Photo of Andy Arthur

Andy Arthur

October and already the leaves are fading away in the Adirondacks. πŸ‚ Most shocking to me is that we are less then a month away from November, which in many ways should be a sigh of relief with the craziness of work and with the deep blue skies and crisp days of that month.

Teardown of an LED Traffic Light Module

Ever wonder how the modern LED Traffic Light module works? Well now you know. It's a pretty conventional beefy switch-mode power supply, combined with eight colored LEDs.

The traditional traffic light bulb that sits behind often rather dirty colored glass is 116 watts, while a modern one with a power supply uses 11 watts for the red light, 13 watts for the green light and 22 watts for the yellow light. It's a pretty big savings in electricity, and replacement (the old traffic bulbs had a lifespan a fraction of the modern bulb).