I did post a few weeks ago about Pinspots on a similar discussion thread, including what it took to modify a pinspot to
house both a #4596 250w/28v VNSP
ACL light and 650w DWE lamp. Not an easy project or recommended. Nor would taking a pinspot and making it into something else such as screw based
fixture.
Had at the old theater some old style non-screw on front cap of the
fixture pinspots that someone converted into
PAR 38 fixtures. The lamp just fit but they used plastic lamp bases on them. Instead of jacking up a
porcelain 2" square
base, they used
fixture type
hickey clip based lampholders that had a single screw mounting them to the frame. 50/50 chance you would attempt to unscrew the lamp and the lamp
base would twist with the lamp. Or was it the second screw would constantly fall out by way of not thinking it out so well. What ever the case, they didn't think of jacking up the square lamp bases by 1/4" so as to allow the lip of the
PAR 38 lamp to fit just outside the lip of the
PAR 36 can, instead they just used crap in the quick and cheap without having to think. Still worse, could never figure out who was hot glueing the lamps to the
fixture when changing lamps. Fixtures didn't have much support of the heavy lamps so such a concept was feasible someone might do. Turns out instead the lamp bases rated at 600w even if thermo plastic, were melting down and the plastic was running with gravity down the side of the lamp until it cooled in escaping the
fixture. This was hot gluing the lamps to the cans. Reason the lamp bases were melting down was not because they were plastic specifically though a factor, but because there was no cooling vents in the rear of the
fixture for the heat of the 120v/150w
incandescent PAR 38 lamps to
escape. If not the lamp bases, it will have been the wiring and other materials in the
fixture and possibly was also. Putting a
PAR 30 into such a
fixture could work but still heat travels up, lights normally
point down - heat does not efficiently
escape. Short of putting cooling vents and upgrading the
wire to at least 150c if not 200c, such a can is not a very good idea to use.
Another factor in doing lamps into fixtures is the concept of getting the lamp out of the
fixture once spent. The
PAR 38 lamps obviously did not even in the outer lip of the
fixture have a lot of surface area on the side of the lamp available to un-screw the lamp with. Placing a
PAR 30 lamp into a
PAR 36
fixture would mean on a pinspot - given it even fit and it probably would not. The outside rear of my World
Stage & Disco Lighting Pinspots (with fuses) measures 4" dia. with a 4.5" length to the screw
flare out. This would mean given 1/2" or so for the lamp
base at a minimum for a screw
base lamp installed into the
fixture, you need a 4" length between the tip of the lamp's lamp
base and lip of the
lens. Otherwise you have about 1/32" on each side of the lamp insided the
fixture housing so as to get that lamp out in unscrewing a potentially arched to the lamp
base lamp at some
point. You would for a lamp need to be using the long neck or potentially even extra long neck versions of a
PAR 30 lamp so as to fit than - and get no lamp support other than by way of the lamp
base. Such long and extra long lamps don't have a lot of variation in lamp type and max out at 100w for the Sonlite version - not commonly available. Not a lot of punch or options for such a
PAR 30 lamp in a pinspot
fixture. Going
PAR 20 in a pinspot would work and not need extra support of the lamp but again, there is not a lot of variation, wattage or styles available. Going
PAR 38 won't fit, and further you still need to be able to cool the
fixture by way of serious modification to the pinspot body. Plus those screw shells on a pinspot don't take
gel very easily, can to a limited degree take a
roundel (American DJ as a source amongst very few others), and above and beyond the darned tripple thread penut butter jar caps fall off easily or become stripped or cross threaded and stuck. Not the premium in option for a
stage lighting
fixture. Though I do have some Kopp
PAR 36 frosted
roundel lenses that are interesting for use in such fixtures but don't spread the beam sufficiently if #4515.
