Barbizon Arizona Moves to New Offices!

Barbizon Arizona opens up in their new digs Monday 12/21 - Come by and see the new offices!

Barbizon Light of Arizona
1320 S. Priest Drive, Suite 105
Tempe, AZ 85281

Phone and Fax stay the same:
Tel: (480) 237-0470
Fax: (480) 237-0475

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ENTTEC Year End Deal!

ENTTEC just let us know about a neat year end deal you might want to check into.

LightFactory V2.2 has now been released and to help build excitement about the new features in this version, ENTTEC has announced a special promotion.

Who: This is available to all LightFactory version 1.x users, whether they bought thru our dealer network, or from another source including online.

What: Cross Grading from either the Limited or Basic version 1 licenses, up to a version 2.2 with a full 512 dimmers support will be $149 USD List Price for a limited time. (This was a $479 value coming from the Limited Edition, or $390 from Basic, just to give you some perspective on what a huge deal this is.)

When: Now through the end of the year.

How: Use Part Number 70581. This is true whether you are upgrading from Limited or from Basic. Place order for one of these upgrades through the normal ordering procedures except that minimum order size is waived since it's a software license by email. User will need to supply their old ver. 1 License Code or a valid Registration Code. (Lic. will take less time time to process and is therefore preferable.)

After December 31, the price will go back up.

Call your local Barbizon office @ 866-502-2724 to check into it.

Interesting LED Lighting Dilemma

from http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=121483046

Money-saving LED traffic lights can’t melt snow
By Dinesh Ramde - Associated Press Writer

December 16, 2009

Milwaukee — Cities around the country that have installed energy-efficient traffic lights are discovering a hazardous downside: The bulbs don’t burn hot enough to melt snow and can become crusted over in a storm — a problem blamed for dozens of accidents and at least one death.

“I’ve never had to put up with this in the past,” said Duane Kassens, a driver from West Bend who got into a fender-bender recently because he couldn’t see the lights. “The police officer told me the new lights weren’t melting the snow. How is that safe?”

Many communities have switched to LED bulbs in their traffic lights because they use 90 percent less energy than the old incandescent variety, last far longer and save money. Their great advantage is also their drawback: They do not waste energy by producing heat.

Authorities in several states are testing possible solutions, including installing weather shields, adding heating elements like those used in airport runway lights, or coating the lights with water-repellent substances.

Short of some kind of technological fix, “as far as I’m aware, all that can be done is to have crews clean off the snow by hand,” said Green Bay, Wis., police Lt. Jim Runge. “It’s a bit labor-intensive.”

In St. Paul, Minn., for example, city crews use air compressors to blow snow and ice off blocked lights.

Some communities began installing cool-burning LEDs more than a decade ago, and it wasn’t long before drivers started complaining about the problem.

Illinois authorities said that during a storm in April, 34-year-old Lisa Richter could see she had a green light and began making a left turn. A driver coming from the opposite direction did not realize the stoplight was obscured by snow and plowed into Richter’s vehicle, killing her.

“Would the accident have occurred if the lights had been clear? I would be willing to bet not,” Oswego police Detective Rob Sherwood said.

Authorities said dozens of similar collisions have been reported in other cold-weather states, including Iowa and Minnesota.

Not every storm causes snow to stick to the lights, but when the wind is right and the snow is wet, drivers should beware, said Gary Fox, a traffic engineer for the city of Des Moines, Iowa.

Exactly how much a technological fix will cost is unclear, but it will surely cut into the savings and the energy efficiency many cities are enjoying.

Wisconsin, which has put LED bulbs at hundreds of intersections, saves about $750,000 per year in energy costs, said Dave Vieth of the state Transportation Department. LEDs installed seven years ago are still burning, while most incandescent bulbs have to be replaced every 12 to 18 months, he said.

Minnesota, where authorities have upgraded hundreds of traffic lights to LEDs, is experimenting with weather shields.

One reason there have been so few deaths is that drivers know they should treat a traffic signal with obstructed lights as a stop sign, traffic experts say.

“It’s the same as if the power is out,” said Dave Hansen, a traffic engineer with the Green Bay Department of Public Works. “If there’s any question, you err on the side of caution.”

Christmas Light Hero!!

