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Post by snoggle on Sept 2, 2015 23:57:45 GMT
Talking of the kindle blinds, a backlight has now been added to TEH1224, I dont't think it looks to great! Goodness me that looks really pretty poor. I wonder how people with poor eyesight can cope with that sort of strange contrast in colour / brightness. I don't why we can't just stick with yellow on black blinds with proper vehicle checks to make sure backlighting works or else copy Lothian Buses' form of digital displays. It's not 100% perfect but it's as close to a decent London blind I've seen for electronic technology. I assume if the "Kindle blind" fails you just get a completely blank blind.
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Post by YY13VKP on Sept 3, 2015 18:05:30 GMT
That looks absolutely horrific! And why are they using a monitor for the side blind?
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Post by sid on Sept 4, 2015 8:34:03 GMT
is it time for LED light? Without a doubt, they are long overdue.
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Post by ServerKing on Sept 6, 2015 19:11:59 GMT
Is it my imagination or are a number of operators having a lot of problems with smartblind equipped buses at the moment? Seems to be spreading to more and more operators and not just the usual suspects. Have we got to the point where a weaknes with the technology is being exposed? Sorry, I have been snowed under with work - servers seem to break as much as these rotten Smart Blinds The tech is past it's sell by date, it is expensive as only London buys it. Leon Daniels loves it because it looks 'authentic', but if the presentation is lost then he's backing the wrong horse. We still have a large number of buses with Dayglo blinds despite the introduction of WOB well over a year ago (never saw the point of the change). Sometimes on the 237 you get a treat of both, other issues are unlit blinds or dirty blind boxes (see 235 Caetanos). Hopefully the Kindle Blinds are waiting in the wings, if not that then the MBK1-style LED blinds are crying out to be rolled out across London. Both technologies will allow buses to transfer between garages without all the aggro of missing, torn blinds or bits of A4 with route numbers on However things like the Cycle Lane construction has seen any funds for improvement disappear. Blinds as they stand are too ambiguous since via points disappeared. I thought this was just an E10 Cadet problem, but the sickness has spread citywide I just edited this, I saw the abomination of the blinds on TEH1224 - looks like the backlight I used to have on my Casio watch as a kid And the large blind at the side looks like it should show BBC News when the bus is parked at the stand at Brent Cross - gives punters something to watch while the driver's on his break The noticable gap between 'Brent' and 'Cross' needs to be done away with. It could work, but perhaps we're kidding ourselves. Stop with all the 'unique to London' stuff (we have the Routemaster and 'all over red', so that will do) and just put MBK1-style white LED's in and have done! Any haters should take a trip to Reading and see how smart their buses are, and the blind presentation is spot-on! Another good operator of LED blinds is Stagecoach in Oxfordshire, very clearly presented route numbers
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Post by romfordbuses on Sept 6, 2015 19:39:59 GMT
The side blind power units are failing a lot more now because they are working a lot more with a longer blind (More heavy - strain on motor) thanks to this new idea of having the destination on the side
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Post by snoggle on Sept 6, 2015 20:16:19 GMT
Stop with all the 'unique to London' stuff (we have the Routemaster and 'all over red', so that will do) and just put MBK1-style white LED's in and have done! Any haters should take a trip to Reading and see how smart their buses are, and the blind presentation is spot-on! I know you have strong views about blinds - it's one of those things that stirs up emotions amongst enthusiasts. I don't mind London's system provided it works and is reliable. The concern I have is whether we are now seeing a more endemic level of breakdowns. If we are then that needs fixing or else we'll be no better than outside London. I don't see LED, LCD, Kindle, whatever blinds as some magic answer because there are far too many instances of them being useless, badly designed, badly installed and wrongly set elsewhere in the UK. I have a fear that moving to electronic blinds in London will make people even more lax than they already are. We'll then have even more buses with zero blind info than we have now (usually a tiny minority). As a photographer the ability of electronic blinds to "disappear" because of the different light speeds is irksome and probably colours my view. I'm also going to take you to task about "unique to London" because I think London does things like bus stops, bus information, bus maps, spider maps, stop names and Countdown very well. The fact we have Centrecomm with an eye on the entire network is also a plus. Although it doesn't look like it at times we also have co-ordination between road network and bus network management. Can't think of anywhere else in the UK where that explicit link is there. There may well be traffic network management in lots of places but buses are an afterthought. So please don't scrap all of this because it all helps things work. There are some niggles and annoyances about co-ordination of information / changes in London and how real time info is / is not linked to Countdown but that's minor set against the major plusses we have. Bus Stations are a bit mixed in London - there are nicer ones outside London but that's only because they're one of the few things councils and PTEs can spend capital monies on.
