What's this? Mystery thing on my bike..

[Guest Britcheflee]

Any idea what this is? (see pic) it is attached by a plastic tie and slides up and down the bar it is attached to - no wires going to it and no markings on it? What is it?

 

 

Lee

[helicopterjim R.I.P.]

I have no idea! I looked at my bike and I definitely do not have one. Have any Iraqi's had access to your bike lately?

[Martin Barrett]

Is it a transponder thingy for either toll roads/bridges/tunnels; auto garage opening or a tracking device installed covertly by the "fun" Police

[pete roper]

It's a dope box for carrying your eckies in you dill! Good Lord! Martin calls himself a copper, no wonder Herts is awash with designer drugs, speedfreaks and Chavs if the wallopers are fooled by such a simple device

 

Pete

[helicopterjim R.I.P.]

It's a dope box for carrying your eckies in you dill! Good Lord! Martin calls himself a copper, no wonder Herts is awash with designer drugs, speedfreaks and Chavs if the wallopers are fooled by such a simple device      

 

Pete

62451[/snapback]

 

Bloody hell! I live in Chilliwack, the (bona fide) ecstasy manufacturing capitol of the world and I did not even know what that device was for!!!!! I think I should be looking at all the bikes I own!!!! Oh my god! I could be an unwilling carrier! Oh the horror!

Peter! What have you uncovered?

 

P.S. Thank f@#&$^g christ Martin is a pommy copper!!! I could be doing 20 years on one of those treadmills!!

[v50man]

I believe it's one of those devices designed to trigger traffic lights. Forget the name, but it allows the vehicle to be detected by radar(?) which tells the traffic light there's a car in position.

 

They work -- keep it on.

 

v50

 

Since the introduction of electromagnets as traffic signal controllers in the 1960's (called inductive loops), the vast majority of US traffic signals have implemented the technology. Hence, motorcyclists, bicyclists, and small car owners have had ever-growing difficulty getting signals to change for them. It's because these electromagnets (which usually appear as large black rectangles cut into the lanes at intersections) ONLY recognize iron (not aluminum, titanium, rubber, weight, or plastic) - smaller vehicles, and many newer vehicles, just don't have much iron in them… So, traffic lights don't know a vehicle is waiting - and they don't change - EVER! Many people call these "stuck" traffic lights, but they're not stuck, they just don't detect a vehicle. Attach a Signal Sorcerer™ to the underside of any vehicle and those loops will detect you, and give you the green light. Equip your ride with a Signal Sorcerer™ TODAY!

 

• D.O.T. & EPA Compliant

• No Wiring

• No Tools

• 3 minutes to Install

• Lifetime Power Supply

• Bright Nickel Finish

• 3/32" tall x 5/32" wide x 2" long

• Weighs less than ½ oz.

• #1 Gift for Motorcyclists

• SAVES Time & Fuel

• Keeps Cyclists SAFEl

• LEGAL EVERYWHERE — GUARANTEED

• Works on ALL Vehicles, even Bicycles

 

HOW and WHY It Works

 

The overwhelming majority of the controlled traffic signals in the United States are regulated by electromagnets. Electromagnets that are used to sense iron, instead of lift it, are called inductive loops. These loops most often appear at controlled intersections as large black rectangles in the road. Inductive loops detect iron (ferrite [Fe]) not aluminum, rubber, plastic, weight, titanium, etc. Motorcycles, particularly the newer models, rarely have enough iron to cause the inductive loop to detect their presence at the intersection – ergo, the light does not change. Signal Sorcerer™ generates a very powerful field that substantially increases the inductance in these loops, therefore causing the traffic signal to detect the vehicle it's attached to, and initiate a cycle change. Inductive loop technology has been employed in this capacity since the early 1960's.

 

Installation

 

NO WIRING NEEDED • NO TOOLS NEEDED • AVERAGE INSTALLATION TIME: 3-Min.

