Police Car Lightbars

[High Low Boy 2]

Here in the Brookings area the police unites have just replace 2/1/2 year old rotory lights bars on there units due to one reason
the old ones kept draining the batterys so decided to go with the leds, People around here HATE HATE HAATE em cause they keep on getting tickets . two new fire trucks have all leds there red white & blue I think fire trucks should just have RED /White only, ambulances red, & police RED/white/blue

but dats my opionion (I know I cant spell didly)

[AllSafe]

XF2300: http://www.code3pse.com/productdtl.asp? ... d=1&id=279
(My opinion: no, this is too heavy-duty looking for a police application. But it is good for other applications...)

Code 3 has always overbuilt their stuff. It's all Military spec.

[loudmouth]

haverhill has got some new light bars on some of the cruisers there in the delta shape and are not realy pointy there realy round and very slim and all LED kinda neet looking wene you get a birds eye view from a big trucki donno who makes them but there sharp and some of the newest cars have all LEDs with a light strip in the back with amber and red on one side and blue on the ther along the back window with two lower mounted blue LEDs the front has to very big LEDs sticking about an inch out of the grill and then one in each side view mirror kinda cool at night and very bright indeed.

[Jim_Ferer]

There's a Vector LED model now; the NYPD, which had been into Vectors for some time, has started using them. But have you noticed that everybody just accepts that LEDs are the future of emergency vehicle lighting? I also notice that white on vehicle lightbars is much less popular now. I believe the reason is that the color of LED lights is so intense and rich that white has less impact.

[AllSafe]

I would like to see a lightbar with Luxeon LED-backed rotators- two 350rpm and two 700rpm like some of the Federal incadescent lightbars.

There is also a very peculiar warning light that is a horizontal light projector (not a lightbar) and it's designed to be mounted in the interior of a vehicle and it projects red and blue light off of an oscillating mirror. They actually used them in some places in undercover patrol vehicles and it was featured on a TV show.

[TBOLT233]

There was a brief glimpse of a Code 3 beacon light in the movie Revenge of the Pink Panther. When it shows the cop car up close, and the chase is culminating, look closely. You will see Code 3 printed on the beacon light.

[KnightFox]

There's a Vector LED model now; the NYPD, which had been into Vectors for some time, has started using them. But have you noticed that everybody just accepts that LEDs are the future of emergency vehicle lighting? I also notice that white on vehicle lightbars is much less popular now. I believe the reason is that the color of LED lights is so intense and rich that white has less impact.

That's mostly because now cars have those absolute white halogens, you really can't tell a difference. Plus, red and blue get more attention quicker because the bright LED reds and blues stick out much better

[ScrillaMeister!]

When I was in Mexico, I saw a Federal Police car with green, white and red lights on its lightbar! It's kind of a coinky dink, because the lights match Mexico's flag: green, white and red!

[Robert Gift]

The problem with too many lightbar designs is that most light is heading forward and not enough 90 degrees right and left.
Wig-wag headlights are more effective than many lightbars and help move
traffic straight ahead.
But they are of no value in signalling cross-traffic.

One ambulance had three beacons in a row.
But from right or left crosstraffic would see only one; the others were blocked from view behind it.

The Vector was expensive overkill.
You could have removed every other pod light and still had same effect.
From the left you could see the R. side pod light in the gap of a left side removed pod light and vice versa.

Try this:
Place 4 beacons (or pods) so that the most can be seen from all angles.

[KnightFox]

That's because most of the traffic that the police car has to move out of the way is in front of the vehicle.

When the police car approaches the intesection, the cross traffic are already going to be facing the vehicle where as the traffic in front are facing away from it, thus that's why you need more in the front than any other direction.

The only real downfall to the Vector was that each pod contained its own internal workings as opposed to a lightbar that had all the lights contained into one package. Other than that the Vector probably was the best when it came to getting the notice out in all directions