Electronic Control lighting equipment

krhodus

Member
I have been working with our school's 20+ year old house light system.It is sold under a brand Electronic Control with a logo that is a E and a C. I tried to find this company under google and had no luck. Would this be the local theater store (Brite Lites) name or did they turn into another company. The theater manager thought they tured into ETC. Is this corrrect? Has anyone worked with any Electronic Control systems? All our house ligth system (Control panels in theater, dimmers, rack) are from this company. We know it is atleast 20 years old becuase it was installed when the theater was built.

Thanks,
Kevin
 
I know there was an Electronic ControlS company, but I've never heard of "Electronic Control". I'd assume the EC doesn't stand for the company but for the classification since there is no documentation of a company called "Electronic Control". Do you have manual dimmer systems? If so, it'll probably be pretty hard to find information on a company that made those. When the first models came out, they were experimental so it wasn't usually companies that made them, but labratories.
 
we have parelipshperes that have the "EC" mark on them. ive been trying to find who made them.
 
It is Electronic Controls. The board is so worn out that only half of the words were on it. I checked on a dimmer today.

I am going to try those forums.

Thanks,
Kevin
 
If memory serves....

It was actually Electro Controls.

They made consoles, dimmers and the Parellipsphere spotlight.

They were located in Salt Lake City untill Strand brought them out and put them under (mid 80's ?).

Dimmers can be fixed, there's a Canadian company called Johnson Systems that can service and update the electronics.

http://www.johnsontsystems.com/hpls.html

The consoles are boat anchors.

The Parellipsphere's were a unique design for a zoom ellipsoidal. Very little light output though... Now they're a boat anchor for light sea conditions.

SB
 
little light output?? there some of our best instruments
 
SteveB said:

Yep. Electro controls did our initial lighting installation too, our school was build in 1970. We have gotten some new equipment since then, but the house light dimmers and the circuit strips are all electro controls, and a bunch of our instruments have that same EC logo you talked about.

I too have been having a really hard time finding anything about them on the web, let me know if you find anything.

Also, the one piece of Electro Controls equipment that's been a really big pain has been our circuit strips. They're called channel mounts, and they're sort of like unistrut, only incompatible with it and more of a pain to use. There's a kind of track in the bottom and top of the strip, and you put in a little metal do-hicky, and then suspend the instrument on a threaded rod or bolt. Sound familiar?

Also, the url that steveB posted has an extra "t" in it. I found johnson systems through google, though, and this is the correct url: http://www.johnsonsystems.com/hpls.html or you can just go to http://www.johnsonsystems.com and look around there.
 
Recently got a lot of these types of track lighting out of a theater/club down town. Very interesting stuff. It's in storage now without a specific purpose but not being total trash so far to throw out. Hope at some point as a pack rat I'm able to strip and save the parts before they are thown out.
 
ship said:
Recently got a lot of these types of track lighting out of a theater/club down town. Very interesting stuff. It's in storage now without a specific purpose but not being total trash so far to throw out. Hope at some point as a pack rat I'm able to strip and save the parts before they are thown out.

Any chance you could post a picture of the little pieces of hardware that slide into the track and support the threaded rod? We're always in short supply of those, and would love it if you would be willing to send us some, if they're compatible.
 
I think i have 1 or 2 of those supports kicking arround the back of my auditorium b/c our old school's lighting system used them. If they are the same as what I am thinking we have, if you really need more, i am thinking that you might be able to have your metal shop make them. They are just pieces of metal with the two corners shaved off. just be VERY sure that they are fully the right size and are made of strong metal so that they dont fall out. As always, just be SUPER SUPER SUPER careful with these (and you should ALWAYS us a safety cable, especially with this sytem of mounting, i have had several almost drop out unexpectidly when hanging them or taking them down)
 
for backstage we sorta have the unistrut type tracks, which i don't use anymore since i can't find any of hte metal things taht are put into the track and i can't seem to find bolts that fit them.

i'm not taht good at doing these drawings, but here's my best attempt
ours look kinda like this.
________________
|_i---i_____i------i_|

the bolt would go through the yoke of our fresnels and into the middle of the metal thing.

