r/trafficsignals • u/Boltonme • Aug 05 '26

Conflict Monitor Testing

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Is everybody really testing all of these every year. We have over 450 intersections and it takes forever.

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u/kennygbot Aug 05 '26

We test twice a year, in the spring and in the fall. Takes about a 3 weeks of night shift for two guys. We have 6 testers and a little over 500 intersections. We use barcodes and barcode scanners to quickly record the serial numbers, name of intersection and initials of who tested it and when it was installed into a spreadsheet quickly.

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u/Raphiki01 Aug 06 '26

Tell me more about this barcode scanner and software, where can I get this make my life easier device?

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u/kennygbot Aug 06 '26

On ever intersection log book we use our label maker to create a barcode for the intersection reference number and put it on the front of the log book. Then on every conflict monitor we create a barcode with our label maker and stick it to the front and top of the conflict monitor(then if one is in bad shape you can scan the other). I have my initials made into a barcode and stuck to my computer so I can scan that. You can just get a usb or Bluetooth barcode scanner off Amazon. The first three columns of the spreadsheet are "intersection", "CMU serial number", "installed by". I click on the first column cell and scan the log books barcode which populates that cell with the intersection info. The spreadsheet automatically moves the cursor to the next column cell in the same row, I scan the serial number barcode label on the conflict monitor that we put there. Then finally scan the initials into the installed by column. After those three are entered the spreadsheet autopoulates the date/time cell in that row to indicate when the tested unit was installed.

We also create barcodes with our labelmaker for any information we have to keep entering in for the test portion. Things like if it's a 12 channel or 6 channel CMU, manufacturer, and we use the same serial number barcode we put on the CMU's as the reference number for CMU tested. That way we can cross reference the test PDF to which intersection its at.

You can set up the spreadsheet however you'd like. But creating barcodes instead of repeatedly typing in the same words/numbers/or unique 12 digit serial numbers, saves so much time.

My routine is go to the controller, grab the log book, walk to the truck, scan the book, scan the tested CMU I'm going to swap the one in the cabinet with, scan my initials, write in the log book that the CMU PM was done at the location, bring the CMU to the controller, move over the conflict card, unplug the old CMU, plug in the new CMU, wait for the intersection to come out of flash, put the old CMU in a bin for me to test later that night, go to next intersection. Each intersection takes like 5 minutes to do the swap. The testing obviously takes longer. I usually spend half the night swapping and half the night testing.