Late Night Rant, INFO FOR EVERYONE WHO USES MOVERS!!!!!!!

[derekleffew]

I use independent subs to attack this issue. Run faders up preshow, and they will stay up the entire time. The get recorded into all the cues during tech, so even if I were to forget to run up the faders, the channels come up in my preshow cue and track through the show.

And to do a "Hard Reset" of just one fixture, during the show, you...

{Not being snide, I just don't know how it works on a Strand 5xx.}

 

[Charc]

And to do a "Hard Reset" of just one fixture, during the show, you...
{Not being snide, I just don't know how it works on a Strand 5xx.}

Hmm, that's interesting. Does a hard reset require a full power cycle?

 

[icewolf08]

And to do a "Hard Reset" of just one fixture, during the show, you...
{Not being snide, I just don't know how it works on a Strand 5xx.}

Well, if you can't just send a full reset command, which most fixtures have, then you pull down the fader and call the channel to 0 then put it back up.

 

[len]

As I see it, the problem isn't so much whether it's physically possible to put a moving light on a dimmer, but what happens if it gets damaged. So you send it back to the mfg. and the tech is somehow able to determine that it was run on a dimmer. "Sorry, not a warranty repair. That will be $500 in parts and labor. Oh, and we have to bill you for shipping as well." Seems to me like you're better of renting a distro if your venue lacks proper power.

 

[derekleffew]

Hmm, that's interesting. Does a hard reset require a full power cycle?

New terms have been added to CB's Glossary.

 

[TimMiller]

Soft reset - Reset of processor and motors from lighting console
Hard reset- Physical shut down on fixture by removing power and then reapplying power

 

[JD]

So you send it back to the mfg. and the tech is somehow able to determine that it was run on a dimmer. "Sorry, not a warranty repair. That will be $500 in parts and labor."

Being one of those people who used to make the determination of warranty status, (I worked in service from 1989 to 2002) the type of damage that would occur would be easy to spot. (Crispy snubber circuits, shorted switch/reg drive transistors, burst primary electrolytic, etc.) It generally mimics over voltage damage, which would also void the warranty. Why risk it?

 

[DarSax]

Now this is fairly related to this thread, but not necessarily for movers. I was at a show last night, and I heard the hum that filaments can make on dimmers (freaking loudly, too!)

But I was wondering about another fixture, a 360Q that, when at full, would click (or something that made that type of noise) at a constant rate. Any ideas?

 

[TimMiller]

some lamps make a really bad hum. I know in our hs black box the house lights were rediculously loud when they were around 30-50%. The company who wired it had all of the houselights installed on a wall dimmer panel (typical home depot stuff).

The older fixtures would click because of the housing heating up. Just like when you turn off your car and you hear it clicking, Its the metal cooling. When metal heats up it expands, when it cools it contracts.

 

[derekleffew]

Now this is fairly related to this thread, but not necessarily for movers. I was at a show last night, and I heard the hum that filaments can make on dimmers (freaking loudly, too!)

But I was wondering about another fixture, a 360Q that, when at full, would click (or something that made that type of noise) at a constant rate. Any ideas?

Yes, as TimMiller said, filament hum, more commonly called "lamp-sing," is a phenomenon of the SCR dimmer. Manufacturers have been struggling with this issue since the 1950s, and have rectified it [pun?] with the significantly more expensive sine-wave dimmer.

The "clicking" one hears from Altman 360Qs is expansion/contraction caused by heating/cooling of dissimilar materials (metals). Always useful in enhancing a quiet, dramatic moment in a play.

 

[TimMiller]

we werent using SCR dimmers they were varistat dimmers.