Update: wiring successful but lighting results unimpressive
Ended up using GE Quick-wire plugs from Walmart ($2 per two pack) to wire my LED surplus traffic lights. Snipped off any "U" terminals with scissors, got to bare wire using a wire stripper, then used a screwdriver to screw shut. Don't know that they're weatherproof--or how safe they are. But I got them functioning. Wired-up around 22 or so. Have a few left to go. Surprisingly, only two units were duds out of the whole lot--that's the good news.
The bad news is that I was unimpressed with the overall brightness of the lights in my collection. Except for those with clear plastic covers and filled with concentric circles of LEDs. Main thing I'm trying to convey is that these work better as "indicator" lights rather than floods or spots. Many of the units when pointed at a white surface, for example, don't project a circular beam; but rather a weak line. Possibly because there may be only a sectional line of LEDs inside, with a many-faceted plastic lens that scatters the light too broadly to illuminate anything well--if that's the right way to say it. The LED light illuminates the inside surface of the lens, but doesn't radiate a whole lot of light *out*. Hope something out there with a more formal knowledge of lighting can restate some of this with the right stagecraft vocabulary.
Makes sense in a way. Seeing these things up close, I've noticed much the same type of lens pattern with car brake lights. The function there is the same--be bright enough and large enough to visibly send a signal to other drivers--but not blind them! Again, one of the few exceptions would be the clear lensed units--those pass my closed eyelid brightness test. I power up a light, close my eyes, then "gaze" directly into the light. If my reaction is "Holy crap, that's gotta be bright!" then I have a winner. But my "eyelid" test reaction to many of the traffic lights in my collection--especially the green ones--has been "meh..." You know, the sense that even a good LED flashlight is brighter / more intense.
They don't seem dimmable either--although a few of the yellow and red ones I have with the clear covers do seem to have some sort of fade-out decay. Not always consistently. I made a video of 19 of these lights connected to a two channel christmas light fader; a yellow and red "strand" to the left and a green "strand" to the right. Still waiting for it to upload. The response profile between the units varies a bit, but the green ones seem to have more of a binary on/off response vs. the red and yellows. Again, nothing's really consistent using the two channel auto-fader unit I plugged them into.
Thought about taking some photos of individual units pointed at a white surface to show how each illuminates a surface. But since I'm one of the few out there who either have or may be interested in using these things for Halloween, that may have a low return (re: helping others) on "investment."
It's all a bit of a bummer. Albeit an educational one. Cash outlay wasn't huge. But the effects potential could have been tremendous. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. I got a kick out of finding them so cheaply--something so unique. Not all experiments turn out how you want them to. I do wish I'd purchased just one of each kind, wired them up earlier, and tested before I bought so many.
So, not sure what I'm going to do with them. The "arrow" units are a nice novelty. The low intensity lights could work well for some of the potential applications Spookie mentioned: mounted for large lollipops, a dragon's eyes, etc. Frankly, the various LED Fire and Ice lights have a lot more "oomph" and utility than the traffic lights.
If I had more reds, it might be cool to place one in every window of the entire house, front and back, upstairs and down, covering each window with wax paper, to get some sort of uniform spooky demonic glow. The benefit of using these over incandescent flood lights is that the LED traffic lights, naturally, are cool to the touch. The downside is ability to fade smoothly or at all. Thought it would be a cool effect to have an entire floor of windows fade in and out in sync with each other, as if the house was breathing.
In the garage, I've also just got them grouped tightly together. Not sure how they'd look constant on, pointed at a scene, perhaps distributed around a scene vs. being tightly clustered. I will say that, with the fastest setting on the two channel fader, they could be useful for a UFO-crash scene, with fog blown through. Dunno. Never tried an alien theme.
Anyway, thought some of you would enjoy the update, stream of consciousness as it is. Again, video to follow. I inherited my wife's iPad "3" / "the new iPad" after she bought an iPad Air 2. The video file it created was huge; hence the long YT upload time.
