I love the Wirlwind for data or
Clear Com. Got some 39pin and 61pin versions that are yet to fail more than a few times in the
plug thankfully for the various
DMX or
Clear Com front of
house snakes. Snakes themselves fail long before the
plug. Use the 39 pin for
Clear Com and video or
DMX attached to fiber optic snakes or 61pin for the huge
universe DMX snakes.
Stage hands using such wirlwin plugs in the field so far are confounded in breaking the pins so far for the most part with a wirlwin
plug in mating male with female. This as opposed to constant breaking of the
Socapex brand plugs to the
point I even invented a hole saw to drill out a broken solder pin and
epoxy in a new one so as to save it for one more use. Wirlwin has the silly set screws so as to spin a
panel mount plug into another direction on the other
hand. Small problem unless the set screw falls off. Loose set screw in that panel now mount spinning, tighten it and add threadlocker to it. Easy fix as opposed to popping a retaining ring on a
Soco multi-pin, installing a new body than getting the
snap ring re-locked into place.
Love the shorter pins and quality of the Wirlwind. This over 37pin
Socapex brand 337 type which is unfortunate the standard to most of our front of
house eight
universe snakes. Male pins are too long and especially if solder type break easily,
crimp type pins or sockets while better in flexibility but harder to get, push in and also at times
bend or break even still.
Strain relief system and area inside the body of the
plug is insane. Constant repairs to my department on them and huge cost in replacing especially the
panel mount versions that for male especially no matter the type, lock up in
nut or just plain
panel mount breaks off. Cursid
Soco #337.
Working on a few suppliers to custom make some plugs to mate with the
Soco brand in solving the problems, (talking going stainless steel and weathertight long body
strain relief in bulk for special order,) but I really wish I could go back like eight years and better choose what multi-pin data
plug we went with in a huge way. Now it's too late to change. Talking about literally hundreds of this
plug in circulation and getting parts for them or replacements is at times really difficult especilly given the start of the touring season notorious three month vacation for the French at this time. Same with
Neutrik but at least a little easier to get even if "crazy American" there isn't a problem attitude from them also.
Data, such a Wirwind
plug, sure.
Socapex or
Veam VSC series type plugs on the other
hand are the standard for 20A 6
circuit multi-cable. Also recently bought some McMaster type 32pin rectangular plugs to match up with our really old and recycled 37pin cable once with
Pyle national 37pin Mod II plugs on it. Modified one
scissors lift to the 12
circuit concept and suddenly it was realized lamps could share circuits as opposed to one
circuit per lamp in being a big project I bought $1.7K worth of plugs and connectors to. This
plug was only rated for 15 Amps as opposed to the
Pyle National Mod. II rated for 20 Amps but a bear to
wire (trust me) and being at least double in price, much less like 12" in length horse cock plugs.
15A ain't amperage for a standard 20A
dimmer which leads to a problem in loading without proper supervision.
Concept even if broken record on a
point is re-use of what you buy. If the production has the $$$ to just
throw out what it needs afterwards - and I do run into that type of thing in them as a production buying the gear and at that
point if they want to save money in doing something fine... (I'll dumpster dive later.) Otherwise if what the production wants, and what is to be used, one needs to consider reusability.
Would a
Soco type
plug be more useful a few years from now, or a 15A
plug? Actors can be trained or ways to do things figured out. This on the other
hand, I just bought for two seperate tours within the past three months a total of 80x spider type fan-out plugs which are a
Soco type to six
circuit individual
adaptor whipped normally
stage pin type way of making a
Soco into individual
circuit plug. The heck am I gonna after these tours am I going to do with 80x above what we already have in similar plugs already pre-wired in bulk and don't persay need more of to this extent? This much less when finding the time to re-wire them?
At some
point, if huge in bulk, even if much cheaper to buy at times the
Soco Standard, man-hours to change them into a fan-out would be cost prohivitive in what otherwise might be thrown out.... or if they listened to me.... Anyway, the production saved money on terminating the fixtures direct to six
circuit multi-pin given they were in pods it was ok. What to do with them once done, too expensive to toss out, too much labor to make useful and not really needed.
Anyway, this a side bar.