Anyone using these laughably cheap movers?

[EdSavoie]

I'm Back!
Unfortunately, time was not something I had enough of before the event. There wasn't any time booked to run through everyone, so the Band, four dance classes, Musical theatre, and us techs had to share one 75 period to prep the entire thing.

It was chaos, but (as has become usual...) we managed to run the show by the seat of our pants.

TL;DR: Not enough time to setup good recording, enjoy my salvaged clips.

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I was both calling the show (without Clearcom, that was fun) and operating the moving heads with a bunch of scenes and FX animations i finished setting up in QLC+ as students flooded in five minutes early.
The units were both more than bright enough for the task, and stayed where they were supposed to be for the entire show without a reset.


Our main job was to fill in the gaps between groups with lights & sound, it's always a fun event to run.
I apologize in advance for missing some beats, as well as the genre of music likely being nails on chalk for some of you!

EDIT: I'm not going to mix the rec. out into the video because:
a) didn't get a chance to set it up
b) didn't get a chance to line up the royalty free playlist I wanted, i'd rather not get a strike on my account!

 

[Les]

This is actually pretty impressive. I often get called in to design shows that use movers and I bring about a dozen of my own (VL500's, old Technobeams, Trackspots) and could see myself using something like these to "fill in the gaps". They look bright enough to do some audience scanning without taking the brighter fixtures off the stage, or placing them along the apron which is an idea I think you mentioned earlier(?). And these were what, $66 plus ~$20 in shipping? Color me tempted to buy 4 or 8. I'll be curious to see how much brighter they get over the next few years as the technology trickles down.

 

[EdSavoie]

I should also add that these were sitting on top of our dare I say it... Control Booth at the very front of house, probably about ~50ft away from the stage? The spotlight room is directly above our booth, and these 10W moving heads seem brighter than the old 1000W bulb in our Super Alt Spot 2100.

But that's another thread for another time, I have to run off and get quotes for Clearcom and UV tubes

 

[Jay Ashworth]

I should also add that these were sitting on top of our dare I say it... Control Booth at the very front of house, probably about ~50ft away from the stage? The spotlight room is directly above our booth, and these 10W moving heads seem brighter than the old 1000W bulb in our Super Alt Spot 2100.

But that's another thread for another time, I have to run off and get quotes for Clearcom and UV tubes

That was a *fifty foot* throw?

Damn.

 

[EdSavoie]

Yeah, I was surprised how bright it was at that distance.
I also managed to get some cleaner footage yesterday (sans-audience) so i'll try and get it uploaded if I have the chance to actually use home for more than a bed!

 

[Brentgi]

Reminds me of this: http://www.adj.com/inno-pocket-spot

 

[Lyle Williams]

(Dragging up a near necro thread as my first post on CB... Sorry... )

I have similar movers that get used for audience scanning. They work amazingly well for the price. In the audience scanning role the colour scroller transitions are actually pretty funky.

 

[EdSavoie]

As a personal update, something seemingly obvious that none of us have mentioned.

None of these devices meet any ratings...
CE is a worthless mark since it is self asserted, and I've stopped using mine in the theatre because after a nice chat with someone working in a repair shop that they've seen the same unit I've got and while they are pretty well built, they still have several problems with them that aren't to code. Additionally, as we the purchasers have imported them into the country, we are liable for any damages caused by these units.

 

[Lyle Williams]

Mine were bought through a physical lighting store in my country (Australia) and have the expected regulatory markings.

 

[Lyle Williams]

By not importing them myself, I got to demo them before I bought, and I got the regulatory approvals.

The downside is they were nearly twice the price in the Aliexpress link. Still very cost effective.

 

[andrew.sharratt.5]

How about the cheap Sharpy's? Similar disclaimer to the original post -they are not Clay Paky's! There are lots of 5R,7R,10R.... type clones out there. Anybody tried them?

 

[Chris Pflieger]

As a personal update, something seemingly obvious that none of us have mentioned.

None of these devices meet any ratings...
CE is a worthless mark since it is self asserted, and I've stopped using mine in the theatre because after a nice chat with someone working in a repair shop that they've seen the same unit I've got and while they are pretty well built, they still have several problems with them that aren't to code. Additionally, as we the purchasers have imported them into the country, we are liable for any damages caused by these units.

Often times cheap Chinese electronics will bear a CE mark that's not the same as European Compliance - it's "China Export" (IIRC) If you know what to look for, the spacing between the C and E are different.

I believe "China Export" is completely meaningless and not regulated. And unless the product carries some decent brand name, I wouldn't consider any safety regulation markings to be worth any more than the ink used to print it.

 

[Lyle Williams]

In my case:

Lights were bought through an established bricks-n-mortar business in the sound/lighting industry.

Lights are branded with a recognisable brand; not a tier-1 brand, but a known brand.

Lights are marked as meeting regulatory requirements.

Lights pass in-house electrical safety tests before going out.

Lights are always operated with GFCI/RCD protection.

Lights are low current / low temperature devices that don't throw a lot of weight around.

... I really can't see the scary safety issue. These don't compete with big moving heads, but will be much safer than big moving heads.

 

[EdSavoie]

The problem I heard is that when shops import these, they can go back to the manufacturer and get changes. The tech I talked with sells the same unit, but with proper non-melty plastics on the IEC connector, proper wiring on the mains, and a different power supply module.

Also, as bigclive noted in his teardown of one of these (video on first page) the motors can get close to 100 degrees Celsius under normal operation, so they aren't exactly running cold...

 

[Lyle Williams]

The teardown video noted that the stepper motor DRIVER CHIPS got to 80-100 deg C, but the video also notes that these ICs are rated to 150-160 deg C.

 

[EdSavoie]

Right, thank you. Been awhile since I watched the video.

 

[Lyle Williams]

"Bluntys" as someone has labelled these lights (cool name) are not going to cut it in a really big space.

But in a school-hall sized space, they work quite nicely. I could probably buy (and cable and power) 30 bluntys for the price of one real sharpy. Quantity has a quality of it's own. You can do interesting things with lots of lights.

Alas, I only have four. But that's four more than I'd have if they were real sharpys.

 

[EdSavoie]

These are still worth it even when paying $200 to get one from a localish vendor who has them certified. Very easy to get up and running with free software. I can post the QLC+ fixture config in a few days when I get back to the laptop should anyone want it.

Edit: one more thing, the mains cables that came shipped are of questionably high resistance. Fine for low power like this, but I'd get rid of them so they don't get mixed in with proper IEC power cables.

 

[EdSavoie]

Reminds me of this: http://www.adj.com/inno-pocket-spot

Reading through the thread again, when I was talking with a tech from a local shop, he told me the guts of the pocket spot are nearly indistinguishable from these units. Just that the PSU module and mains wiring aren't completley up to spec on these "blunty" movers.

Speaking of which, there's another slight difference, the servos or the MCU doesn't have the same resolution as the pocket spot, or more closely the "sharpy" which is why Clive named it the "blunty"