Rain light - missed opportunity

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06.24.25, 12:12 PM
Rick Kirchner

Rain light - missed opportunity

I was thinking about the whole expensive rain light BS and realized what a missed opportunity there was.

Say this thing was produced with multi-color LEDs, a CAN bus and/or a steering wheel switch panel. We could have had a useful driver signaling device.

Could be used in conjunction with Flagtronics, as a secondary means of signaling that might be as visible to the driver as the cockpit display.

You could use it on practice days like YELLOW - rookie/I'm just learning the track. FLASHING RED - hard broke, just rollin' along (perhaps triggered from the dash under a set of pre-programmed conditions), etc.
06.24.25, 1:34 PM
Peter Olivola

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rick Kirchner

I was thinking about the whole expensive rain light BS and realized what a missed opportunity there was.

Say this thing was produced with multi-color LEDs, a CAN bus and/or a steering wheel switch panel. We could have had a useful driver signaling device.

Could be used in conjunction with Flagtronics, as a secondary means of signaling that might be as visible to the driver as the cockpit display.

You could use it on practice days like YELLOW - rookie/I'm just learning the track. FLASHING RED - hard broke, just rollin' along (perhaps triggered from the dash under a set of pre-programmed conditions), etc.

As only an engineer would suggest and my answer is TMI.
06.24.25, 1:38 PM
DaveW

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rick Kirchner

I was thinking about the whole expensive rain light BS and realized what a missed opportunity there was.

Say this thing was produced with multi-color LEDs, a CAN bus and/or a steering wheel switch panel. We could have had a useful driver signaling device.

Could be used in conjunction with Flagtronics, as a secondary means of signaling that might be as visible to the driver as the cockpit display.

You could use it on practice days like YELLOW - rookie/I'm just learning the track. FLASHING RED - hard broke, just rollin' along (perhaps triggered from the dash under a set of pre-programmed conditions), etc.

It's too expensive as it is - with these additions the price would probably double.
06.24.25, 1:51 PM
Hardingfv32

While expensive to many, the FIA Spec light is a simple and easy way for SCCA to implement a better rain light. Anything beyond this spec would have required a SCCA development program which is simply not going to happen.

Brian
06.24.25, 7:35 PM
kea

light

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hardingfv32

While expensive to many, the FIA Spec light is a simple and easy way for SCCA to implement a better rain light. Anything beyond this spec would have required a SCCA development program which is simply not going to happen.

Brian

No proof that this FIA spec light is any better then the earlier LED versions.
Just because they said so doesn't count.
06.24.25, 8:01 PM
Offcamber1

Quote:

Originally Posted by DaveW

It's too expensive as it is - with these additions the price would probably double.

The SCCA mandated SFI approved version would be at least $500 and it must be replaced every 2 years...
06.24.25, 9:54 PM
BLS

Quote:

Originally Posted by kea

No proof that this FIA spec light is any better then the earlier LED versions.
Just because they said so doesn't count.

Regardless of agreement on it's inclusion, meeting the FIA spec does alleviate the SCCA of having to create and police a new spec of it's own design or one from SFI.

It's not that darn expensive, just unfortunate for those that already have a decent light that doesn't meet the spec. I'm in the process of of replacing my already good one with one of these, and that will probably be the least expensive thing I'm doing.