Hey Vincent,
I'll try to answer your questions best I can, but this is in no way final advice, only a starting
point to help you understand what's going on. You'll need to discuss specific plans with a dealer or rental
house Master Electrician to cross check compatibility and
safety.
First off, check out this manufacturer. InduElectric. Top end stuff, rubberized housings, water avoid-ant architecture, high quality breakers and workmanship. They make gear for Hollywood and Disney and you name it. Can't go wrong. Lex is also great though I think Indu maybe has more options and (custom) made options for you. Plus they have a shop in Burbank that you can visit.
http://www.indu-electric.com/catalog/
Second, we have to clarify and use the correct terminology. I'm going to copy and past your questions and put my answers in italics.
[Edit by Mod.: Post edited/formatted for clarity--too much italics is hard to read.]
"In that it takes 3
phase 30 AMP
power and gives 6
Edison Outlets. I like the idea that they can be
fed by a
3 phase 30 amp Twist Lock cable and then further split into 6 edisons.
However, there is a chance this gear may also get rented or borrowed for other uses, so supplying the 30 AMP 3
Phase would be a little tricky.
I guess you could say that, someone would have to know how to
plug in
Twist Lock cables, but it's not too difficult. Personally I would consider 30amp
Twist lock relatively safe, as opposed to the bigger distros discussed below which are not safe for unqualified/rental users.
I thought the easy solution would be to find a Panel
fed 5 Wire 3 phase Cam Lok Distro that takes, say 200 AMP
Power and can give me say 6x 30 AMP 3Phase
Twist Lock. There in lies the problem, I can't find a Panel
FedDistro that Outputs 30 AMP 3
Phase.
Check out Indu
Electric. I didn't have time to browse the whole catalogue today, but 018 Cube series model
distro looks along the lines of what you're thinking.
Am I approaching the whole concept of the 30AMP 3
Phase the wrong way?
I'm not sure yet, but let's first try to straighten out the terminology. Your panel will have to be a 3
phase panel. It will have to have a
5 wire 3
phase Cam Lock output if you are doing anything in the larger amperage ranges (100-400amps). Then you'll have to run
5 wire's of camlok of sufficient guage to most likely an intermediary
distro device that will then feed your end devices. By the way.... what are you trying to run
power for?
Also, this is sort of a secondary question, but can anyone
point me in the direction of some good resources for working with Panel
fed 3
PhasePower? I can't seem to find some good resources.
Certain rental
house people, master electricians and such can clarify things for you. Entertainment
power is different than residental or most of
NEC. Maybe there's a
book out there, I don't know.
A basic question I have is say, if you have 2 distros that are 200AMP Panel
fed, can they both be hooked up to 400 AMP?
Um, this needs clarification on a couple levels. Do you mean using two seperate 200amp panels to "sum' together and feed one 400 amp load? No you cannot, not safe, loads must be protected by a single
breaker. Having two seperate breakers/panels feeding one load is unsafe because you're depending on both breakers to trip similtaneously, and there are a lot of other technical and non technical reasons like hard to remember you're dealing with two
power switches essentially. Do you mean using one 400amp 3
phase 5 wire Cam Lock panel to feed two seperate 200amp 3
phase loads? Yes you can, and it is wise to have an intermediate
distro box provide 2 individual 200amp
breaker protected circuits so that if one of your 200 amp loads has a problem, it will trip it's own 200amp
breaker protection. This type of device appears on the homepage of Indu
electric, but not in the catalogue (I was just inquiring with them the other day about such a
distro. They make it. The cheap way people do it is with T connectors, I don't recommend doing that.
Call InduElectric and have them
send you the spec sheet for that type of quality
distro to match the individual loads.
or do you have to hook them up to 200 AMP and makes sure together they don't exceed 200.
I'm getting a little confused but I think i answered this above.
Can you hook one 200 AMP source to 400 Amp?
Not the best idea, but it will work up to the 200amp limit. If your source is 200amps, and you have a 400amp load on it, that source
breaker or
fuse is going to pop when you reach 200amps. And you're relying on the quality or lack of quality of that 200amp source
breaker/
fuse. Much better to
drop a
distro box in there with a precise and fast
breaker set to 200amps or smaller amperage
breaker THAT MOST CLOSELY MATCHES the intended load of the device so that your source/panel is protected as well as YOUR PERSON.
Not sure if you're thinking of this... but let's consider a 3
phase 5 wire Cam Lock 200amp
Feeder Panel (source/
line). What you get is the ability to use 3x 200amps. In other words, each
phase supplies 200amps on it's own. So 600 amps total. That's a lot of
power.
Last
disclaimer I'm going to make for you,
ALL CIRCUITS MUST BE DENERGIZED AT THE SUPPLY PANEL ANYTIME BEFORE YOU ARE CONNECTING AND DISCONNECTING YOUR SUPPLY AND LOAD DEVICES. CONNECTING 3 PHASE 5 WIRE CAM LOCK CIRCUITS WHILE ENERGIZED COULD RESULT IN DEATH. ALSO IMPROPER CONNECTION OF 5 WIRE CAM LOK COLOR CODED CABLES COULD RESULT IN DEATH. THIS IS NOT EQUIPEMENT TO "HAND OUT" TO AN UN EXPERIENCED VENUE RENTING END USER.
Smaller 30amp
Twist Lock type cabling/distros may be safer depending on your intended use. What is your intended use?