From Make Mag ---

"Christmas Light Hero is using 7 light controllers from Light-O-Rama built from kits to control 21,268 lights and LEDs. Each controller has 16 outputs and 2-3 TTL level control inputs that are used by the game system to fire different programmed light sequences depending on what happens in the game. It relies on the fact that the game sequence is very consistent. If the game and the lighting sequences start together, they will stay in very good sync through the length of the song. The light program allows branching and overlays for fail, star power and "ready." I have some ideas to automate the initial show/game sync, but for now you have to push doorbell buttons at the right moments.

To program the show a video recording was made of a perfect round of Guitar Hero playing Eric Johnson's Cliffs of Dover. The timing of all the dots and the light show choreography follow that video.

When you play, you watch only the Christmas lights, but the audio you hear is from the Wii, so your flubs are broadcast for all to hear (people in cars can tune 99.1 and crank it up as loud as they want.) When we are not playing, a separate version of the program that has the audio from the recorded game plays with the lights as a loop. The YouTube video also has this audio, (because I forgot to record the direct audio when I was shooting the documentation, and the camcorder did not pick it up very well.)

A video screen is on the driveway showing the game video, but if you want to be on the high score list you have to make it through the whole game only watching the Christmas Lights. Even though the game is in "easy" mode, the lights don't provide the same timing detail as the game does, so it is much harder. Even expert Guitar Hero players have a hard time with the lights, and nobody has made it through without errors (yet)."

Pavement Embedded LED's in the Plaza del Torico in Teruel, Spain

Via Gizmodo: "The Plaza del Torico in Teruel, Spain was renovated with something even better than yellow bricks—over 1230 color-changing LED lamps embedded in the pavement. The whole system can be programmed to change colors and patterns in sequence."
For more info check out: http://www.archdaily.com/43040/plaza-del-torico-b720/

How Quantum Dots Can Improve the Look of LED Lighting

Reprint from Kate Greene's Blog : http://kategreene.net/?p=453

QD Vision, an MIT spinout, is commercializing quantum dots, tiny crystals that emit bright light of a particular color. Because quantum dots shine at specific colors, a layer of them can be added to an LED to alter its original color. This is exactly QD Vision’s first product: quantum dots that makes white LED lights, famous for their erie hue, look better.

The quantum dot lighting solution is relatively simple: Adding red quantum dots to a white LED makes the resulting white light appear warmer. Light from the LED gives electrons in the quantum dots an energetic boost for a short time; when the electrons return to their lower energy state, they emit a photon, a process called photoluminescence. (Photoluminescence is in contrast to electroluminescence, in which electric current, not light, excites electrons.)

I caught up with the founder of QD Vision, Seth Coe Sullivan, at the Printed Electronics 2009 conference in San Jose last week to ask him a few questions about lighting. Below is an edited version of our conversation:

Kate Greene: What quantum dot products are you selling right now?

Seth Coe Sullivan, founder of QD Vision (front)

Seth Coe Sullivan: Today, we’re commercially shipping a quantum light optic. It’s essentially a light-emitting filter: a plate of glass with quantum dots printed on top. We sell it to a couple of customers. One is a fixture company, and one is a lamp company called Nexxus. They make Edisonian-mount lamps, so you can screw the lamp into the same mount you screw an incandescent bulb into. The Nexxus lamp used to have a diffuse filter plate on the top of it. With our product, they just take that plate out, and put the quantum light optic in its place. You get to transform the color without paying any price in terms of efficiency. You have the color of incandescent lighting with the efficiency of LED lighting.

KG: The optic is emissive, and so it doesn’t decrease efficiency like a filter?

SCS: Right. We’re using blue photons from the LEDs and making red photons from the quantum dots. In theory you could make the lamp four times as bright by going from blue to red. But we’re not using all the blue light from the LEDs. We’re just making a little bit of red to tweak the spectrum.

KG: Okay, give me a quick definition of quantum dots.

SCS: A quantum dot is a semiconductor nanocrystal that we synthesize in a chemical solution. When you make semiconductors very small, the quantum physics dominates the conventional semiconductor physics. So size matters. A quantum dot, made of the semiconductor cadmium selenide, that is six nanometers in size emits red light, one that’s four nanometers emits green, and one that’s two nanometers emits blue.

KG: How long have they been around?

SCS: They date back to the 80s. But there’s really been a series of improvements of efficiency and stability so that all of a sudden quantum dots have crossed the line in commercial relevance. The first applications were all in biology. They were used to tag sections of cells and other things. Then there was a Christmas tree light product that predated us. It’s neat, but it doesn’t provide any actual value to the world. Still, it was great to see them put something on the market.

