Control/Dimming Children's Museum problems

Lin

Member
Hi all,

I'm here with a rather strange request. For background, my university degree is in Theatre Design and Technology with a "focus" in lighting technology (hehe). I have worked at several theaters but have been out of the lighting game for a couple years thanks to the pandemic, and a career change into museums. I am now an exhibit technician at a children's museum (target ages 3 to 10) that has a small theater exhibit inside it.

The lighting components in the exhibit are 10 years old, none of them work correctly, they were not maintained properly, blah blah blah. The cables are all actually XLR cables and there isn't a board, just an architectural dimmer system connected to the various buttons on the "console" that used to allow the children to change the colors of the very basic ADJ LED fixtures. I've been asked to revamp the system, which I have a general plan for -- 4 LED instruments, 2 strips over the stage and 2 non-strips over the house (haven't picked exact instruments yet), each programmed to 3 sliders on a light board for RGB color mixing fun, 1 slider per color per instrument, with an elementary guide to subtractive color mixing to get them started.

Which brings me to my question -- is there a manufactured board that might be durable enough to last while being handled by kids, without breaking the bank? The kids are generally extremely rough on everything. I want to custom build a table to set it in so that only the sliders are accessible to museum guests, but my worry is that any light board I find will not be strong enough to withstand the children. and the sliders will break immediately.

Any ideas/suggestions/thoughts/unforeseen problems would be welcome. Thank you!!!
 
Hi all,

I'm here with a rather strange request. For background, my university degree is in Theatre Design and Technology with a "focus" in lighting technology (hehe). I have worked at several theaters but have been out of the lighting game for a couple years thanks to the pandemic, and a career change into museums. I am now an exhibit technician at a children's museum (target ages 3 to 10) that has a small theater exhibit inside it.

The lighting components in the exhibit are 10 years old, none of them work correctly, they were not maintained properly, blah blah blah. The cables are all actually XLR cables and there isn't a board, just an architectural dimmer system connected to the various buttons on the "console" that used to allow the children to change the colors of the very basic ADJ LED fixtures. I've been asked to revamp the system, which I have a general plan for -- 4 LED instruments, 2 strips over the stage and 2 non-strips over the house (haven't picked exact instruments yet), each programmed to 3 sliders on a light board for RGB color mixing fun, 1 slider per color per instrument, with an elementary guide to subtractive color mixing to get them started.

Which brings me to my question -- is there a manufactured board that might be durable enough to last while being handled by kids, without breaking the bank? The kids are generally extremely rough on everything. I want to custom build a table to set it in so that only the sliders are accessible to museum guests, but my worry is that any light board I find will not be strong enough to withstand the children. and the sliders will break immediately.

Any ideas/suggestions/thoughts/unforeseen problems would be welcome. Thank you!!!
@Lin Preliminary thoughts: Suitably thick Clear Lexan (Trademark) cover the size of the table top.
Narrow slots in the Lexan; slot length selected to act as durable end of linear travel stops.
The Lexan could provide a durable end of travel stop slightly before the sliders hit their own internal stops.
Keep a menacing dragon near by to keep all liquids at a distance.
Possibly consider one or two fans underneath your controller drawing clean air in from underneath to maintain positive pressure optimistically preventing crumbs and liquids entering from above.
Toodleoo!
Ron Hebbard
 
Take the light board apart and look at the faders in question. The resistance value will be stamped on them. Then check Mouser, Digikey, or one of the surplus dealers to find robust metal shaft
faders that you can mount external to the light board in whatever physical configuration you want. I would get something substantially larger physically than the board faders with equally substantial knobs that you might have to epoxy to the shaft to prevent their being pulled off. You are looking for "linear taper" style, probably 10K ohms in value. Buy several.
Also remember that the old EDI Scrimmer consoles used a lever connected to a rotary pot which is probably more substantial physically if all the pieces were made of metal instead of plastic.

Another idea.... maybe use some kind of touch-sensitive device that takes a physical fader out of the equation?
 
Also remember that the old EDI Scrimmer consoles used a lever connected to a rotary pot which is probably more substantial physically if all the pieces were made of metal instead of plastic.
Even high quality sliders aren't designed to take much abuse. If you can custom design something to move an external slider shaft without being in direct contact with the kids then it might last longer. Maybe just up and down buttons.
 
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I wouldn't expose your console to the public... as mentioned I think an OSC/Midi controller built as a custom interface is going to be your friend here along with some creative programming. Don't try to design the museum for theater, design your theater space to be in a museum as an interactive art piece. Make it budget friendly and ALWAYS have 1-2 backup interfaces available. It's not IF it breaks, it's WHEN it breaks.
 
