Green Light Trigger

[zloveraz]

Anyone have any experience with one of these? I went for a nice 300 mile ride today and when I got back I had to wait forever to get back into my gated community, I didn't have my remote and the security guard is off on Sundays.

The concept seems to make sense but does it work?

http://www.ascycles.com/detail.aspx?ID=2577

Quote:
The Green Light TriggerTM attaches to the bottom of any bike and helps make the bike more "visible" to traffic signal detectors.

Bikes with Triggers get stuck at red lights far less often than those without.

Simple, safe and effective. Thousands in use all over the US and overseas. Unconditionally guaranteed. The most effective solution on the market. Works on motorcycles, scooters, mopeds, and bicycles.

Traffic signal sensors are essentially metal detectors buried in the road surface. These "inductive loop" sensors are easy to spot because they have a circular, square, or diamond-shaped saw cut in the pavement just before the intersection. There is a weak radio frequency field over the coil, and a large inductive mass disturbs that field. Loop detectors are meant to pick up the presence of large masses of metal - like cars and trucks - sitting still over the detector loop.
Most modern bikes don't have enough inductive material in their frames to trip the sensor, and what they have tends to be oriented vertically above the loop (making it harder to sense) so we get stuck.
The Green Light Trigger emits a wide and powerful magnetic field that when passed over a detector loop, disturbs the loop's field, simulating the arrival of a much larger vehicle. When the control computer sees that signal, it knows someone's there, and the biker gets a green light, just like everyone else.

 

[markbto]

Very interesting, I get stuck at the same light all the time, small town, almost no traffic. I am not sure that this would work on all traffic sensors, i have been under the impression that they were sensitive to weight, as apposed to coil, essentially a metal detector.

 

[NHGUY]

Wouldnt help on timed lights,which most around here are.Very few have sensors.

 

[eljefino]

Supposedly an old hard drive magnet does the same thing.

There was one loop that my Virago wouldn't trip, and the cops knew about it but never relayed it to the highway dept.

I never got the magnet, just ran the light.

 

[skyactiv]

I bought a similar bike trigger years ago for my Suzuki dual-sport motorcycle. It didn't work being attached to the frame. I imagine the frame being high didn't help. I reinstalled it on my kickstand and it worked. Had to kick the kickstand down which stalled the bike, waited for the opposing light to go yellow and than restarted my bike.
There is one light I have trouble with riding my Aprilia Shiver 750.
I get off the bike and press the crosswalk button.

 

[Quattro Pete]

Sounds interesting. I could certainly use one of these as I get stuck on red lights quite often. Let us know how it works.

EDIT: Just scanned through some reviews. Sounds like it's just a small magnet, too small to be effective in most cases. I think I'll pass.

 

[Chris142]

I just put my kickstand down. Seems to work

 

[sunruh]

WAY back when i was in college i had a klr250 and that would not trigger the lights on campus. one time i sat and sat and sat and finally DPS pulled up behind me and we sat a long time and finally over his loudspeaker he told me to go through the red light.

steve

 

[Ken2]

"Vehicle detection loops, called inductive-loop traffic detectors, can detect vehicles passing or arriving at a certain point, for instance approaching a traffic light or in motorway traffic. An insulated, electrically conducting loop is installed in the pavement. The electronics unit transmits energy into the wire loops at frequencies between 10 kHz to 200 kHz, depending on the model. The inductive-loop system behaves as a tuned electrical circuit in which the loop wire and lead-in cable are the inductive elements. When a vehicle passes over the loop or is stopped within the loop, the vehicle induces eddy currents in the wire loops, which decrease their inductance. The decreased inductance actuates the electronics unit output relay or solid-state optically isolated output, which sends a pulse to the traffic signal controller signifying the passage or presence of a vehicle.

"The relatively crude nature of the loop's structure means that only metal masses above a certain size are capable of triggering the relay. This is good in that the loop does not thus produce very many "false positive" triggers (say, for example, by a pedestrian crossing the loop with a pocket full of loose metal change) but it sometimes also means that bicycles, scooters, and motorcycles stopped at such intersections may never be detected by them (and therefore risk being ignored by the switch/signal). Most loops can be manually adjusted to consistently detect the presence of scooters and motorcycles at the least."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Induction_loop#Vehicle_detection

The inductive loop responds to the metal mass of the magnet, not to its magnetic field. Try strapping a hammer head under your engine--it should work as a test item. Or try any magnet you can find and let us know if the magnet works better than just a hunk of metal of the same mass.

