(19 Aug 2018, 12:38 pm)S813 FVK wrote Admittedly a couple did appear to have been updated a few weeks ago (5414 being one I believe), but all, including the aforementioned ones, will have been updated again today with the new controllers being fitted.
What is the basic criteria that needs to be met in order to have the new controllers fitted? I'd probably guess WiFi given the connection that is needed but apart from that, I wouldn't be able to make any logical assumptions.
All of the Streetlites were fitted with new controllers today, but the B9s probably won't follow suit now until mid-September (although they had the existing controllers updated today).
As standard, Go North East now have the ability to wirelessly update the destination displays and Next Stop Announcements on-board the bus (using the vehicle's Wi-Fi) on any new/refurbished vehicles. Really quick and easy, and saves a lot of time at depot level having these things done manually.
This technology has been around now for around three years, but has advanced since it was initially introduced. Initial installations could only facilitate downloading destination displays via a bulky box which connected to the existing destination controller - this wasn't the most reliable so Hanover developed a new product which was a Wi-Fi enabled version of the standard destination controller towards the end of 2016 which was found to be much more reliable, so was spec'd by Go North East on all new orders from this point onwards.
Excluding vehicle refurbishments, only vehicles new 2015 onwards (i.e. Coast & Country onwards) were spec'd with a Next Stop Announcement unit capable of wirelessly updating the content. This means that there's a bit of a gap between 2015 and 2017 where some vehicles can download Next Stop Announcements but not the content of destination displays. It doesn't pose too much of an issue until new journeys are being added, or existing journeys are being re-numbered in the lists, meaning a destination display update has to be manually done at the very same time as the Next Stop Announcement media update (otherwise the announcements could potentially say the wrong things!)
The pre-owned buses being taken from London, Go South Coast and Dawson Rentals mostly all require new destination controllers - it makes no sense to fit brand new kit in these buses when they're largely being used for contracts, so the decision was made to start work on filling that aforementioned 'gap'... All of the Prince Bishops (new in 2016) can now wirelessly download both destinations and Next Stop Announcements, and likewise the Red Kites (new in 2015). The controllers from these buses can then be fitted to the pre-owned buses being received at the moment.
The Peterlee minibuses are due to have these controllers fitted next month too, and the ones which don't have Next Stop Announcements will also be fitted to eliminate the need for any bus at Peterlee to be updated manually.
(19 Aug 2018, 12:47 pm)Jamie M wrote 5414 had some mirror testing or something along the lines a few weeks ago so sounds like it was done then.
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5414 was the only one that was updated before today - it had a broken window on 13th July so was at Saltmeadows Road to have that repaired. A lot of the work I do is more convenient to complete at the bodyshop than an operational depot, so I quickly jumped on it to update it while it was there.