@Lin Preliminary thoughts: Suitably thick Clear Lexan (Trademark) cover the size of the table top.
Narrow slots in the Lexan; slot length selected to act as durable end of linear travel stops.
The Lexan could provide a durable end of travel stop slightly before the sliders hit their own internal stops.
Keep a menacing dragon near by to keep all liquids at a distance.
Possibly consider one or two fans underneath your controller drawing clean air in from underneath to maintain positive pressure optimistically preventing crumbs and liquids entering from above.
Toodleoo!
Ron Hebbard
I'd also thought about some kind of cover. I might have to play around with the design of the table and see what I can come up with.

We already have signs everywhere that ask for no food or drink within the exhibits and people are generally pretty good about following that rule... but I am definitely bringing up the dragon idea, I love it.

We'll definitely have fans in the cabinet for air flow in general but that is also a great idea. Thanks!
 
I'd also thought about some kind of cover. I might have to play around with the design of the table and see what I can come up with.

We already have signs everywhere that ask for no food or drink within the exhibits and people are generally pretty good about following that rule... but I am definitely bringing up the dragon idea, I love it.

We'll definitely have fans in the cabinet for air flow in general but that is also a great idea. Thanks!
Lexan is a virtually bullet proof / resistant plastic trademarked by GE I believe it is. We used it on the vertical front face of the large, automated, pinball machines in three productions of the Who's musical Tommy (Germany, London, and one of the North American tour re-mounts) to protect Tommy from the twice per performance explosions of pyro behind the Lexan. The Lexan got dirtier and dirtier but it NEVER fractured or failed in any way after hundreds of performances.
Toodleoo!
Ron Hebbard
 
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Lexan is a virtually bullet proof / resistant plastic trademarked by GE I believe it is. We used in on the vertical front face of the large, automated, pinball machines in three productions of the Who's musical Tommy (Germany, London, and one of the North American tour re-mounts) to protect Tommy from the twice per performance explosions of pyro behind the Lexan. The Lexan got dirtier and dirtier but it NEVER fractured or failed in any way after hundreds of performances.
Toodleoo!
Ron Hebbard
That's really good information to have, thanks!
 
What's the name / loc of your museum, Lin? Sounds fun to visit!
 
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Just a note on the use of lexan. Clean with alcohol .. glasses wipes for instance or soft cloth and isopropyl. Windex and disinfectants containing ammonia or quaternary ammonium products will over time break down lexan. Crazing, hazing or even downright fracture.. Learned this years ago cleaning a set of my glasses with windex. the lens at the rim where it would retain some just literally crumbled. Generic name for lexan is polycarbonate, if you're looking at plexi sheets in the big box store.
 
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Biggest problem is keeping the children in the dioramas... they'll wander off to eat and use the facilities if you don't have them locked inside. /satire
 
ETC/Pharos Mosaic system could be an interesting way to accomplish this, it can take a lot digital and analog inputs and use that to trigger timelines and other functions. You could then design your own "console" using some big industrial type buttons.
 
Thank you everyone for your feedback! Not sure I'm smart enough for all the suggestions that were made but I'll take them to my team and hopefully we'll come up with a solution that is effective in terms of use and cost, and not too, too much effort towards maintenance.

P.S. If y'all had links/sources for the equipment and materials you mentioned that would be very appreciated, I'm going to do some more research based on what was said but that would really help me out and cut down on the time that would take. Especially since today and tomorrow I'm focusing on painting notes around the museum. Thanks in advance and thanks again for all your help so far!
 
Mosaic Product Page: https://www.etcconnect.com/Products/Architectural-Systems/Mosaic/

Remote I/O: https://www.etcconnect.com/Products...ces/Remote-Input-Output-Modules/Features.aspx

I would recommend if you go this route finding an approved ETC dealer who is familiar with Mosaic who can help program it. All of the software is free to use and can be done by an enduser, but having a tech there to at least get it started would be pretty helpful and give you a lifeline if you run into issues. and of course it is backed by ETC's customer service so that's a bonus.
 
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That's really good information to have, thanks!
Lexan is *amazing* stuff. It's also stupidly expensive, and probably hard to work without experience.

My thinking is a Raspberry Pi connected to some home-made optical faders; levers moving a target past optical scanners where the target is similar to what you'd get on an optical rotary encoder -- and maybe you could just get those, as big and rugged a possible, and a bunch of spares, and connectorize them.
 
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Lexan is *amazing* stuff. It's also stupidly expensive, and probably hard to work without experience.

My thinking is a Raspberry Pi connected to some home-made optical faders; levers moving a target past optical scanners where the target is similar to what you'd get on an optical rotary encoder -- and maybe you could just get those, as big and rugged a possible, and a bunch of spares, and connectorize them.
I love the word "connectorize" and will now be adding it to my every day vocabulary.

What is a Raspberry Pi?
 

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