Ronnie Sullivan
Member
It has long been my belief that warning or fault lamps flashing at 1 second on/off intervals are generally ignored - or at least don't cause immediate response.
But, seeing as most PLC's have a 1 second on/off special bit it's just too easy to use that as a method of pulsing a warning lamp.
And if it's a relay output, going any faster than that would quickly wear it out anyway.
But there are times where we want immediate action, a sort of - 'come quickly, something is very wrong' warning lamp.
I saw one the other day on a machine and was impressed. It did say to me 'come now or I will explode' And, the operatives rushed to rectify the fault.
I wasn't working on this machine but I did go over to have a look and the fault was an over-temperature sealing bar (that was by now smoking even though it had been turned off)
The warning lamp(s) were 1 red and 1 blue and they were (i'm guessing here) the ultra bright LED type. And they were very bright, you could see them from anywhere in the factory.
They flashed much like the lights on top of a police car.
I didn't get a chance to look at the program but from what I saw (again think of a police car) it was something like 4 very fast flashes from the red then the same from the blue.
It got me thinking that at some time, some clever 'bod' worked out that these colours flashing at these speeds on top of an emergency vehicle got other motorists attention.
So....... my question is (as I would like to incorporate this is some future project) 1, where can I get these Ultra bright LED type lamps? And what are the timings for the flashing?
But, seeing as most PLC's have a 1 second on/off special bit it's just too easy to use that as a method of pulsing a warning lamp.
And if it's a relay output, going any faster than that would quickly wear it out anyway.
But there are times where we want immediate action, a sort of - 'come quickly, something is very wrong' warning lamp.
I saw one the other day on a machine and was impressed. It did say to me 'come now or I will explode' And, the operatives rushed to rectify the fault.
I wasn't working on this machine but I did go over to have a look and the fault was an over-temperature sealing bar (that was by now smoking even though it had been turned off)
The warning lamp(s) were 1 red and 1 blue and they were (i'm guessing here) the ultra bright LED type. And they were very bright, you could see them from anywhere in the factory.
They flashed much like the lights on top of a police car.
I didn't get a chance to look at the program but from what I saw (again think of a police car) it was something like 4 very fast flashes from the red then the same from the blue.
It got me thinking that at some time, some clever 'bod' worked out that these colours flashing at these speeds on top of an emergency vehicle got other motorists attention.
So....... my question is (as I would like to incorporate this is some future project) 1, where can I get these Ultra bright LED type lamps? And what are the timings for the flashing?