I love free stuff!

Les

Well-Known Member
This just goes to show that when you're into lighting, let everyone know about it!

I got a call yesterday from a guy that heard through a friend of mine that I was into stage lighting. He works for a tradeshow display company and said that they had a roadcase full of lighting instruments that they were going to throw away. He told the warehouse guys to keep it because he knew someone (me) who might be interested.

Anyway, it isn't much, but here's what I got for free:

4 Fairly new Altman 65Q fresnels with (strangely) incandescent lamps.

4 ADJ Opti-Pars. Too bad they weren't the real deal ETC's but they were free and I might look into upgrading the whip and strain relief to match other theatrical lights. The yoke bolts are also undersized and I might tap in some bigger ones.

2 ETA 2400w 4 channel dimmer packs with power cords but can be hardwired. 600w per channel. (Question, they have a 1 amp breaker that says "Low Voltage Protection". What is this for?)

1 ETA 4ch. foot switch chaser/controller (no plans on using this).

8 gel frames

Assorted clamps. Some Altman clamps, some Mega-Clamps.

1 Really nice custom roadcase on wheels.

This was from GTE and they left it years ago and had no interest in acquiring it back. I told him to contact me if anything else turns up. He said it's likely since they're cleaning out the warehouse. YAY!
 
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Thanks for the clarification! I was excited to see that at least it was a 2400w pack and not an 1800 one and was hoping that 1a breaker wasn't for the whole thing.

I wonder how reliable these would be if I was running 575w x 4 continuously (hardwired of course). They are model MD460DMX-24 by ETA if anyone is curious.
 
If this is the ETA from Twinsburg, Ohio, they used to make reliable, affordable equipment. Perhaps too affordable or un-profitable, as they got out of theatre lighting and now only make power-conditioning devices. Current "About Us" website.
 
That's the one. I figured they had gone completely out of business but it's good to know they still exist to some extent. My packs have 5-pin DMX which is good - makes them appear more professional and less DJish. A few of the edison plugs are chipped under the ground slot, perhaps from yanking a cord rather than pulling by the plug. I'll have a look inside and see if I need to buy special outlets. They look like standard black 15A to me though.

EDIT: upon closer inspection (through the vents) it looks like the receptacles are jumpered and the wires are soldered like most other small dimmer packs. Something I don't really want to mess with. It's probably not a very big deal and I'll most likely just use the plug that is not chipped since I'll be running fixtures that will pretty much max out each channel. The good news is that I plugged them in and ran the pack through it's onboard test sequence and every channel seems to work fine, at FL at least. *End Edit*

Funny you mentioned ETA was doing other things. I knew they had their hands in more than just lighting when reading the certification label on the side of the unit: ETA systems division of National Biological Corp. Twinsburg, Ohio 44087.
 
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hope for your sake is it DMX and not AMX....

then again free gear is free gear, hopefully you can put it to good use!
 
They are indeed DMX. They also support some other protocol, I'll check on what that is. They have both 3 and 5 pin in/out ports.
 
They are both DMX most likely. DMX can come in 3 and 5 pin varieties. The 3 pin type is usually found on cheaper DJ equipment because it is technically not up to the true DMX standard but 3 pin XLR connectors are cheaper and more common.
 
It looks like the other protocol is Ultraplex. Possibly an ETA proprietary language?
 
Not so much free gear other than a at one point Juno Light sample kit an a few other things, more that the other shop - "the South Building" in being the storage building for tour gear storage. Them in throwing out old stuff no longer paid to be stored are more and more "if electronic or electrical send it my way."

Came to a head with that building's shop manager and I at one point, here it was I was making a 400A AC three phase distro and needed to spend in parts amongst parts like $80.00 each for some Marathon block barrior strips, yet a week later here was this rack in a dumpster with a bunch of them in it which went directly to the scrap yard. This amongst other electrical parts. Fine if the scene shop wants to throw out casters, Coffin Locks etc. much less plywood without saving what's useful from it in that part costing more at times than what it's worth, or that tax deductable refund isn't even worth what it costs to pay someone to landfill the scenery someone else could use in hauling it away without paying to trash it in volume - a constant thing...

At least my big win was at least in part the concept that if electronic or electrical and trash, it comes to see me somewhat in that I'm yet to see any big rack of stuff to take apart. On the other hand I just got a big box of Juno lights in addition to a LED controller that while we don't use that brand, I'm told is worth somewhere between $6K and 2.4K on E-Bay each - forget which. Gee, that box of them never used will have otherwise just gone into the trash with the rest of the hard flats etc.

At times I scalvange some small rolls of carpet for my cat play towers and other lumber but at other times the scale of what's thrown out just astounds me. (Don't send me PM's requesting the gear... I neither know about what is thrown out, nor have a role in it.) Remember an entire PAR can lighting system and rigging system for it that appeared in the storage building one day. It was removed from a club. Nobody remembers what happened to the gear or dimmers, one of them things, might have been "too much work" to make ours in constantly buying more cans, or could have been recycled or given away.

Just astounds me at times be this while carpenter and setting up my theater for goods coming in or in these days seeing stuff going to trash the scale of what's tossed out at times.

Good friend of mine that now works for a sound company now for the most part which also does some lighting was cleaning out a closet and found some Major Lekos and some Strand Cans than sent them my way by way of good home for them. Nice of him in having no use for them and me being that good home. Should probably take a bit off his dicount factor for lamps on resale to his company based on volume and good guy status.
 
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