Ezra Newman
Member
Hey guys, our show opened last night and I had a problem I've never seen before.
Some context: we have Source 4 19 degree 750 watt conventional spots. Our grid that the spots are mounted on is metal pipe with a thin, easily scratched coat of paint on it. I think its not unreasonable to say that the C clamps cut through that everywhere on the grid and so any/all lights could be making an electrical connection (although there shouldn't be any power flowing through the grid, obviously).
One of our spot ops noticed a spark where the yoke bolts to the C lamp, so I turned off the light and had our spot op (carefully) unplug it. We replaced our entire lamp housing and cable assembly (plug all the way to the lamp) with a different one and turned the light back on. A little later there was another spark.
My spot op thinks it might be static or caused by metal grinding on metal but that seems somewhat unlikely to me because it's all metal parts (not static) and the light isn't that heavy or moving that fast. We've never seen this before. I cut power to all the lights in the grid at the circuit breaker when the audience left so it couldn't spark overnight.
I was thinking that its possible that a light is shorting through the grid and sparking there for some reason.
Have you ever had this problem?
Thanks.
Also posting this on safety.
Some context: we have Source 4 19 degree 750 watt conventional spots. Our grid that the spots are mounted on is metal pipe with a thin, easily scratched coat of paint on it. I think its not unreasonable to say that the C clamps cut through that everywhere on the grid and so any/all lights could be making an electrical connection (although there shouldn't be any power flowing through the grid, obviously).
One of our spot ops noticed a spark where the yoke bolts to the C lamp, so I turned off the light and had our spot op (carefully) unplug it. We replaced our entire lamp housing and cable assembly (plug all the way to the lamp) with a different one and turned the light back on. A little later there was another spark.
My spot op thinks it might be static or caused by metal grinding on metal but that seems somewhat unlikely to me because it's all metal parts (not static) and the light isn't that heavy or moving that fast. We've never seen this before. I cut power to all the lights in the grid at the circuit breaker when the audience left so it couldn't spark overnight.
I was thinking that its possible that a light is shorting through the grid and sparking there for some reason.
Have you ever had this problem?
Thanks.
Also posting this on safety.