About a year back there was an instrument dark on one of our electric battens. We flew the pipe in to re-lamp the fresnel, and when it got to ground level, the instrument was lighting again. We flew the pipe back out, and the light went out again. At a level of about ten feet above the stage (and well below show trim), the light switched over. We tried plugging different instruments into the offending circuit, and every time, the lights went dark at ten feet. At that point, that particular circuit was the only one that behaved in this manner. Unfortunately, the batten was completely full of fixtures, and there were no free circuits on it, so we ended up sacrificing worklight for part of our green wash.
A few weeks later, another circuit on the same pipe went out in the same creative way. This time there wasn't anything non-crucial to lose, so we had to twofer a pair of spotlights that generally came on at the same level to free up a circuit.
Then it happened again. This was when we started wondering about why this was happening. The only thing that really changes while the electric flies in and out is the orientation of a pair of multi-cables that run up to the cieling in a sort of loop. Those with electric battens probably know what I'm talking about. The only thing we could think of is that the multi-cable was somehow getting kinked and pinching off one of the circuits inside it.
We called an electrician, and he confirmed our assessment. There are apparently some extra circuits in the multi-cable, though, and he went ahead and used the extras to give us our non-functioning circuits back. He warned that there was only one extra remaining, though, and that this was likely to keep happening. Sure enough, we've lost two more circuits in the time since he fixed them. Since this happened on our most crowded pipe (directly above the apron), we needed to run power some other way. Our solution was to take four ordinary extension cables from floor level all the way up to the cieling where the multi-cable terminates, then running them parallel with the multi-cable to the end of the batten. From there, more extension cables can take power to the instruments where we need them. At this point, it's our only workable solution.
My question is whether anyone else has heard of a power multi-cable failing like this? I figure if they're used in that kind of application, they should be designed to flex and bend at least a little bit.
A few weeks later, another circuit on the same pipe went out in the same creative way. This time there wasn't anything non-crucial to lose, so we had to twofer a pair of spotlights that generally came on at the same level to free up a circuit.
Then it happened again. This was when we started wondering about why this was happening. The only thing that really changes while the electric flies in and out is the orientation of a pair of multi-cables that run up to the cieling in a sort of loop. Those with electric battens probably know what I'm talking about. The only thing we could think of is that the multi-cable was somehow getting kinked and pinching off one of the circuits inside it.
We called an electrician, and he confirmed our assessment. There are apparently some extra circuits in the multi-cable, though, and he went ahead and used the extras to give us our non-functioning circuits back. He warned that there was only one extra remaining, though, and that this was likely to keep happening. Sure enough, we've lost two more circuits in the time since he fixed them. Since this happened on our most crowded pipe (directly above the apron), we needed to run power some other way. Our solution was to take four ordinary extension cables from floor level all the way up to the cieling where the multi-cable terminates, then running them parallel with the multi-cable to the end of the batten. From there, more extension cables can take power to the instruments where we need them. At this point, it's our only workable solution.
My question is whether anyone else has heard of a power multi-cable failing like this? I figure if they're used in that kind of application, they should be designed to flex and bend at least a little bit.