guide on their website. If not, look at what wires are present. If a large red or white wire is present with 6 or 8 smaller colored wires it is usually a negative switched bar. If the larger wire is black, it is probably a positive switched unit.

I drew up a diagram of a few common setups. It should be noted that you can't always just reverse neg/pos if the control and arrow are mismatched. Not pictured is positive switched paired.... but based on the other ones you can figure out how that would look.


tadraw.jpg
 
Last edited:

chief1562

Member
Mar 18, 2011
5,840
Slaterville/NY
I've actually used a Code3 Narrowstik on my 8 Lamp cuda TA. And it works great.
TA starts at around 2:41
 

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