Comments by "" (@Green__one) on "Why it's not possible to synchronize turn signals (but also absolutely is)" video.

Mercedes did that for a while too, in fact when my 1983 mercedes' relay died, I had trouble describing it to the parts guy at mercedes, and he thought I wanted a new sound generator. In my car it was a relay, so it made a ticking sound, and no separate sound generator existed, but he couldn't grasp the older technology and insisted that cars had a micro-controller for the flashing, and a sound generator for the noise. These days it's all done through the stereo. If I reboot my infotainment system while the turn signal is flashing, the sound stops until the infotainment system has finished booting up again.
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Mostly the sync on emergency lighting is to sync with other bulbs in the same vehicle. It used to be that emergency lights all were flashed by a central control module, but now they're mostly all flashed directly at the bulb, so need a sync wire to other bulbs if you want any form of coherent or coordinated pattern. That's also why you see some vehicles where they aren't at all synced (usually maintenance vehicles with amber lights, as those tend to be the ones cutting corners on installation, organizations with emergency vehicles tend to be willing to spend more money to install properly). What's more interesting is the ones that design flash patterns that ensure that there's never a time when no bulb is lit. This is because cameras are really good at capturing emergency vehicles looking like no lights are on, even when responding hot. (people love posting pictures of cop cars running red lights for instance) and although our eyes see lots of light, camera shutters are so fast they often land in the gaps.
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Traffic lights are bought by government agencies. Government agencies are not cost conscious. Manufacturers put in more expensive components.
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See his video about "but sometimes". And just brush your car off!!!!!
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Automotive manufacturers in north america also made sure that parking lights are unusable, they turn on all 4 lights, and often the dash lights too, to drain as much of your battery as quickly as possible. contrast to european "standing lights" which are only on one side of the car, and no other lights, to allow you some hope of starting the car again if you left them on for a couple of hours. Parking lights are another one of those things that sounded like a good idea to people writing the laws, but has been implemented in a way so as to actually be dangerous (thinking your headlights are on when it's just your parking lights) while not being at all useful for the purpose they were designed for (making your car visible when parked on the side of the road)
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Having owned and driven a couple of japanese vehicles in my past, the direction of the turn signals was never an issue, hitting the wiper stalk or the shift lever instead of the turn signals because I used the wrong hand... that happened.
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Unlikely, the bimetallic strips aren't durable enough. You'd likely see the capacitor and relay version on older ones, and a circuit board in newer ones. Keep in mind that people designing traffic signals are designing for government buyers, as such, there is no attempt at cutting costs.
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@jennawoodbury5999 The package will be identical for the reasons you mention, but the internals of th component may not be. That said, either way it won't likely be bimetallic because they just don't last long enough, and because of the delayed start he shows here. Those were always a compromise for cost vs the other design.
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That Ford signal stalk is the bane of my existence! I hate it with a passion! I can't tell if I'm using the momentary flash, or the fully engaged signal. Do like every other car and click into place when engaged so I know! Did nobody at Ford ever try driving their own vehicles? or look at human interface design factors? That thing's a disaster! As for silent, something in that truck was broken, because it needs to make noise by law.
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headlights are supposed to be on separate fuses? my previous car certainly didn't know that! the wire went from the fusebox to the headlight switch, then to the left headlight, and across the front of the car to the right headlight. no separate fuse or wiring!
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super fast is either a burnt out bulb, or someone swapped to LED without swapping the module or adding resistors. And as shown in this video, no modern car uses analog circuits anymore.
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Some use sound generators separate from the stereo, especially if they think people may use an aftermarket stereo in their vehicles.
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@Carterthielftw_ Watched the ad. the first half about DVI makes a lot of sense, and I wish was implemented more. Most controllers have a low intensity mode, but almost none are connected to be automatic, and no emergency responder is going to manually set it. As for V2V sync, while I can see a (very small) use for it, I can in no way justify the required complexity/cost to do it. That said, they're marketing to government agencies, who generally are not at all cost conscious, so we'll probably see it sometime soon.
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Likely the 2 vehicles were from the same manufacturer (or at least the chassis of the ambulance, the conversion could be different). Interesting fact, on many ambulances, the conversion signal lights flash independently from the chassis signal lights. I know in our ambulances there's a completely separate flasher module for all the signals on the box of the truck vs the ones from the factory at the front of the truck. I have however worked in other ambulances where that was not the case.
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If there's only 2 wires, then likely the bulbs have resistors in parallel to work properly (sometimes built into the LED bulb, sometimes an external component)
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You need a tech and an OBD scan tool to change to winter tires? What's wrong with your manufacturer??? I just put my other set of wheels on in the garage at home, and the car automatically detects the new sensors and pairs them!
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The wipers thing is common, My bigger issue was jumping in my Ford work truck after a JDM car and putting the Ford in Neutral while trying to signal at a traffic light! I'd like to say that was a one time only thing, but I'd be lying...
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This is what frustrates me so much about north american lights, the original thing was so manufacturers could save a few pennies on an extra wire, bulb, lens, and reflector (Not a good reason in the first place, but at least it was A reason!), but then you see cars like you describe above where they aren't even doing that, so don't have any excuse at all to make their signals dangerous! Worse yet, many of these vehicles are actually sold in overseas markets with different lenses to comply with those laws, but the manufacturer actually makes life harder for themselves by having different parts for the 2 markets, just to intentionally make their north american vehicles more dangerous!
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I'm not 100% sure what he's referring to, but for me it's the implementation. For example, on many vehicles if you at all bump the turn signal stalk, it will flash the light 3 (or up to 5) times, with no way of cancelling it. So if it was an accidental activation (90% of the time) then you look like an idiot to those around you for longer. Worse yet, you instinctively try to cancel it by pushing the stalk the other direction, causing ANOTHER 3-5 flashes of the other side making you look like even more of an idiot to those around you! I have however seen it done right, where pushing the stalk the other way cancels the signal, and I don't mind that so much (I still don't find the 3 flash thing useful for anything, but at least if I can cancel it I don't find it overly obnoxious!) And don't get me started on Ford's signal stalks that don't click into the up or down position at all...
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Sometimes Ok, many of those are also aftermarket and not made to any of the legal standards. Just see if it has all the same certification marks stamped on the lenses, often they don't.
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The issue is that LEDs can't replicate that emission pattern. Filaments emit light in every direction at once, LEDs simply don't. So to mimic it you need multiple LEDs and/or phosphorous coatings and such. In both cases you've moved the light source from a single point source, to a larger more diffuse area. In lighting design that's not necessarily a bad thing, but when working with an already designed system, it just doesn't really work.
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@anthonylosego The new method is still not a point source of light, it causes it to be a larger area, so much of the emissions aren't coming from the focal point of the lenses and reflectors. Again, not a bad thing when designing lighting, but doesn't work right in retrofit applications.
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I used to have an early 1980s mercedes. The turn signal relay quit working, so I went to the local Mercedes parts counter to get a replacement. I said I needed a turn signal relay and he looked at me as if I had horns. So I said "the thing under the dash that goes 'tick-tick-tick' when you put your signal light on!" he answerd, "oh, the sound generator!" ... No!!!!! because the modern cars used a silent micro-controller, and a seperate tick making device, he couldn't grasp that the part I needed did both as the car pre-dated the change to micro-controllers for this function. I did eventually manage to communicate with him, but it was a painful experience.
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