Flashing indicator light operation

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skeshesh

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Los Angeles, Ca
Good day everyone.

In certain areas of a facility, the client has a dumbwaiter that will carry equipment between a few stories. They want some sort of indicating light to notify people around the dumbwaiter that its coming to their floor. In our meeting they asked for flashing/blinking lights to accomplish this.

I can't find a decent explanation on the operation of these kind of lights. From what I know I'm guessing that there's some sort of special ballast in case of incand./Fl. lamps and a special driver for LED lighting. What if we want to use High Pressure Sodium or MH lamps? If anyone has a good source for diagrams and an explanation of operation it would be much appreciated.
 
I'd only flash an incandescent, or a strobe would be a good attention-getter. You could rig a magnet on the car that operates a magnetic switch at each level.

Otherwise, you'd need a complex signaling circuit, with multiple button at each floor.
 
how large and bright of a blinking light do you need? I doubt you can flash a HPS or MH lamp on and off. There are small flasher modules for incandescent lamps. There are also blinking LEDs.
 
Yea i figured a high-intensity discharge type wont work, just asking. I've dealt with a bunch of strobes for fire alarm systems as well as generic flashing or rotating beacons for industrial settings before. The thing is the client is in a light commercial setting and the architect insists on specifying something low-profile and most of the beacon style indicators that I know are pretty hefty. Any suggestion would be much appreciated.
 
skeshesh said:
Yea i figured a high-intensity discharge type wont work, just asking. I've dealt with a bunch of strobes for fire alarm systems as well as generic flashing or rotating beacons for industrial settings before. The thing is the client is in a light commercial setting and the architect insists on specifying something low-profile and most of the beacon style indicators that I know are pretty hefty. Any suggestion would be much appreciated.
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you could use any medium base incandescent light fixture with a Cooper BP1008 / 12030 in it to make the bulb flash.
 
I'm picturing the typical horn/strobe we install in commercial kitchen fire-suppression systems. You can disable the horn if you want it silent.
 
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skeshesh:

They want some sort of indicating light to notify people around the dumbwaiter that its coming to their floor.
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Do you actually want to know that it is on its way to a particular floor, or only that it is at the floor where the flashing light is located. Big difference in the required logic.

Radio Shack has a device called "Fone Flasher 2". This has both a ringer and a flasher. Either or both are selectable. AC powered and phone line ring signal to trigger.

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There are many products available to do what you want. I would recommend something like an Allen Bradley stacklight or a single light from Federal Signal that has the flashing built in. If you go with LED, you won't have to change the bulb for a very long time making your customer happy. They're not cheap but not expensive either. Use some type of mag switch on the dumbwaiter or tap into the dumbwaiter controls for the signal. They require 120VAC (or 24VAC) to operate and a dry contact. Easy to install and low maintenance.
 
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