Lack of Electrical Safety

Hughesie

Well-Known Member
now i know im a sound person and not a lighting person but when i saw this in my workplace i just had to photograph it what you are looking at is an image of patch leads that have just been all removed from one dimmer ONE DIMMER look at them all. and i know for a fact that they weren't little lights they were sets of parcans which i know take a fair amount of voltage...110v i think

so what do you think?
 

Attachments

  • Image014.jpg
    Image014.jpg
    27.9 KB · Views: 377
What in the heck are those things? You've got weird stuff down there.
 
I concur--that doesn't look like anything unsafe to me because I don't know what I'm looking at--but I'll guess just on the principal of things that that big plastic/rubber coated bar hanging in mid air isn't good, and nor is all the cabling in a rats nest on the floor???
 
Ok I looked at it again. That's like a "daisy chain" plug system right? kinda like how we have Christmas lights here in the states. so that's like ten pars all pulling power through that first plug.... That's scary. The stuff in the background is just a pile of coiled rope. but what you're saying is that someone actually plugged ten pars together. That's like plugging 11 twofers togerther and tapping one par off of each twofer. Someone should get a boot up the A** for that one.
 
Ok I looked at it again. That's like a "daisy chain" plug system right? kinda like how we have Christmas lights here in the states. so that's like ten pars all pulling power through that first plug.... That's scary. The stuff in the background is just a pile of coiled rope. but what you're saying is that someone actually plugged ten pars together. That's like plugging 11 twofers togerther and tapping one par off of each twofer. Someone should get a boot up the A** for that one.

You're right and wrong..in Australlia they have these fantastic piggie back plugs that i would love to see stateside...quite awesome.

Here's where you're wrong..its more like 20 PAR's...see in Australlia they didn't get 220v lamps until recently so most all of their PARs have to be plugged in in series with funky little 2-fers.
 
Um..no.
That's just asking for trouble.

Actually its only asking for trouble with someone who isn't properly trained. It eliminates the need for 2-fers and 3-fers. It also makes hard patching a breeze.
 
I like avkid's logic, lets ban cars too because people can hurt them selves with them.
/sarcasm
 
yeah australia has what is called piggyback cables it allows us to connect multipl things our cables are 240v and 10amp

any other questions
 
My point exactly, you could probably hand 80% of us here a set of cams and meter and have correct and safe power quickly.
The other 20% are the ones that scare me.

The other 20% shouldn't be doing it. They should be sticking to jobs their trained to do.
 
yes but the point is even if the patch sheet says to do this you still got to think twice when it bends the contacts of the first plug with all the weight it puts on them
 
Hi. So you actually saw this in use in the pack during the run of the show? Was it taped into position? Because as you say the weight would have kept pulling the plugs out during the show.

What sort of pack was this and what was the rating per dimmer channel?

I think the most plugs I have had in one channel is four but the total load was still under the maxium for the channel and the plug. But I agree weight becomes a problem.

The voltage is not the problem it is the total current draw.

Just out of interest how many dimmer channels do you have at your venue?

Can you clarify one thing for me? So in the theatre you can use piggy back plugs. I thought they had been banned in Australia or is this only for domestic
use. I used to work for an Australian retail electronics and we couldn't get piggy back extension leads because they didn't sell them in Australia.

Later
Cutlunch


now i know im a sound person and not a lighting person but when i saw this in my workplace i just had to photograph it what you are looking at is an image of patch leads that have just been all removed from one dimmer ONE DIMMER look at them all. and i know for a fact that they weren't little lights they were sets of parcans which i know take a fair amount of voltage...110v i think
so what do you think?
 
Um..no.
That's just asking for trouble.

If used properly it is not a problem. We have used this method in New Zealand for decades without problems. Not having them would cause more problems such as having to run two leads for the same circuit. When you have a decent patch panel and you want two lights, 1 SR and 1 SL, on the same circuit the piggy backs are really handy. It means you don't have to run a short extension lead along bar which just gets in the way. Also people tend to stretch further putting leads on to the bar if they are working from a ladder.

I work in an amatuer venue that has quite a good patch system and only run extensions when I run out of patch leads to use on a bar. It also makes it easier to fault find. If you only have one lead to two lights and they go out you are not sure which one caused the problem if a fuse has blown. Separate leads are great you just test them individually before even having to get the ladder out. It all saves time.

I prefer a good piggy back plug to your two-fers because the two-fers look cheap and nasty. Do your dimmer packs have room for you to put a two-fer straight into a dimmer chanell or do you have to use one lead then put the two-fer up on the lighting bar?

But like anything a piggy back plug can be abused by overloading.
See the old Donald Duck cartoon on safety in the home about this.

In the theatre fusing is not normaly a problem because every dimmer channel has it's own fuse. It only might become a problem if you have unsafe lights and someone hangs on to both at the same time and there are faults on the earth wiring.

Here in NZ the lights and patch leads extension leads are meant to be checked by an electrician each year.

Later
Cutlunch
 
here in australia electrics are meant to be checked yearly also....does it happen no

the dimmer is connected to was a mini pac which will mean nothing to you untill i find a picture
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Back