KG: But in terms of a major commercial product, QD Vision has the first?

SCS: We really are the first to put something in a mainstream market where you’re adding value to the world. By making LED lighting, which is the most efficient lighting technology in the world, something that’s pleasing to consumers, all of a sudden you can drive adoption of LED technology. LEDs make up less than one percent of lighting right now. Philips talks about it being 80 percent in 2020. That’s massive growth in the next 10 years, but in order for that to happen, people have to want to buy them. It’s not enough to be efficient. They have to look good too. We think we’ve solved that problem, and we’re talking to all the major players to build quantum light optics into their products.

KG: What’s the change in cost to add a quantum light optic?

SCS: It’s actually a reduction in their manufacturing cost. Nexxus is actually going to offer products at same price, but that just means they’ve improved their margins by increasing their efficiency. When you look at these things, you always need to do an apples-to-apples comparison. I’m comparing our product, with the high color quality that it has, with trying to make the same color quality with any other technology. Because we’re doing that with roughly 30 percent more efficiency, you’re using 30 percent fewer LEDs to produce the same number of lumens. By putting in a quantum light optic instead of 30 percent more LEDs, you take all that cost out. When you add the cost of quantum light optic in there and the net result should be reduction in main cost.

KG: Can I buy a quantum-dot light today?

SCS: Almost. We are shipping to our customers. Our customers then have to make a lamp or a fixture, sell them to their distributors, and then their distributors have to sell them to end customers who have to install them. Right now that hasn’t sold all the way through. For example, the Nexxus product will be the first quantum lighting product sold on bulbs.com. So probably in late January or early February you’ll be able to go to that site and purchase a Nexxus array lamp with a quantum light optic inside.

KG: Will it be expensive?

SCS: I’m told the retail price will probably be $100.

KG: How does that compare to other LED lighting?

SCS: It’s extremely competitive within LED lighting. LED costs more than other lighting technologies. An incandescent bulb of the type we’re talking about might be $3. A compact florescent might be between $5 and $10, so a $100 light bulb is an investment. But this bulb isn’t meant for you and me, in our homes today. It’s for people who look at total cost of ownership model when they install lighting. So if you’re a building owner, you look at the cost of bulb and also the electricity to run it, the maintenance cost to replace it, and the future bulbs you’re going to have to buy. If you look at total 50,000-hour life of our product, you’ll need five compact florescent bulbs or 25 halogen or incandescent bulbs. Then you add in the cost of the guy climbing the ladder to change the bulb, it pays you back in 12 to 18 months.

KG: What’s next for quantum-dot lighting?

SCS: With existing customers, we will expand the product line offering. So we do that in terms of different colors temperatures offered. 2700 K is the temperature that describes what an incandescent bulb produces. That’s what we’re offering now. But we can also do 3000K, 3500K, 4100K products.

KG: Who are your other customers?

Seth Coe Sullivan (back)

SCS: We’re working with all the lighting majors. Lighting is an extremely fragmented market. We do have a lot of different customers that are in the design cycle to launch products in 2010.

This is the first of two Q&As with Sullivan about QD Vision Products. The second Q&A will focus on improving liquid-crystal displays with quantum dots.

JR Clancy's new Battery powered nicropress tool

JR Clancy collaborated with National Telephone on the technical specs for the new Model 5506 battery operated swaging tool. This compact tool offers a new versatility previously unseen in powered swaging.

The tool’s one handed operation allows the user to align and swage sleeves easily without additional assistance. If you’re up in a personnel lift by yourself, swaging is now easily accomplished without wild acrobatics or bruised ribs. Another advantage to the tool is that it requires fewer crimps per sleeve compared to the manual press tool. Instead of the 3 crimps required on a 1/4″ oval sleeve or the 4 crimps on a 3/16″ oval sleeve, this tool only requires 2 crimps.

The tool presses quickly and efficiently, giving an audible bypass when the proper crimping pressure is achieved. The tool comes in a case with two lithium-ion batteries, a charger, a Nicopress gauge, and 1/4″ die.

The battery lasts for approximately 200 crimps. With the two batteries, you have essentially unlimited operation as the battery can charge up before you’ve exhausted the other one. Interchangeable dies are available for use on fittings for up to 5/16″ cable.