I have a question about gobo rotators, which I have never used in my life up to this point.
I've just started a job as a resident designer in a theatre that has a couple of them. All I have left from the last guy that worked here is a collection of paperwork, a sort of "bible" they pass down with the inventory, quirks of the space, admonishments, safety warnings, etc.
Inside, I found this note:
"Never plug a gobo rotator directly into a dimmer-always plug into a ghost load first. If you don't do this, the gobo rotator may be seriously damaged."
Is this true? I know, in the lighting world, everyone is a student and these sort of superstitions get passed down for generations without ever actually being tested. I ask because I have never heard this before.
I know you're not supposed to use certain kinds of motors with dimmers, but that you can use them with others, and that rotators are specifically designed to be run from dimmers. I also know that a ghost load can help dim really small loads completely to zero. But I've never heard of a ghost load preventing damage to a motor. After all, there's a transformer on the thing rated for 120V (It's a TwinSpin II non-indexing).
I wonder if it might be a quirk of the rig? The setup here is a little strange. They've got an old 48-dimmer road pack hard-wired into the building. Each dimmer is only 1.2k and they use triacs. Also the wiring on the grid is like 35 years old and apparently shoddy from the beginning...would any of this matter?
Thanks, guys. And hello, by the way. This is my first post but I've been reading for a while and the quality of information here is outstanding.
I've just started a job as a resident designer in a theatre that has a couple of them. All I have left from the last guy that worked here is a collection of paperwork, a sort of "bible" they pass down with the inventory, quirks of the space, admonishments, safety warnings, etc.
Inside, I found this note:
"Never plug a gobo rotator directly into a dimmer-always plug into a ghost load first. If you don't do this, the gobo rotator may be seriously damaged."
Is this true? I know, in the lighting world, everyone is a student and these sort of superstitions get passed down for generations without ever actually being tested. I ask because I have never heard this before.
I know you're not supposed to use certain kinds of motors with dimmers, but that you can use them with others, and that rotators are specifically designed to be run from dimmers. I also know that a ghost load can help dim really small loads completely to zero. But I've never heard of a ghost load preventing damage to a motor. After all, there's a transformer on the thing rated for 120V (It's a TwinSpin II non-indexing).
I wonder if it might be a quirk of the rig? The setup here is a little strange. They've got an old 48-dimmer road pack hard-wired into the building. Each dimmer is only 1.2k and they use triacs. Also the wiring on the grid is like 35 years old and apparently shoddy from the beginning...would any of this matter?
Thanks, guys. And hello, by the way. This is my first post but I've been reading for a while and the quality of information here is outstanding.