 

Installation of your new Signal Sorcerer™ is fast and easy. Signal Sorcerer™ works best when closest to the road's surface, with no metal between it and the road. Signal Sorcerer™ may be mounted anywhere under your motorcycle where it does not interfere with the safe operation of the vehicle. We suggest mounting it to the bottom forward or bottom rear frame area of the motorcycle. Do NOT attach Signal Sorcerer™ to a vehicle's wheels or brake disks.

 

Installation Overview

Signal Signal Sorcerer™ should be attached to the underside of your vehicle, as close to the road's surface as possible, and should not have anything between it and the road's surface. Signal Signal Sorcerer™ should not be mounted on exhaust pipes or anywhere that it could interfere with the safe operation of your vehicle, such as on wheels, drive belts, drive chains, or tires.

 

Installation

Cautions: Signal Sorcerer™ will attract iron, and be attracted to iron. To avoid possible injury, do not get fingers, skin or other body parts between Signal Sorcerer™ and iron. Do not install Signal Sorcerer™ in temperatures under 50° Fahrenheit. Do not try to bend Signal Sorcerer™.

 

Step 1 Do not remove the backing tape from the adhesive strip at this time. Locate a suitable mounting location underneath your vehicle by placing the unit in various locations, and visually checking for fit and appearance. (Leaving the unit in its plastic container may simplify this procedure.) The unit does not need to be mounted on steel. The unit will function properly when mounted to any type of surface: plastics, aluminum, etc. The critical factor is its distance from the road’s surface: it should be as close to the road as is safely possible. (See Mounting Suggestions for the best, most popular mounting locations on various vehicles.)

 

Step 2 Thoroughly clean the selected mounting location. If necessary, scrape away any accumulated road grime or debris with a screw driver blade or scraper. Open one of the provided alcohol pads and scrub the location. Allow thirty seconds for drying. Open the second provided alcohol pad and clean the area again – this ensures there is no oil or grease on the selected mounting location. Allow it to dry for another thirty seconds.

 

Step 3 Remove the unit from its plastic container. Carefully remove the plastic adhesive backing from the two-sided *permanent, acrylic foam tape.

 

Step 4 Press the adhesive tape side of the unit FIRMLY to the clean, selected location. Push the unit into the mounting location several times with good, firm pressure. Ensure the bond is complete.

 

* Signal Sorcerer™ is attached with permanent, industrial grade, acrylic-foam adhesive mounting tape. This adhesive will bond immediately, but will not fully cure for 24-48 hours – depending on temperature. It is therefore preferable to mount your new Signal Sorcerer™ when you know you will not be operating your vehicle for several hours. If you wish to install your unit and operate the vehicle immediately, it is suggested that you use masking tape, a twist tie, or a wire tie to temporarily assist the adhesive during curing. The assisting material may be removed after the curing period is completed.

[pete roper]

Only problem with that theory is that it's crap.

 

Sorry, the inductive coil type pick-up work by having an emf created in them by moving any metalic object through them. It doesn't have to be iron, any metal will do. They may well not detect some vehicles due to their moving too slowly or the field of the coil simply not having enough strength to be significantly altered by the smaller mass, but what that mass is, as long as it's electromagnetically conductive or inductive doesn't matter.

 

Will such a device work? Well it depends what it's made of. If it is something that creates its own disruptive magnetic field, yes. If it's just a plastic box with *Magic Stuff* in it? No. I rarely have trouble triggering lights but there aren't any in Bungendore and the roads in Canberra always have scads of toadies in cars to trigger 'em for me so I dunno for sure.

 

Pete

[belfastguzzi]

I rarely have trouble triggering lights

62463[/snapback]

that would be your metal helmet, then

[jrt]

Only problem with that theory is that it's crap.

62463[/snapback]

 

You'd need a hell of a magnetic field to trigger a traffic light-a permanant magnet is too small to fit and the charging system on the V11 won't support the requirements for an electromagnet.

