Recent content by jm_in_tx

  1. jm_in_tx

    Adam Savage backstage at Hamilton in San Francisco.

    Great stuff, thanks for bringing this to light for us (late to the party as always).I like that the great Adam Savage, knower of all things, looks at the small print on the handbills and newspaper and says "Oh, you've got Greek text here". Sorry Adam, that's called Lorem Ipsum. That dummy text...
  2. jm_in_tx

    DMX controlled Light switch

    One data point: X10 is very unreliable in the presence of any noise on the power line and only works when the controller is sending signals on the same phase (residential applications) as the device being controlled -- unless a phase-bridging transformer is used, and even then sometimes it...
  3. jm_in_tx

    LED Tape HELP!!!

    It is probably SK6812 RGBW tape, similar to WS2812 but with an extra byte for the white. If you are not the DIY type, then according to the website, a LeDMX4 PRO will handle it. Streaming ACN (E1.31) will handle the data transport and I am 100% certain that XLights will drive it wirelessly or...
  4. jm_in_tx

    Sound effect machine from stage for improvisors

    I learned something today!! Thanks. This sort of thing would have come in handy tonight if I had assigned hotkeys to the curtain call music and post-show playlist because I TOLD the SM not to call anything after Q45 because it was all automatic after that. But (dammit) he called curtain call...
  5. jm_in_tx

    Sound effect machine from stage for improvisors

    I could build you one in a day with a Raspberry Pi and some off-the-shelf parts. Seriously. I built a faux-speakerphone for an escape room that behaves just like a speakerphone (Polycom): it gives a dial tone, DTMF tones, rings, plays messages... All coded in Python using the audio routines...
  6. jm_in_tx

    Powering lights with dmx decoder

    When I saw the part about the resistance in the batteries limiting the current, I knew I needed to jump in. FORTUNATELY Mr. RC4 ( @theatrewireless ) saved me from having to do that. This is exactly the kind of educational post I would have loved to have done because I've been tinkering with...
  7. jm_in_tx

    Am I making the right college decision?

    All the learned and far more experienced professional people have had their say and I respect their opinions very much. As a non-theatre-professional, let me add my two pfennig: I am an electrical engineer (BS/MSEE, Purdue University, 80/81) with a minor in technical theatre. I spent 4 years...
  8. jm_in_tx

    Digital circuit breaker

    Late to the party as always, but these things are technically Molded Case circuit breakers, listed to UL489 (Molded-Case Circuit Breakers, Molded-Case Switches, and Circuit-Breaker Enclosures) and UL1557 (Standard for Electrically Isolated Semiconductor Devices). As for NFPA, it does not...
  9. jm_in_tx

    Recommend a controller for cheap RGB LED strip lights

    I guess I failed to read the fine print as well as I could have. Must need new glasses or something. I'm a bit of a stickler for crimped lugs on wires but sometimes you just need to go with what you have.
  10. jm_in_tx

    Recommend a controller for cheap RGB LED strip lights

    I get called every time someone in town needs LED strips for some sort of effect. A friend of mine who works with a local design-build staging company gave me a ton of leftover strips and several controllers like this (Amazon). 3 outputs, 3 addresses, no muss, no fuss. Since 90% of what I do...
  11. jm_in_tx

    $70 all in one mumble server and wifi

    I can confirm that anything that has the extension "tar.gz" is a compressed file. Uncompress to the .img file and then burn to the SD card. ...but a Linux Guru should know that??? For me it's Live and Learn...
  12. jm_in_tx

    How to use laptop for sound

    I have been doing sound in small (zero-budget) theatres for about 15 years now and progressed from using the headphone output of a Windows XP laptop to using an assortment of dedicated Theatre sound programs and hardware. But always on the cheap. In my experience, the best results are to be...
  13. jm_in_tx

    USB DMX Dongle

    I will second the DMXKing endorsement. My first DMX adapter was just a USB-RS485 (Modbus) dongle and from a PC & Mac it worked for some lights and devices but not all from a Raspberry Pi -- as noted, no processor, just an adapter. For a fixed install with only a few lights (and a fog machine!)...
  14. jm_in_tx

    Conventional Fixtures LED PAR for $9 ???

    Well, it is just as was predicted. I went to the EBay page thinking that I would like some to play with too and lo and behold "This item is out of stock". They have lots of RGB lights and little baby movers but the RGBW PARs are gone. *sigh*,
  15. jm_in_tx

    $70 all in one mumble server and wifi

    A couple of years ago, I resurrected/refreshed an old pushbutton cue system for a theatre I was working with at the time. I found out over the weekend that they finally broke it and there is nobody (repeat: nobody) who can fix/replace it that's currently working there. [to quote Hugh Fennyman...
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