Light Tower Change

Overview

In Q4 2023 EMIT is changing from the K30 Banner light tower to K50 series. This new tower will have a built in buzzer which eliminates a separate buzzer component, and also has better visibility in bright sunlight.

Wiring

The old and new wiring are shown below.

With the old light tower the tower had a 4-wire harness, with three wires going to pins 64-66 of the brain and the blue wire going to a ground lug. Separately, the buzzer wired to pins 63 and 67.

With the new light tower the harness has 5 wires and all 5 go to pins 63-67 as shown in the drawing above.

Field Implications

1. The old and new light towers have different hole sizes so shouldn't be swapped between panels.
2. Some Brain modules can't drive segments to a low voltage so won't work with the new light tower. Any new panel will have a Brain that supports both options, but some existing stock Brains might not support the new tower if a Brain swap is needed. However, old Brains won't get harmed by connecting to the new light tower, it simply won't light up. If a work-around is desired, see Light Tower Work Around.
3. In the rare case that the tower is operating backwards or doesn't seem to show the right colors, try swapping the logic under Brain - Misc Settings - "Light tower output inverted".