A few different stories have popped up over the last week discussing location-aware advertising being used on NYC busses. I asked a few friends in the city to take a picture if they saw the bus, but got something even better: an internal NYCT! Not only is the project on hold, but it got so hot that customers reported a burning smell and the bus had to be pulled.

LED Advertising Sign

Bus 1070 entered revenue service with the LED sign activated on September 8, 2008.  However, the sign was not fully operational until September 12, 2008, after LiteLogic (the manufacturer) performed some adjustments and updated software.  Preliminary data from LiteLogic indicates that the average and peak power consumption for the sign system is well within what the bus electrical system could accommodate.

As of September 26, 2008, bus 1070 had a road call after customers reported a burning smell from the area of the LED sign.  Technical Services/Engineering personnel responded to the event and observed heat damage at the lower left-hand corner of the sign.  The sign was disabled and the bus returned to MJ Quill Depot for further investigation.  Personnel from LiteLogic visited MJ Quill Depot on Monday, 9/29/08 to assist with the investigation.  It was determined that a capacitor on one of the circuit cards within the sign had short-circuit and as a result became hot enough to damage part of the circuit card.  Damage was completely contained to the sign itself and was in no way related to the installation of the sign on the bus.  The production version of the sign has built-in fuses to prevent this type of damage.  Testing will not resume until NYCT is certain that this type of failure can not take place again.

No more GPS bus advertising for now!