System warns drivers of hazards at Jamberoo Action Park, Australia

TEMPE, AZ - 01/10/2013 - STC has furnished a modified version of its Solar Ped-X control package for a project in Australia.

A new water "action park" was opened in October 2012 in a rural area south of Sydney. The roadway servicing the facility is a single lane in each direction and includes a long right turn lane (think left turn lane in the US) for vehicles turning into the facility.

As the park prepared to open, traffic engineers realized cars in the right turn queue could back up and block the through lane thus backing up traffic along the highway. This backup, coupled with the fact most traffic was coming over a hill to reach the park, created a hazard for motorists coming over the hill into the traffic backup.

Working with Traffic Tech PTY, STC modified a version of the Solar Ped-X crosswalk system for the project. Traffic Tech furnished an i-Stud sensor for the project which was placed at the end of the right turn lane to detect vehicles backed up in the queue.

This provides a call into a modified Solar Ped-X control panel which allows for time filtering of the input. When a valid detection occurs the master unit, at the detector station, loads the pre-programmed run time value into the local operating register and radios the value to the slave beacon station processor. The master includes a status LED to indicate when the slave lamps are flashing.

The slave beacon station was located in advance of the top of the hill and included a large warning sign as shown in the photos. The beacons are 8-inch amber DC LED lamps manufactured by STC at its Tempe, AZ facility.

Communications between points is done using a Frequency Hopping Spread Spectrum radio system. Even though Australia does recognize a license-free, 900Mhz ISM band, it has a tighter bandwidth than the US. Consequently STC built the units with US approved radios and then removed them prior to shipment. The same radio manufacturer was offering product through distributors in Australia which met the country's standards.

STC engineering was able to talk the Traffic Tech engineers through the configuration of the units over the phone to complete the radio portion of the project.

STC performed all the solar power system design for the project. Traffic Tech used this information to source all the needed modules, mounts and batteries from local vendors thus keeping international shipping costs down.

Traffic Tech is an Australian company developing and manufacturing products for the civil and traffic engineering sectors. The company is renowned for its quality Preformed inductive vehicle detection loops. For more information, please go to their website: http://www.traffictech.com.au.

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