Traffic signal inductance loops (or, red lights that won't turn green for you)

[codger78]

No....but it's kinda drag on my magnetic personality.

[art]

   So it wasn't my imagination  It did not work on all but seemed to work on most.

[codger78]

Three things I learned today.
  The scooter doesn't like starting up at 50 *F...she was slow turning over...and then she was slow warming up (kept saying ..no not yet, not yet.)....took a good ten minutes to make it up the hill.
OK....now re-elevate your mind.
The second thing is that (and I am ashamed to say) not all induction looped intersections respond to magnets (as has been generously noted by others  to date)...and I have a spread of four 30 pound pull neodynimum (say that ten times fast) magnets...two fore, and two aft, all within eight or nine inches from the pavement surface and strongly affecting a hiking compass needle beneath them.

The tally now is that they turned two lights green, but not two others.  Go figure......Maybe not enough Zen, or poor adjustment, or..or

Um..I forgot what the third thing was that I learned......but what the hay..I just turned 80...and I'm still kicking around.

[art]

  Ha! thats funny. I'm pretty sure they do something.  Maybe the ones that don't trigger were put in upside down and you approach them backwords 

[wordslinger]

but what the hay..I just turned 80


...wow....can we call you paw-paw??

 

..i stand in admiration of you codger...

 

..scoot on old boy!!!....

[codger78]

OK...We need somebody here with an electronics degree.
All arguments heard  re metal vs. magnets, we have not considered spaced magnets along the rims of the wheels.
Could such, in the ( rolling) approach to the intersection along the path of the induction coil create an electrical currant in the coil by means of magnetic fluctuation (such as happens in an electric motor or dynamo, or electric generator), thereby causing enough disturbance in the electrical field of the induction coil to trigger the stop light sequence??

[wordslinger]

..i reckon i just thought the triggers were pressure sensitive..

..probably a low voltage, maybe 24vdc micro-switch setup...i dunno...

[codger78]

Thanks for your input Wordslinger......One thing that I didn't think about, is if I started putting magnets on the wheel rims, that might unbalance them and cause them to vibrate...(or not maybe at 30-40 mph ??).

[wordslinger]

...no, don't put anything on your wheels...

..likely to shake you and your scoot apart!!!

 

..lol..

[codger78]

It is known that Maxwell’s electrodynamics—as usually understood at the present time—when applied to moving bodies, leads to asymmetries which do not appear to be inherent in the phenomena. Take, for example, the reciprocal electrodynamic action of a magnet and a conductor. The observable phenomenon here depends only on the relative motion of the conductor and the magnet, whereas the customary view draws a sharp distinction between the two cases in which either the one or the other of these bodies is in motion. For if the magnet is in motion and the conductor at rest, there arises in the neighbourhood of the magnet an electric field with a certain definite energy, producing a current at the places where parts of the conductor are situated. But if the magnet is stationary and the conductor in motion, no electric field arises in the neighbourhood of the magnet. In the conductor, however, we find an electromotive force, to which in itself there is no corresponding energy, but which gives rise—assuming equality of relative motion in the two cases discussed—to electric currents of the same path and intensity as those produced by the electric forces in the former case.

– Albert Einstein, On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies

Unt yah...I knew dat!!

[Rianna]

codger, you GOT me!!! I was reading that whole thing and thinking, "Wow, this fella's smart, how does he know all this?!!!" Then I saw the Albert Einstein line.

[wordslinger]

It is known that Maxwell’s electrodynamics—as usually understood at the present time—when applied to moving bodies, leads to asymmetries which do not appear to be inherent in the phenomena


..wtf........

[wordslinger]

...dang...i just read the rest of it....


...where th' hell is lankee.....lol...


 

[codger78]

Yeah well,....Magnets do work/ magnets don't work...there is no argument here...they are both right.......(HOWS THAT AGAIN?)

It's like this,  as long as the magnets are moving in the area of the intersection where the induction loop is affected, it works because an electrical current is being created to trigger the sensor.
But the moment that the scooter with the magnets comes to a stop at the intersection, they can no longer cause the traffic lights to change.
So, You have got to make it happen while the scooter is STILL MOVING over top of the loop.
I think that the trick is to approach the intersection along the right line at the right speed.
I guess it just takes experience.
(Where is Albert when you need him?)

[wordslinger]

at the right speed

..that's what i do...

..sometimes i need to kick it to make the trigger..

..sometimes i just need to chill and let it all happen...

..works most of the time!!!