If anyone can tell me where i can buy these from, it will give me more lighting angles from one bar since i wouldn't have to worry about lightings getting in teh way of traveller paths. Plus they would be easier to hang since the C-Clamp doesn't have to be perpindicular to the bar.
 
oh i think i know what those are now. thats how all our instruments in our coves or mounted. they dont hang, the yoke is on the bottom. a week ago me and my sm were focusing and i lossend the bolt and the washer in the track came out. so here i am hanging on the instrument and its on at full and theres not much room in there. eventual i was able to unplug it and reset it in the track.
 
hmmm ok, i'm not sure that that is the same kinda track that I used to have. ours was more like: (periods are not there, they just hold space so the pic doesnt distort)


side vew looking down track:
_________
|. . . . . . . |
|. . . . . . . |
|__. . . .__|



With a piece of metal like


Top view looking down at holder:
____
/ . . . |
| . . . |
| . O .|
| . . . |
|____/



That sliped in the hole in the bottom of the track and then was twisted 90 degrees so it was the wide way and suspended from eather side of the track with the bolt still hanging down through the slot in the bottom of the track.

Looking at your pic, i dont think we have the same setup. Did the yokes that attach to eatherside of that middle hump via a bar runnig through it?
 
Such lights are 40 miles away at the storage center/new shop at this point. They did come out of a theater down town that if I remember correctly we have a member in being a tech person at however.

As for sending you parts, you do of course realize that it's a professional company I work for and not a cherity? Even in giving away parts, due to liability I would have to inspect and service them which would cost money in that effort.

If such things get trashed and I'm made aware of them of course I will strip them for parts and keep you in mind to give to if the correct type of thing, otherwise once I get to the new shop, I will remember the interest and look into pricing the used parts out. Sorry but it's realistic in both not giving stuff away or in trolling for sales on internet forums, yet still being fair.

On other responses, I think many people are thinking what's both brand name and trade name called "Unistrut" Many companies offer similar fittings. see mcmaster.com part number say 3259t41 for an example of the nut. Different animal to the above type of strut.
 
the bar is is an upside down U with a lip of either side

_________
|. . . . .. . . |
|. . . . .. . . |
|__|. . . |__|

more like that, again without the dots.

the metal bit would come up on an angle and slide into one side of the track the when you push it up you pull it towards the other side and drop it into place.

from a side view

__________________
| .i---i . . . . i--------i .|
|_| . |_____| . . . . .|_|

the longer dashed side goes in first and the other side just passes up into the track then you pull it back and the smaller dashed side fits snuggly over the lip of the track.

There is a threaded hole in the center that the bolt screws through and holds the fixture in place,

top view

__________________
|...........___..............|
|......... |....|..............|
|......... |__|..............|
|_________________|

its suppose to be a rectanlge with a hole in the center for the bolt.

the yoke of the fixture is attached via a bolt that goes through the hold for a C-Clamp and and screwed into the hole on the metal rectangle.
 
Code:
 ______________________
|  ____       _______  |
|_/    |_____|       |_|

This is my attempt at a drawing of what we have. It sounds like it's the same as what you guys have been talking about. We haven't found anywhere to buy them, our only source has been our school metal shop, I just feel a little bad asking them to make more and more of them, as they're already being really nice to us (they're duplicating a yoke for a followspot).

I hate this mounting system with a firey passion, because it's such a pain to work with. The instruments are always falling out when you're hanging them, and it's quite hard to work with.

It's similar to unistrut, but incompatible. They have unistrut at the University of Minnesota, where I'm taking a lighting design class, and I brought one of our channel mounts in, and it was incompatible.

Also, for those of you who are looking at ways to format text like this, the code tag allows you to post text where the board doesn't automatically delete repeated spaces.
 

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