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Post by greeny253 on Sept 7, 2015 14:22:15 GMT
Talking of the kindle blinds, a backlight has now been added to TEH1224, I dont't think it looks to great! Goodness me that looks really pretty poor. I wonder how people with poor eyesight can cope with that sort of strange contrast in colour / brightness. I don't why we can't just stick with yellow on black blinds with proper vehicle checks to make sure backlighting works or else copy Lothian Buses' form of digital displays. It's not 100% perfect but it's as close to a decent London blind I've seen for electronic technology. I assume if the "Kindle blind" fails you just get a completely blank blind. The Lothian Buses layout does look the part. Not wanting to tempt fate but I don't think I've ever seen a picture of a failed one on their buses either....
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Post by ServerKing on Sept 7, 2015 14:49:16 GMT
Goodness me that looks really pretty poor. I wonder how people with poor eyesight can cope with that sort of strange contrast in colour / brightness. I don't why we can't just stick with yellow on black blinds with proper vehicle checks to make sure backlighting works or else copy Lothian Buses' form of digital displays. It's not 100% perfect but it's as close to a decent London blind I've seen for electronic technology. I assume if the "Kindle blind" fails you just get a completely blank blind. The Lothian Buses layout does look the part. Not wanting to tempt fate but I don't think I've ever seen a picture of a failed one on their buses either.... Copy Lothian's example if all else fails with the Kindle blinds... as for taking pictures of LED blinds, it's capturing the refresh rate of the blind by lowering the aperture on your SLR camera - I think it's the same trick that allows you to photograph lightning in thunderstorms What bugs me about our current tech is the variety of blinds - some yellow, some white, some with via points, most with none... it should all be standardized, but I'm just saying that on presentation grounds. One case in favour of LED's is it increases the bus's saleability after it's left London service, rather than Ensign having to fit the tech before sale The Kindle Blinds could prove just as popular. I just hope they decide on something soon to succeed what we have at the moment.
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Post by planesandtrains on Sept 9, 2015 21:13:32 GMT
People complaing about banditary blinds? Well I went on holiday on an island in italy called ischia and their buses were terrible. Half the LED's didnt work and they resorted to using paper for the routes. I won't even start to go on about the speedometer that was stuck at 140 km/h or that door on a minibus that was open while the bus was moving. We are lucky to have such high standards here in London with the information we have.
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Post by snoggle on Sept 30, 2015 21:27:19 GMT
Astonishingly Stagecoach 15128 turned up at Barkingside showing "blank" on the front route number. Can't remember when I last saw that on a Stagecoach London bus. The side blind was working properly. All the old grannies getting on all told the driver there was no route number on the front! Bet the driver was a bit fed up with it by the end of his shift.
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Post by Gary on Oct 1, 2015 19:03:16 GMT
8550 side blind has been playing up a lot lately. Was blank for ages, then all of a sudden it was stuck on 117 Isleworth (spotted this whilst in service on 490), now it's back to being blank.
Talking of 490 - spotted one leaving T5 this morning, in service, displaying '490 Sunbury Cross'. Heh.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 1, 2015 19:33:11 GMT
SE21 SN57DWG on route 300 - lazy driver must have weak arms as he set the destination blind between 2 random places to try and show a black display. Drivers are so used to smart blinds now
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Post by Deleted on Oct 1, 2015 19:34:17 GMT
Astonishingly Stagecoach 15128 turned up at Barkingside showing "blank" on the front route number. Can't remember when I last saw that on a Stagecoach London bus. The side blind was working properly. All the old grannies getting on all told the driver there was no route number on the front! Bet the driver was a bit fed up with it by the end of his shift. I am starting to see a fair few blind problems on WH Scania's.
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Post by Nathan on Oct 1, 2015 19:37:40 GMT
Astonishingly Stagecoach 15128 turned up at Barkingside showing "blank" on the front route number. Can't remember when I last saw that on a Stagecoach London bus. The side blind was working properly. All the old grannies getting on all told the driver there was no route number on the front! Bet the driver was a bit fed up with it by the end of his shift. I am starting to see a fair few blind problems on WH Scania's. Same with some of LUs SPs. I saw an SP side blind stuck on "281 Kingston, Cromwell Road" today. Didn't get the fleet number. I've also seen other SPs in service with a blank route number in the past.
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Post by Alex on Oct 2, 2015 0:15:26 GMT
Spotted someone going around on the 410 last night with 'Arriva' up as the destination....once stood outside the pub I was playing darts at, and secondly passed the same bus again whilst heading back on the 410 towards Crystal Palace. Sadly I didn't catch the number but the blind itself stuck out like a sore thumb.....
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