The road or highway department responsible for that light can adjust the sensor so it correctly senses motorcycles and bicycles.

Try to line up on one of the cut lines in the pavement if visible. Try pulling as far forward as safe, then waving the car behind you to pull up close.

Some states permit moving through the red when safe if it has not responded within a certain time. Other states do not permit it at all.

 

[rrounds]

I have found that if I ride my bike just to the outside of the loop in the road I get all the lights to change. I do this with my bicycle too and it works but not at all the lights, I would say 70% to 80% of the lights work even with my bicycle.

ROD

 

[Quattro Pete]

Originally Posted By: Ken2
The inductive loop responds to the metal mass of the magnet, not to its magnetic field.

If the metal mass of bike's engine and frame don't trigger it, how is the mass of a small magnet going to make any difference?

 

[sunruh]

i was sitting over the middle one...for 5mins with no effect on my klr250

years later i had issues on my cbr600f2.

havent had that issue yet on my vfr800....key word -> yet

steve

 

[Reg# 43897]

Obviously not enough ferrous metals in my FJR... There are a few danged intersection 'round these parts that Will Not Activate for me... It's a pain.

John.

 

[Errtt]

I pull up to inductive loop edge to trigger a light. Dumping the kickstand gets more metal closer and can trigger a response if needed. Shutting off the engine and re-starting (I've heard) over the loop can sometimes trigger a response.
It's probably a a week field and I wonder what frequency they run. Generally lower freqs for higher conductive targets and higher freqs hit harder on non-ferrous better.
If running magnets, stronger and lower to the road is better. Some of those rare earth super magnets are fun.
All it takes is an interruption of the magnetic flux lines for the Rx to see and trigger a response.

Around here, I've heard for the bikes that can't trigger a light, it's generally accepted if you sat through a full red cycle or two, and it won't change, proceed when safe to do so. If pulled over and ticketed, court may throw it out more times than not. Splitting lanes is legal here too. That was started by CHPs back in the day due to the air cooled Harley's plus a margin of safety getting off in the clear ahead of traffic compared to mingled in traffic.

 

[Quattro Pete]

Originally Posted By: Errtt
I pull up to inductive loop edge to trigger a light.

Just curious, those that advocate pulling up to the edge of the loop, which part of the bike do you place there? Do you basically position the engine over the loop edge?

Quote:

It's probably a a week field and I wonder what frequency they run.

10 kHz to 200 kHz, according to the wiki link posted above.

 

[Errtt]

^ I pull right on top of one side (left/right), mostly left side as I'm either going through an intersection or making a left turn. (right doesn't matter light wise).
The one light I have to hit to get out of my neighborhood, my bike always triggers a response when on the left side of the loop so maybe it became habit.

^ 10 kHz to 200 kHz is quite a large spread difference. The 10kHz should have a better reach and more sensitivity to lower conduction targets. (going by rules/principles as I metal detect, almost 40 years now & have & had detectors with various frequencies).

Here's an idea... get one of those HF 750-lb lift magnets, pull up to a sensor and drop it to the loop. It has an eyebolt to tie on... that is if they still sell em.
Some of the super magnets (I used for gold prospecting), you don't want to get 2 of them stuck together. I special ordered some from a local dealer they came with a spacer between them. Stick one on top of forearm and one below... quite a pinch on the arm.

 

[AVB]

Originally Posted By: Chris142
I just put my kickstand down. Seems to work

That is what I do.

 

[Errtt]

This was discussed just today during lunch break and one fella says he wears big heavy steel toe boots that have all kinds of metal do-dads on the boots and when he pulls up to a light loop he stomps a boot down right over the inductive loop in a angry way and that makes the light change - lol

 

[JetStar]

Had good luck with hitting the starter a couple of times. Just make sure the design of your starter is such that it won't hurt it. Not recommended for a sliding drive gear type.

 

[getbent]

Originally Posted By: JetStar
Had good luck with hitting the starter a couple of times. Just make sure the design of your starter is such that it won't hurt it. Not recommended for a sliding drive gear type.


I do this too, while riding up to the stop line, I hit the starter a few times and after stopping at the line, give it a quick rev blip up to 6K or so.