Hello, and welcome to Technology Connections
2! This is the very first video for this channel
where we are gonna be taking apart one of these. This is a 12 inch traffic light module. Normally these are sitting up high in the
air and telling you whether to stop or to go. Now, these newer styles--I've always been
a little bit curious about what the optics are inside, how exactly the LED emitters are
arranged and, you know, what's inside of these. So today I'm gonna take one apart. Now, this one I featured in my video on Technology
Connections which is probably how you got here. If you didn't get here from seeing that you
might want to check out this card, or there will be a link on the end screen. But in addition to this red one, I also have
a yellow one. You'll notice that their wires are color-coded
-- Very handy! And what's more, I also have a green one. Now, this green one is a little bit different
from the other two because the green one-- its lens is clear. So I did buy a set of three but this one probably
does not match with the others. So I'm gonna take this one apart. There doesn't appear to be a way to take these
apart without destroying them because they are sealed. So, uh, let's just take a look. One thing before I take it apart. Let me turn it back on. This is what I've been using to power it for
the video by the way, this is a, uh...power pack but it has a 110V outlet. These do run on 120V AC because that's what
would be commonly used in America during these installations. Now, one of the things about these particular
stoplights is you'll see they have a very, pretty tight focus. So I'm shining this at you. And of course the reason why they have that
tight focus is because they might as well be pointed in the eyes of drivers so that
way they can see them better. So they're focused pretty narrowly that way
you can see them. So what exactly is on the inside of these
to make that tight beam? That's what I want to find out today. So, let's take a look! Alright, to make this just a little bit easier
on myself, you are on a tripod on top of the table. Hello! And you're gonna just watch me do stuff. Because that's fun. So these traffic lights have a rubber gasket
around them that we're gonna remove. And as I was saying in my last video, these
are designed to be sealed so if you take a look around the edges, there's really no way
to get into these. On the back, there was a single screw right
here, but that screw just covered the wire terminal connections. And really there appears to be no way to get
inside this without being destructive. You can sort of see around the edges here
that you can see the clear plastic of the lens, in fact--I'll bring the red one over. Maybe you can see on video but that is red
plastic you're seeing behind here. So I think the easiest way to get inside of
this is to just use a cutting wheel and, uh, cut it open. I might try just prying it open real quick
with a screwdriver, see if that's productive at all. And after that I have, uh, a Harbor Freight
Dremel tool. That oughta get us in. So let me grab that screw driver. (sped up) I think we're gonna make it without the Dremel tool! (sped up) Ahh! We have layers! OK. So apparently this clear plastic thing--this
is probably the only part that's colored on the red and yellow ones. So I would imagine that, uh, down below this
is the same. And then we have this sort of prismatic lens. This is what gives it the look of the incandescent
light. And then there's a Fresnel lens beneath it. That's a lot less interesting than I thought
it might be! (laughter) So let's take a look. Right (said with a bad Scottish accent). I'm just kidding, I'm not Big Clive. I do not have his expertise here. But, let's go ahead and turn this back on. This by the way is how I've been driving these,
this is a little power pack with a 110V plug on there. Really cool. Let's see how painful this is. Now, when these are running off of true line
voltage they don't buzz at all, it's just on the inverter that's it's kind of buzzing
here. But yeah it's just, let's see, four-- eight
individual chips, probably eight 1-watt LEDs down here. Let's blind you. Oh it's not too bad actually. So the Fresnel lens, here... Oh wow! That's really... So this is basically magnifying them. I'll show--I'll point you up at the wall so
you can see how it's pointing at the ceiling right now. And then this distributes that so it's a little
less crazy. Here's the weather seal. So this keeps moisture out. In fact, you can see... let me turn this back
off. The interior of this is remarkably clean. And I'm sure these were in service, I doubt
these are new. Their exteriors are a little dirty, especially
in here, but inside it's almost immaculate. (sped up) Let's go further! (sped up) Oh! OK So this is the board that the actual LEDs are on and I noticed this is aluminum. Here, so this is its heat sink. It's a bit surprising there's no thermal compound
between the two. But I suppose in, these aren't--especially
for green, they're never--well none of them really, they're never gonna be on for more
than two or three minutes at a time before they're off again, and even if there were
a flashing red that would only be a 50% duty cycle. (sped up) Well that's one way to do it. (sped up) So that's it! This is all that's inside there, it's just
a big plastic shell to direct the light from these eight LED chips, which the board says
Lumileds here. Or maybe it's "Lumi-LEDs" I'm not sure. But on the back, in addition to a whole bunch
of gibberish it says Luxeon so I'm sure these are Luxeon chips. And then this is basically just a 120V power
supply here 'cause this is an American stoplight so it's on 120V AC. This is a pretty robust power supply board. All the components on there--granted, I am
no expert but all the components on here seem generously sized, these resistors are quite
large and the capacitor--what's it's temperature rating? Ehh, I can't see it. Oh, I don't want to talk to Florida. (received a phone call while recording) Ooh! It says on here, "GELcore" Maybe Gel-core? Or General Electric Lighting core? I don't know. I don't know what that would be. Oh! There's a lot of chips down here. Integrated circuits. If Big Clive would like to have a look at
one of these and tell me more what this is, feel free! But yeah I mean, this board here is clearly
just the LEDs themselves. I would be curious to know if this is simply,
like if Lumileds makes these knowingly that they're for a stoplight or if this is just
some sort of general purpose illumination board that they have. I should see, is there are year on these? Not that I can see. Well anyway, that's... I guess that's about it! So I'll close this video out. I will add one thing little thing, the power
rating on the fixtures themselves; these days it's much closer but even now, they yellow
lights use the most power. And on the particular three that I have, red
was rated like 11 watts, green was 13, and yellow was 19. So it's kind of interesting cause the yellow...the
particular wavelength of yellow in stop lights is apparently not that efficient, cause it
needs a lot more power to produce the same brightness. But with it being a yellow light it's only
on at most six seconds at a time so I guess it doesn't really matter. I may have wrecked a stoplight but I've got
this neat Fresnel lens out of it--look at that! Can you see?... Oh yeah, yeah. So neat-o! Nifty, nifty, nifty. So thanks so much for watching, please subscribe
to Technology Connections 2, head on over to the original video if you got here without
seeing it, and I'll see you next time!
