AuroraBorealis
Member
One of the last bastions of vintage lighting capitulating to today's wave....R.I.P. :hopeless:
Mars 888 LED Traffic Breaker New | eBay
Mars 888 LED Traffic Breaker New | eBay
The end of an era.....
- Thread starter AuroraBorealis
- Start date
ff168577
Member
K9Vic
Member
Wow, LED can light. Sad, but I see why they did it.
I was by a 5 alarm apartment fire last night and I noticed that every single fire rig of the may be 50 that were that were there had all LED lights. Not a single fire truck or police unit that I saw had strobes or halogen rotators. Expect one older early 2000 Ford Expedition Battalion Chief unit had a Whelen strobe bar and deck strobes around it. Really looked out of place with the strobes. So not really hard to believe that they are making the MARS 888 with LEDs.
I was by a 5 alarm apartment fire last night and I noticed that every single fire rig of the may be 50 that were that were there had all LED lights. Not a single fire truck or police unit that I saw had strobes or halogen rotators. Expect one older early 2000 Ford Expedition Battalion Chief unit had a Whelen strobe bar and deck strobes around it. Really looked out of place with the strobes. So not really hard to believe that they are making the MARS 888 with LEDs.
K9Vic said:
That's not just a can light, it's a Mars 888, which means the light moves up and down as it moves side to side so that the beam of light makes three figure 8 patterns. It is effective with a sealed beam spot light bulb, I just wonder how effective it is with an LED array.
K9Vic
Member
I see your point, as for that 5 alarm fire back in the day if they were all halogen rotators it would flood and light up the surrounding area. With the LED lights on all those trucks that did not happen as the light beams of LED do not project like the old halogen lights. So yeah, have to wonder how well that would work with a LED light over the halogen.
Travelin Man
Member
The first 888 I saw switched over to LED was done several months ago by DPC Equipment (the Maryland and Delaware Rosenbauer dealer) for one of their customers that wanted it. That was an in-house completely custom job by the DPC folks.
Zapp Brannigan
Lifetime VIP Donor
K9Vic said:
If the right optics I am sure it would work pretty well. Look at how Whelen made the LED spotlight. Those work pretty darn well!
Zapp Brannigan
Lifetime VIP Donor
stansdds said:
I can see that they don't share the same optics, although without better pictures or a video, I cannot TRULY tell the optics on it.
But to be fair, this is why I said:
Zapp Brannigan said:
RyanZ71
Member
RyanZ71 said:
....and it's confusing the little turtle hatch-lings who can no longer find their way to the ocean so that they may be eaten by bigger things that swim. Agreed, this is a bad idea. Grow some and put an aircraft landing light in it. LEDs are boring unless they're in my rear view mirror. :bonk:
K9Vic said:
My order of preference:
Rotating or oscillating sealed beams
Rotating or oscillating parabolic reflectors with halogen bulbs
Fast flashing LEDs with diffuser lenses
Strobes are too thin and white looking and single rows of LEDs with clear lenses don't glow enough.
Henry455
Member
stansdds said:
I think you will find that it is using individual optics similar to these: Luxeon LED Lens Types
JohnMarcson
Administrator
Mars has updated the "bulb" in the 888 before. LEDs are the current standard for warning, so they have updated again.
patrol530
Member
JohnMarcson said:
You make a good point, John. My first-ever Mars lights was an old DL8. It came with a 50 c.p. incandescent bulb like those in the DoRay and Dietz lollipop lights. I replaced it with a #1019 bulb from a Jr. Beacon. The old light was 6-volt and we put it on our 1970 Chevy ambulance, which of course, was 12-volt. We had concerns about burning up the old6-volt motor, but that never happened. And with that junior beacon bulb, that light was super-bright. We had the light roof-mounted in the front-center of the roof, with a 17 beacon behind it and a pair of blue Carpenter lights on the front corners. There was also a pair of 6" red Unity lights on the bumper. Neat setup for such an old beast. One night we were leaving the local racetrack with a patient, when suddenly an S.O. unit jumped in front of us with an escort. And when we reached the loop that took us to the road to get to the hospital, that deputy took off like a scaled-ass ape! At the ER I asked the guy why he was in such a hurry...as our patient wasn't all that critical. His reply was that he was trying to get ahead of that "effin'" wobbly-light because it was so bright that it was blinding him. I gues it was the bulb and the reflector. I would be a bit skeptical, though of the LEDs and what they do.