blue lights (1 Viewer)

[bottom end]

After watching qualifying yesterday I'm still a bit confused on the staging process. I know the blue lights represent the cars in the other lanes but what do they indicate when on, the other cars are staged?
It seems the tree was activated at times before all the blue lights were
illuminated.

Can someone help this slow learner understand what's going on out there?
I'm sure it's not that difficult but I don't get it.

 

[Dave]

They showed the lane 1-2 tree during qualifying. The 2 outer blue lights are lanes 3-4 pre-stage then the inner 2 blue lights are lanes 3-4 stage. If the tree was activated before all were turned on either a. there were less than 4 cars running or b. someone got timed out on the autostart.

 

[bottom end]

That makes sense now, thanks.

 

[Huge]

Hi Mike, it is good to see you are a mater now. E-mail me and let me know if you are flying in with Bode to Vegas and what time you land.

 

[bottom end]

Hi Eugene, thanks.
Looking forward to Vegas!! I'll give you the flight info when I get it.
see you soon...

 

[Butch]

Hell I thought the Blue Lights meant a special sale was going on.

 

[bottom end]

Hell I thought the Blue Lights meant a special sale was going on.

I thought they meant "pull over" I got you for speeding.

 

[Professional Fan]

Some of the problems arose when a person got timed out. The drivedrs are watching for the middle blue lights and when someone gets timed out all of a sudden they get yellow down below-problem is they are watching the blue lights at the top. This is especially a problem for pro stock as those guys already have a lot to focus on and now they have to focus on blue lights on the top and yellow on the bottom as well. Was a problem Saturday several times. Did not seem to be a problem today.

 

[hotrod]

Appeared to me that when someone deep staged, the blue light went out. It seems like they should somehow program it to not do that. One more thing to confuse everyone.

Like Tim said..."it's a novelty".

I don't care much for four wide, but when they add those other two lanes to Vegas, I'll be there. I just want to feel the blast from four fuel cars.

 

[Bullet]

After watching qualifying yesterday I'm still a bit confused on the staging process. I know the blue lights represent the cars in the other lanes but what do they indicate when on, the other cars are staged?
It seems the tree was activated at times before all the blue lights were
illuminated.

Can someone help this slow learner understand what's going on out there?
I'm sure it's not that difficult but I don't get it.

They showed the lane 1-2 tree during qualifying. The 2 outer blue lights are lanes 3-4 pre-stage then the inner 2 blue lights are lanes 3-4 stage. If the tree was activated before all were turned on either a. there were less than 4 cars running or b. someone got timed out on the autostart.

Also if somebody deep staged, the tree would be activated without all blue lights on.

 

[wilbur]

Nice Larry, nice.

 

[wilbur]

Not you Larry, I meant Harry. Damn.

 

[FC138fan]

Don't know why they just didn't make two more sets of pre-stage and staged lights. Everybody understands what they look like.

 

[Paul]

Don't know why they just didn't make two more sets of pre-stage and staged lights. Everybody understands what they look like.

I don't understand why they just didn't do that also, much easier for both the drivers and fans to understand. On the track put the extra lights on the side of the tree towards the extra lanes.

On the tube, put them on the top left and right over the center of each lane pair. This blue light thing has got to go, even some of the drivers were confused by it.

 

[G'ginna]

hmmm, K', maybe those blinkin' blue things had a sponsor of their own?

 

[my friends call me Zappy]

Nick and Paul T are right. Get rid of the blue lights. Add amber pre-stage and stage lights to both trees. That way each driver knows the status of all three other lanes. (KISS)

 

[.]

You mean pre-pre-stage©®™ lights Zappy?



pre-pre-stage lights is a copyright registered trademark of PF industries $$$$$$$$

 

[Zak]

Don't know why they just didn't make two more sets of pre-stage and staged lights. Everybody understands what they look like.

From what I understood - they wanted to keep the extra lights as small as possible - if they got too tall F/C drivers might not have been able to see them

 

[none]

From what I understood - they wanted to keep the extra lights as small as possible - if they got too tall F/C drivers might not have been able to see them

Seems like the thought process is to go sideways with the extra set of lights. Towards the "other" lane. Every lane with a pre stage and stage light.

 

[vonB]

From this designers point of view and experience as a user interface the blue tree special does have stuff that could be improved.

1) The established tree is designed to be sequential from top to bottom. The prestage/stage has a vertical mode. To to add the horizontal(outside-inside) blue light mode adds complexity that has to be processed in the brain ("increased cognitive load"). This is both because it differs from precedent and it adds a different mode of operation.
2) The prestage/stage visual signal in the 2 wide tree is a pair of (what looks like) standard yellow light bulbs for each position (the eye sees 2 diffused spots of light for each step). But the blue lights are a single LED array spot of (very directional) light for each position. Different light qualities and intensities add to the amount of extra information that must be processed in the brain.
3) Blue light and yellow light will also have different intensity/contrast ratios and be recognized and processed at a slightly different rate between the eye and brain.
4) A Blue yellow blue yellow combination will be more or less perceptually taxing depending on the order they occur on your tree. The more random it appears the harder it will be decode the meaning. This means, for example, if the yellow staged bulbs are lit last in your tree it may be less confusing than it will be on the other tree where the blue lights light last. John Force figured this out and always staged last. (I originally wrote this before reading this about Force-ADHDers learn to adapt)

Back to basics--the tree is there to insure that the start is fair, and the staging lights are only to provide information to the driver regarding relative relationships to the line. The tree is not there to confuse the driver or to make Pro Stock starts a mess or to add red lights to the bikes.

vonB