Lycian Questions

rochem

Well-Known Member
I'm currently doing a show in a theatre that has two Lycian Model 1207 Midget 2K Follow Spots (now discontinued). They seem to work alright, except I for one problem. I cannot figure out how to access the boomerang. The TD at the theatre has no idea, as he's pretty sure they've never needed to change out gels - as of right now, the primaries are in there plus a yellow and a purple I believe. There are two hand screws on the outside of the boomerang housing which would appear to be the way, but after removing them and forcing it I still can't get it open. Anyone have any ideas? It could even be that they just need a lot of force since they haven't been touched in many years, but I don't want to force it until I know for sure.

Another issue with them is that they appear to be way too wide for stage use. With the iris all the way closed and the edge as sharp as it can go, the beam covers about from a person's knees to above their head. When you try to make it a softer edge the beam just gets very large. I'm not exactly sure of the throw, but it's at the back of a ~500 seat house and only about 15 feet above stage level. Would a different lamp help get a smaller beam, or is there another way? The Lycian website says that the 1207 can hold gobos. Would throwing a donut-like thing in there work, or would that not really help?

The 1207 is designed such that only one color frame can be in the beam at a time, making it impossible to have a frost as one frame and then overlay other colors onto the frost. Is there a way to disable this so that you can have as many frames in as you want? Somewhat related, there is also a frame that comes with silk diffusion in the boomerang which can be operated independently of the others. Is this a permanent lens type of thing, or is it just a sheet of diffusion that can be replaced with something like R114?

Anyone got anything? The 1206 Midget is very similar to the 1207, so if you have one of those that might help too. Thanks.
 
To remove the boomerang: Remove the thumbscrews, then slide the entire mechanism either up or down so that part of it clears the opening, then pivot it out. It's easy once one learns the trick, and no great amount of force is required.
As for the iris not going small enough: the fixture is simply the wrong application for the throw distance. Some models, but not the 1207, offer interchangeable lens tubes. Using an aperture reducer gobo will not help. A different lamp will not alter the optics of the fixture.
The spread lens: is an actual piece of glass with lines etched/molded into it. Plastic diffusion media will not be able to withstand the heat in this location.
Self-canceling boomerang: Once can use more than one color at a time, but one must hold the prior color when adding the previous one, or engage both handles at the same time. Alternatively, if a soft edge is desired all the time (which seems unlikely as your biggest complaint seems to be that the pool is too large to begin with) one can tape R132 or similar to the front lens of the fixture.

Sounds to me as though you have good fixtures, but inappropriate for the throw distance.
 
Yea, I was pretty sure that they weren't really suited for this theatre, I just was hopng there was something I could do to make them work. As for the diffusion, the beam is also really hot. Like I said, I can only get that small of a beam when the edges are very sharp and the beam is very bright, and I would prefer to soften up the beam, especially since the show we're doing needs to have extremely subtle spotting. I want to play around with different diffusion materials and see what the best compromise would be.

Thanks for the info on accessing the boomerang, I'll give that another try tomorrow. And I'm not sure why I didn't think to bring up two handles at the same time, as it seems somewhat obvious now. Thanks.
 
I'll forward the question to an expert tech at Lycian - did you contact them before posting? Often with any manufacturer the best initial idea in supporting their product.
 
I'll forward the question to an expert tech at Lycian - did you contact them before posting? Often with any manufacturer the best initial idea in supporting their product.

No I did not contact Lycian. I assumed that it was just me missing something obvious, which is partially appears that it was. Unfortunately, they don't have any kind of a manual online and any that may have come with the instrument would have been lost long ago, which makes simple questions a little harder.
 
So I got into the theatre today and tried to open up the boomerang, but it still didn't work. After removing the two thumbscrews, there are two screws sticking out where the thumbscrews had been. On one of the instruments, I was finally able, with a lot of force, to move the metal plating up and free of the screws. But after doing that, the mechanism came maybe an inch or so out and stopped. On the other instrument I couldn't even get the metal free of the screws. Basically, there are two metal sections, with the bottom having two screws and the top having two holes where those screws go.

Did I just misunderstand your post Derek, or should this work. Can you go into a little more detail on what you mean? I couldnt find anything that could be pivoted out, and I'm not sure what you mean by "part of it clears the opening."

Thanks
 
I'd need one in front of me to give clearer instructions. Call Lycian at 1-845-469-2285, 9a-5p EST, and I'm sure they can talk you through it. They're there to help.
 
quick response from Steve Costa from Lycian to your post:

"The color boom knobs which you identified should be removed and then you should push all the frames up and turn it 90 degrees and it should pull right out. You can also put more than one frame in at the same time but you have to put both or however many in at the same time. The lens you are talking about is the spread lens which can be removed if you want to. I'm not sure how far of a throw you are talking about since you only said that it was 15' high and not how far from the stage so what you are getting is probably what you will get because unless you put a donought smaller than the iris gets, which is around 3/8 or 3/16 of an inch, I forget but you can measure, you won't be able to get a smaller beam."

Good company amongst a lot of good companies one should always contact first. Should there be further questions on this lighting fixture, often the manufacturer is the best first choice to ask.
 
Sorry for not replying earlier, I've been really busy with shows over the last few days. Ship, thanks for that info, I'll give it a try next time I'm in the theatre. Derek, thanks for the number, if I still can't figure it out I'll definitely give them a call.
 

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