By the way, TMB has a much better pinspot
fixture on the market - assuming they did their upgrade to them. Such pinspots take
gel frames, include all modern features and looks and are much better than the what was it PL-1000 from American DJ. Early pre-market samples of the
fixture I had were good except for some tolerance issues. Seems the china lamps fit in being slightly smaller but a GE lamp would get stuck amongst other slight issues on the manufacturing side. Been a few years since I
play tested and po pooed them and I'm sure they are good if not great now.
The pinspot is rated for a 12v/30w lamp. Anything larger than this in wattage would burn out the
transformer and also probably melt down the internal
fixture wiring. (This much less any modifications to the
fixture such as changing the lamp
base or re-wiring will destroy its UL listing.) Still as pointed out, it's theoretically possible to install a different
transformer into the pinspot as long as cooling of the
fixture is reconsidered, that and the potential need of a
safety screen.
Birdies are correct for
PAR 16 - though I usually consider a
Birdie a low
voltage variant and not the 120v cans to be the same. 120v E-26 or E-27 medium screw
base cans no matter if
PAR 20 or
PAR 16, I consider as a
PAR can so as not to confuse. You can get some very narrow almost parallel beams of light out of a low
voltage MR-16 lamp - lots of styles of them, but not out of a screw
base PAR or JDR MR-16/E-26 lamp to date.
On modifying a typical 6v/30w pinspot can for other lamps above 30w as mentioned in the past post and pointed out above, there is a further problem of the pinspot not having a
safety screen. My modified fixtures had one installed at great effort as necessary for such higher wattage fixtures in addition to
safety cables that attached the lamp retaining front to the
fixture body. The Thomas style
PAR 36 can would have a
safety screen thus be suitible for the 650w
audience blinder lamps amongst other lamp types, in addition to this
safety cable between cap and
fixture.
Hundreds of
PAR and MR lamp types with all forms of size, lamp
base configurations, wattages, voltages, beam spreads and special features.
PAR 38 lamps with screw
terminal / quick
disconnect side prongs amongst them as an example. I count 15 different types of
PAR 38 in this style alone. Primary use - mine lighting. Granted such
PAR 38 lamps are for the most part not much available these days or on their way to being discontinued.
Point being however that if you have an application and idea, there is probably a lamp type out there that does it. Largest MR type lamp is a MR-18, smallest is a MR-8. Largest
PAR is obviously a
PAR 64, smallest is a
PAR 14.
On pinspot lamps of wider
beam angle for instance, the #4510 is 6.4v/25w and 20x80 degree
beam angle. You will get about as much punch out of it as a 45
watt halogen PAR 38 VWFL at 50 degree
beam angle. Still it has a wider
beam angle and for a close up
fixture would be much cheaper than a 3"
Fresnel to use. Given a maximum of 30w and there would be too much amber
shift off a 12v or larger
voltage lamp, there are still 23 different lamps I'm aware of which will work in a pinspot
fixture - the #4510 lamp amongst them. The #H7604
halogen PAR 36 lamp at 30w/6.4v and 7x4 degree
beam angle has 100,000
candlepower which is in the range of what a
halogen 500w
PAR 56 or 64 lamp with the same beam spread would put out. About 2/5 the output of a #4596 but a much smaller beam of light and while not 5x5 degree, almost twice the output of a #4515 lamp. Again, lots of lamps out there, 23x in
PAR 36 screw
terminal or multi-purpose
terminal alone at 6v at 30w or less. This including
halogen verses
incandescent versions of all. The
halogen #4515 lamp for instance while the same lamp life is more in center beam
candlepower.
These are one of the standard lamps for
audience blinders. I do believe that Ship wired some AMDJ PAR36 pinspots with some of them to be used as single lamp audience blinders.
These are the pinspots that I want to get my hands on. (Middle
unit on
page A17)
Also, SerraAva, take some pictures of the
LED pinspot experiment. Those would look really sleek in an Elation Opti 30 can. And probably be cheaper than the OptiLED (but the OptiLED has Luxeons).