Now, if you want something that absolutely works, build a high output IR flasher (~100 Hz). It's probably illegal, but it uses the detectors that emergency vehicles use to trigger lights. They use very little power since you can make them from a pad of LED's. If you want a circuit diagram, let me know.

[Mike Stewart]

Any idea what this is?  (see pic) it is attached by a plastic tie and slides up and down the bar it is attached to - no wires going to it and no markings on it?  What is it?   

Lee

62445[/snapback]

 

 

Lee,

 

Perhaps it is an extra set of keys? Break her open and find out before some else does.

 

Mike

[Guest Britcheflee]

Ha!!!

The keys theory sounds good - Ill check it this morning - the only reason I say this is because it is not very heavy and I would imagine that the 'signal sourcer' thing is probably one of those super powerful 'rare earth' magnets - thats why it warns about getting your finger between it and any metal - my father in law has one for picking up nails etc and the bloody thing is incredibly strong - we have one of those in the ground coils to open a large loading bay door - I might take a magnet one day and see if it works - I laid my keys right down on it one time and it did not open so obviously needs a large metal object to affect the field - I imagine it works like a motor where the metal passes through a simple coil to generate a small amount of electricty to trigger a switch?

 

Lee

[Guest Britcheflee]

Well, I took it off and it is indeed magnetized - but does not have a very strong magnet - was not doing any harm there so Ill put it back the key thing gave me an idea though as I think I might get something like that to put my spare key in - I am pretty sure it does not work as I was stuck at one of those 'sensing' traffic lights late one night after work - after the signals went through two cycles I had not option but to run a red or I would have been there all night!

 

 

Lee

[callison]

It's one of those magnets sold as a "Green Light". I doubt they actually work any better than a similarly sized chunk of iron.

 

I got curious about this and did a quick search on WebCrawler for "traffic detector loops specifications". That got me to the Diablo Controls (a typical company for this stuff in California) and the spec sheets for their units. There are a lot of settings that the units can be programmed with. I'll bet a beer that their selection of "normal" as shipped is what is typically being used virtually everywhere because the traffic engineers are just going to "Plug and Play" rather than setting up their systems to accomodate different types of vehicles.

 

Perhaps we should be engaing in a letter writing to the manufacturers of these things so they get shipped with appropriate settiings rather than letting lazy traffic engineers fail to do the right thing.

 

Going a bit further down the list of WebCrawler hits, I found this jewel of information:

 

A vehicle entering the detection zone above the loop will “absorb some of the radio frequency energy” present in the loop. The reason that this absorption occurs is due to eddy currents in the vehicle body and frame, and not the engine as is sometimes thought (ITE, 1985). Since the passing or standing vehicle absorbed energy, the loop inductance falls. The detector is set to recognize an absolute or relative inductance change (∆L or ∆L/L, respectively) of at least a minimum amount, termed the “sensitivity” of the detector.

 

Aha!!! We need to ABSORB the energy. A magnet won't do diddly squat for that - we could add layers of microwave absorbent "stealth" foam to bottom of our bikes or perhaps a Helmholtz resonator tuned to the rf frequency of the detector loop. Well, probably not. Not enough space down there for that - but - in the true tradition of radar speed detectors, there is not any reason why a detector for the vehicle use couldn't be built that determines the frequency of the traffic detector loop and then generates a matching frequency (and pulse if necessar) and transmits to the detector loop an out of phase signal to electronically "absorb" the signal. All we're tryiing to do here is convince the electronic hardware attached to the loop that the signal is indeed being "absorbed" by a vehicle and to operate as it should. Call it an electronic "footprint" enhancer.

 

Hey Cliff, I have a new "project" for ya!!!

[staedtler]

is one of those things to keep dogs away?

[Mike Stewart]

is one of those things to keep dogs away?

62483[/snapback]

 

No, no, no, it is a mystery box to keep the vapor lock away

 

Mike