Wireless lightbar pattern sync....an idea???

[Jeremy0966]

So I've had this on my mind for awhile and thought it could be a cool idea in the future. If it holds and practical applications is yet to be determined. This idea is more orientated towards the law enforcement agencies and highway patrol more than anything. The idea being that when two or more vehicles are in close proximity to each other the light bars will sync wirelessly to a pattern ideal for that particular agency. For instant say CHP is in full code3 mode, light bars to the rear are doing the center out red/blue alternating with amber. The light bars would sync, the first cars amber flashing with the second cars red/blue and alternating in that pattern synced together. I think this would be significantly easier for people to determine distance and the amount of emergency vehicles on scene. There's been times were I've seen several vehicles parked on the side of the road in code3 mode and the light bars patterns are so erratic its hard to tell how many vehicles there are if there moving and the distance. The idea that the patterns synced when there are more than one vehicle would be slower than the normal pattern giving people more time to judge the amount of vehicles and distance. The only agency i can think of that would keep the same pattern just synced between the vehicles would be CHP since there really the only one i can think of that uses a slow pattern. So its just and idea thought it would be cool and was curious what you guys think.

 

[Strobe Craft]

This idea has also been tossed around in my head as well. I also thought about a complete WIRELESS bar. No cables going through the car at all.

 

[EMT-BLS]

This idea has also been tossed around in my head as well. I also thought about a complete WIRELESS bar. No cables going through the car at all.

The idea of wireless lightbars/siren controllers has been discussed...it is the general consensus that it would not be a good idea. The off-chance that a accidental push of a fellow responder's remote may shut off your lights/siren while responding, or a criminal shutting off the lights/siren of a police officer, or even accidental interference from your neighbor's TV remote, is too great to risk using a remote controller.


As far as syncing nearby lightbars to the same pattern...I must admit, I don't see how that would help identify how many vehicles are present. But a follow up question, why does anyone care how many cars are there? Just more over one lane, and slow down. It's not like LEOs/FFs/EMTs deserve to get hit if they're on their own...

 

[mjMIff]

I think the manufactures could do it, but it might be easier if they manufactured a sync system that was based on the GPS time signals. So no matter where cars are in your fleet, their lights would always be the same. You wouldn't have control over it, or other bars, it would just happen..


Say you turn on your lights, the wireless sync picks up the GPS time and adjusts it's tempo to get on a 1 or 2 second pattern and keeps this pattern depending on what your fleet has chosen (based on the length of time for the pattern to run it's course). If there was no GPS signal, then just the default pattern with no adjustment to the time.


How cool would it be to see three cars funneling a freeway like that..

 

[C2Installs]

I'll be that guy...


So how much are you willing to pay for this feature?


It won't be free, and the market is almost certainly minuscule, so development costs will have to be a big chunk of the price.


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Beyond that, this is already possible to some extent. Whelen's CanTrol system is versatile enough to interpret an input signal and re-configure the lighting based on pre-determined parameters. So, the puzzle would be a car-to-car, short range proximity sensor system or network-based signal from GPS that sends an output signal to trigger CanTrol to respond. The problem would be timing the sync to be exact...

 

[RedBlue]

There's been times were I've seen several vehicles parked on the side of the road in code3 mode and the light bars patterns are so erratic its hard to tell how many vehicles there are if there moving and the distance. The idea that the patterns synced when there are more than one vehicle would be slower than the normal pattern giving people more time to judge the amount of vehicles and distance.

The argument could be made if you have two or more like emergency vehicles in phase with each other, it may look like one big vehicle from a distance regardless if they are flashing opposite or like colors. Having said that, there are lots of possibilities, but without field testing, who really knows how useful it would be. I wonder what would be the most effective at night/day and close/far. I suppose you could take a couple of parked vehicles and run a synch wire between the two and "play around".


I'm wishy washy over the possibility, it's worth a shot. Anyone want to run a sync wire between a couple or more cars and make a video of different vehicle positions/patterns?

 

[JohnMarcson]

I don't see the public responding to, or even being aware of, multiple vehicles having the same pattern. I don't see the cost benefit being feasible here...

 

[zsiya]

I don't see the public responding to, or even being aware of, multiple vehicles having the same pattern. I don't see the cost benefit being feasible here...

Not just the public, I know several officers that wouldn't know or care about the difference.

 

[Jeremy0966]

I don't see the public responding to, or even being aware of, multiple vehicles having the same pattern. I don't see the cost benefit being feasible here...

True, the general public isn't very observant of the actual flash patterns used or even caring for that matter. But the same argument could be said of traffic advisers, aside for the DOT approved ones. TA's are normally just seen as more warning lights and the patterns merely just for warning and not for the actual desired direction for traffic to merge. I was just thinking like CA having the steady burn feature that a slower patter synced between vehicles would give drivers a better focal point and easier time to react and assess the situation. And i think given technology these days a wireless sync system wouldn't be a very large investment. Almost everything these days are wireless. The thing that would take time is to develop a system so it doesn't have any RFI issues or interference between other equipment. Since that's not really my area of knowledge i couldn't say how difficult that would be or how much of and investment it would be to make a secure signal. But again its just and idea and whether or not it has any practical applications is up in the air.

 

[ssilk_05641]

Nova already sells a wireless controlled warning/traffic stick.


I think it a good idea to do testing with but I have to agree that price may be a problem

 

[JohnMarcson]

True, the general public isn't very observant of the actual flash patterns used or even caring for that matter. But the same argument could be said of traffic advisers, aside for the DOT approved ones. TA's are normally just seen as more warning lights and the patterns merely just for warning and not for the actual desired direction for traffic to merge. I was just thinking like CA having the steady burn feature that a slower patter synced between vehicles would give drivers a better focal point and easier time to react and assess the situation. And i think given technology these days a wireless sync system wouldn't be a very large investment. Almost everything these days are wireless. The thing that would take time is to develop a system so it doesn't have any RFI issues or interference between other equipment. Since that's not really my area of knowledge i couldn't say how difficult that would be or how much of and investment it would be to make a secure signal. But again its just and idea and whether or not it has any practical applications is up in the air.

neat idea..... but cost vs. benefit is way outside of usable in my opinion.

 

[RedBlue]

So I've had this on my mind for awhile and thought it could be a cool idea in the future. If it holds and practical applications is yet to be determined. This idea is more orientated towards the law enforcement agencies and highway patrol more than anything. The idea being that when two or more vehicles are in close proximity to each other the light bars will sync wirelessly to a pattern ideal for that particular agency. For instant say CHP is in full code3 mode, light bars to the rear are doing the center out red/blue alternating with amber. The light bars would sync, the first cars amber flashing with the second cars red/blue and alternating in that pattern synced together. I think this would be significantly easier for people to determine distance and the amount of emergency vehicles on scene. There's been times were I've seen several vehicles parked on the side of the road in code3 mode and the light bars patterns are so erratic its hard to tell how many vehicles there are if there moving and the distance. The idea that the patterns synced when there are more than one vehicle would be slower than the normal pattern giving people more time to judge the amount of vehicles and distance. The only agency i can think of that would keep the same pattern just synced between the vehicles would be CHP since there really the only one i can think of that uses a slow pattern. So its just and idea thought it would be cool and was curious what you guys think.

You were ahead of your time with this post! Now look at all the manufactures running with your idea, looking at you SoundOff and Whelen.

 

[EMT-BLS]

It is pretty wild that Jeremy0966 predicted this one...but unfortunately, I stand by my first reaction, that it doesn't matter how well synced our vehicles are or how sexy the build looks on Instagram. People just don't give a crap.