Sign Lighting

[testraub]

Here is a pic of the sign I have made for my first year. The lighting seems poor. Any ideas? It is currently temporaryally lite with 6 C-7 bulbs. I was thinking of 9 bulbs from behind.

Tom Straub

571-238-8056


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[George Simmons]

What are the dimensions of the sign? How far away from the street will it be placed? Will it be dark where it is located or will there be ambient light from a street lamp or something? Have you placed it where it will go and then driven to/past it after dark to have a look see?

[Max-Paul]

I ended up using a string of 70ct pure white LED string. My sign is 2' X 3' and the inside is flat white painted, then the string is zig-zagged back and forth. Produced a fairly even lighting. Your sign looks larger, so you more than likely going to need more bulbs.

[kzaas]

How about three or four of the smaller fluorescent tube lights?

[Brad]

I ran white rope light in mine.

[Dan C]

I'm in the process of building a backlit sign like yours. Once I get the lights done, I'll post a pic. I will be using commercial grade rope light. 5/8" dia. 7 watts/ft. My sign is 20"x30" so I will probably use about 25' of rope light for a grand total of 175 watts of even light.

[Scott T]

I took a piece of scrap plywood from home depot (cost $1) drilled holes in the shape of 93.7 FM. Poke bright yellow minis in each hole. The 93.7 are about 16" tall and the FM is about 5" tall. That's all there is.

If people can't figure out that they should tune their radio to that channel, then I question the intelligence of the people sitting in front of my house. I hope the confused leave quickly.

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[Scott T]

You can see it on the left side at the base of the house. I do use one LOR channel so I can flash it between songs.

Try to give the confused a little help.

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[jeffandnicole]

Scott T wrote:

I took a piece of scrap plywood from home depot (cost $1) drilled holes in the shape of 93.7 FM. Poke bright yellow minis in each hole. The 93.7 are about 16" tall and the FM is about 5" tall. That's all there is.

If people can't figure out that they should tune their radio to that channel, then I question the intelligence of the people sitting in front of my house. I hope the confused leave quickly.

People tend to be rather confused, and they will sit there trying to figure out why the lights are blinking. No amount of signage or lighting will help that.

It's also partially why there can seemingly be an over-abundence of signage on the roadways sometimes...signs will be missed. I ride in a carpool, and one particular driver ALWAYS misses the variable message signs above the roadway, then complains that there was no notice about the traffic jam that are now sitting in.

[Scott T]

jeffandnicole wrote:

I ride in a carpool, and one particular driver ALWAYS misses the variable message signs above the roadway, then complains that there was no notice about the traffic jam that are now sitting in.

I'd find another carpool group or asked the confused to leave. - - LOL

[Steven]

I started with a sheet of black corrugated plastic and this:


I used white plastic spray paint, then drilled holes for those tiny "rice" lights:


It may look ugly on the back, but the front doesn't look bad:


I light it with an LED spotlight, but I turn that off during dim portions of the show. Then it looks like this:

[Robert G.]

Like most people say and do, the 'piece of wood with holes in it' is one of the better ways to go. It can get tricky with aligning and such so the alternative way is stencils or painted on with a spot light on it, (That's what I used). Some online stores do sell pre made ones and they are decent. But remember, it's just a sign used to direct people. It doesn't need to be too perfect.

[Greg]

I figured I throw mine out there also. It is not the greatest quality picture

the bottom line is a scrolling LED sign which can display info and the current song playing.

for the top two lines they are backlit with 30 c-9 bulbs and 5 c-9 incandescent bulbs. It is made out of plexiglass the colors are stained glass paint, yellow and red.




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[shfr26]

I have a neighbor right across the street from my display that I talked to on a regular basis and watched me put the sign's up. Talking to him about two weeks after the lights were on and he said he watched one element in the display and thought it was cute, I asked what he thought about the choice of music and you guessed it, he said "What music?" Remember, he can see the signs and actually watched me doing them, and we talked about the display on several occasions. Sometimes there is nothing you can do to get them to read the signs or pay attention to what you say.

[jeffandnicole]

Scott T wrote:

jeffandnicole wrote:

I ride in a carpool, and one particular driver ALWAYS misses the variable message signs above the roadway, then complains that there was no notice about the traffic jam that are now sitting in.

I'd find another carpool group or asked the confused to leave. - - LOL

I will say this - I have a 50 minute, 41 mile commute each way. I've been carpooling for 10 years now, and I have saved so much on gas and maintenance. I even have leased vehicles that I would otherwise have not been able to do with such a commute.

Having said that, it can be trying sometimes dealing with fellow carpoolers. Between the carpooling and working in a toll booth on the NJ Turnpike in the early 2000's, I can say that it is mighty scarey who you're driving next to at highway speeds. I mentioned that the VMS signs are missed by the other drivers. During my toll booth days, I would have drivers sitting in congestion approaching the toll booth, finally get to my window, and say "Now what? Do I just go?" I guess they didn't see the exchange of money by the numerous cars ahead of them...or get that toll ticket when the entered the roadway, or even understand the concept of a large building in the middle of a roadway where every other car is stopping. Completely clueless.

[jimswinder]

Even tho I had a "Radio Sign" I realized a lot of people driving up did not know what to do, so the nights I was out directing traffic, I had a hand held sign that said "Tune Radio to 101.7" which I would hold up in front of them while they were parking their cars. A lot of time they could not get close enough to read my radio sign , so need several bigger ones his year.

And the other side of the sign said "Turn of Headlights"...couldn't beleive the amount of people that did not realize they were blinding the people in front of them with their headlights...

Of course sometimes the problem was they did not turn off their engines and they did not know HOW to turn off their headlights with the engine still running!! LOL

[George Simmons]

I've had people tell me they didn't know how to turn their lights off. My response is to tell them to shut their engine off. It's gratifying to see their 'light' come on and realize I've just helped a moron add .001% to their IQ...

[jimswinder]

George Simmons wrote:

I've had people tell me they didn't know how to turn their lights off. My response is to tell them to shut their engine off. It's gratifying to see their 'light' come on and realize I've just helped a moron add .001% to their IQ...

I'm sure it gets a bit colder in Minnesota vs Seattle, so I can see why they would not want to shut their engines down...especially when they sit there for a over a half hour.

Did LOR do something to the forum? It no longer fits on my screen for some reason after I hit the "Reply" button and am adding a response...

[JBullard]

jimswinder wrote:

Did LOR do something to the forum? It no longer fits on my screen for some reason after I hit the "Reply" button and am adding a response...

No, LOR didn't do anything to the forum. it's just that some folks posted pictures in this thread without resizing them first.

[Steven]

JBullard wrote:

No, LOR didn't do anything to the forum. it's just that some folks posted pictures in this thread without resizing them first.

Sorry. My bad.