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Your cart is empty.Greg K.
2025-07-15 17:06:28
I have to start by saying that I love this little thing, but for reasons that won't translate to a very wide audience. It's a piece of plastic with a USB cable without any manual controller. I personally don't agree with the description that it's "fashionable" - I won't be mounting this on the wall in a prominent place. If I ran a warehouse and wanted to guide forklift traffic, I could mount it near an intersection to guide traffic, but there's stll the little detail of making it work.Therein lies the core reason why I love it: with a Raspberry Pi, or some other system where you can control a USB port, it's programmatically possible to activate the lights. It takes a 5V connection, which is, conveniently, what a USB port provides for power. On my Debian system it mounts as /dev/ttyUSB0 and you can set the communiation channel with "stty -F /dev/ttyUSB0 9600 cs8 -cstopb -parenb".From there it's possible to send Hex codes from the command line like this: "echo -e 'xA0x01x00xA1' >/dev/ttyUSB0" You can make a light be steady on, flash, or off, and you can do that with all three lights simultaneously. There's also a beep you can turn on and off. My personal project goal is to grab some data, like weather conditions and the short term forecast, and then translate that into a pattern that indicates current conditions and the short-term forecast.That's why I love it - it's a project toy. There are some oddities about it and it comes with no documentation. If you buy it, print out the product description so you have a copy of the Hex codes! There are a couple of sentences with it that are the key to making it work. It leverages a buffer and I haven't quite figured out the right path to turning things on and off reliably (there's a sequence I need to crack).The hardware itself is decent enough as in it doesn't feel cheap, but it's plastic so don't hang something important from it. Also, the plastic base doesn't have a molded channel for the USB cable. If I mount this to a wall , I'll need to carve out some of the plastic so the base doesn't bite into the cable (there's a place at the base they thinner so you can make a notch). I wish they'd done that and provided just a little better documentation on how to send it signals.
K.G.
2025-07-10 10:09:47
This is a review for the USB Stack LED Andon Tower Lights with Buzzer. While it is somewhat of a specialty product, it performs exactly as advertised! I started off by piping commands on a Linux host to the serial device, then the same on a Raspberry Pi. All lights lit properly in solid or flashing mode and the beeper/buzzer sounded as expected. The lights were incredibly crisp and visible from a distance even in a well lit room. All of the serial commands worked flawlessly once I hashed out the meaning of the wording for the beeping options.I plan to use the device to throw visual warnings from monitoring systems on a Raspberry Pi, and ended up writing a little Python script to store command files for each light mode/method, and send them via serial.
Random Customer
2025-01-09 09:43:17
This USB Stack LED Andont Tower Lights with Buzzer, Industrial Warning Lights, Column Tower Lights(NOT 24VDC, 3 Layer, with Buzzer)This unit requires some kind of PC/tablet connected via USB to operate.It is USB powered AND it REQUIRES the use of a "serial port debugging tool" to control it by sending hexadecimal code series to the com port the USB cord of this unit is hooked up to. All done through a clunky "serial port debugging tool". The mfg directs you to "Open the USB three-color light debugging driver-commassistant.exe " so I looked it up before I d/l or install and could NOT FIND it. What I did find was a bunch of warnings regarding virus and malware abuse of similar system comm tools by them dastardly hackers. So, gave up on that and am currently trying to hardwire / bypass the circuit board and control directly from relays. The printed PCB board internals say USB on them, so I am certain I will need relays to hardwire / operate from a standard 24V control structure.Gave 4 stars just bc it is a well made unit with integral mounting bracket. Now if I can only McGyver it without using hexadecimal codes from an open com port.NOTE: edited og review as supplier had listed as a 24V device. They have edited the listing, and I would give 5 stars for fit and finish, but the clunky, nay, kludgy USB "serial port debugging" control architecture keeps it at 4 stars.*** NOTE TO ‎ANDONT *** ditch the USB control, make it 24V, wire a single supply wire to the + side of each stage (including buzzer), return on a single common, let the light operate by a plc or hand switch or whatever control a relay OUTSIDE and independent of your unit. You will sell a ton of these "basic" units to not only hobbyists, but also in the industrial / commercial market.Also, I bet you could do this basic package at a lower cost.Let me know if you build this basic unit?
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