What voltage is too much?
- Thread starterEdSavoie
- Start date
TNasty
Active Member
Trust me, a Genie lift is potentially one of the coolest pieces of machinery that you can operate (I know from experience- I can just about operate it better than the custodial staff at the school, if it takes them 15 minutes to get around one corner and out a door, it'll take me 1 minute of planning, and 4-5 minutes of execution). Certainly not convenient when it's shared between the auditorium and the custodial staff, or when the motors for the wheels are just a tad too week to get it up the isle between the chairs without a perfectly straight running start, but it's much better than our old school cherry picker. That thing's a freaking death trap- you climb a perfectly vertical freestanding ladder that sways every time you blink your eyes, and once you're at the top, there's no easy way to get into the basket [which also shakes like nobody's business] without hoping that your fingers slip on the piece of metal you just grabbed (of which was clearly not designed to be grabbed by human hands). Once you're done, figure out how to get out of the basket without killing yourself, climb down twice as carefully as you did going up, move the metal beast, and repeat for each of the remaining 35 lights (granted you're still confident that you're not going to die somehow).
I'd happily pay the expenses to buy/rent and transport my own lift if I was working at a venue without any type of motorized articulated personnel lifting apparatus. Even if I didn't have the money.
The only upside to the reduction of the blue-collar type classes is that each season of "Renovation Realities" on DIY network will only become more entertaining (and hard to watch, for that matter). Just about all my general handyman skills come from helping my dad with his projects over the years (we've built my mom an art studio twice- pretty much a glorified 12 by 12 foot shed with electricity and strategically placed windows for the best mix of north and south light).
The only time I got to work with some "big boy tools" was in my Engineering Design class last year. Once we were taught how to use the machines, all we had to do was ask to use them, and follow the normal safety procedures. We learned how to use the scroll saw, band saw, drill press, spot welder, pan break, square shear, and a few other things that I can't remember. If you're interested, I can share a bit about some of the projects we did in that class.
Amazingly (and not to my surprise) one of my friends managed to shock himself with the spot welder, left him with a nice dark callous spot on his finger (he was able to laugh it off though, and he learned from his mistake- keep your hands away from the poles).
In a class of 20 wild 17 year old males, isn't it a wonder that the biggest accident was a shock that didn't even require professional medical attention? Not with proper safety, education, and teaching it isn't (and a few stories of what happened to kids who didn't follow procedure). A little knowledge and common sense can go a long way.
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TNasty
Active Member
One time the school's Genius Bar (student IT helpdesk and showcase team that I'm the project manager for) ordered a new 3D printer. We got an astounding shipping and handling time of 3 months. E-Packet from China better watch out- there's a new competitor in the market for longest wait time.
And therein lies the error of your thinking. TRUST ME. You ARE going to die some day some how. Ideally you can organize it to be later rather than sooner.
Toodleoo!
Ron Hebbard (Who hasn't died YET!)
tjrobb
Well-Known Member
I graduated high school in '03. We were given mostly free reign of the shop, carried our multi-tools in plain sight, and only had "proper" railings for the FOH rail installed during my sophomore year. And, no major accidents or worried parents. Funny how that works.
There's also the story of accidentally shutting power off the the entire fine arts wing. But that's for a different time.
There's also the story of accidentally shutting power off the the entire fine arts wing. But that's for a different time.
DELO72
Well-Known Member
Most lighting Consoles and the Dimmer Rack CEM have the capability to profile them to output <x> percentage at full. So you could for instance set the board so that it trims "full" @93- 94% (or so), and you will be putting out ~120V max to everything downstream. That's probably the easiest way to do it that I know of. You definitely don't want your lamps all getting 130V as they will be super bright and last less than 1/3rd of their rated life.
EdSavoie
Well-Known Member
DELO72
Well-Known Member
It dawns on me that the above sentence would get me in a ton of trouble with my CFO and sales team who would prefer you to ignore that advice, and let the lamps burn out as fast as possible. They also ask that you touch the bulb with dirty fingers when you relamp, and shake the lamp vigorously to listen if it's good when you take it out of the box.
And shake it again once its fully up to operating temperature just to be sure, right? Anything else you're forgetting to tell us?
I've always liked you Mark, a salesman with a conscience.
Toodleoo!
Ron
Mac Hosehead
Well-Known Member
The console or dimmer rack may not have a global scaling setting for the output but the patch function of the MX console has output scaling on a channel basis. You could individually patch all outputs with a 85% max.
Maybe I'm misunderstanding something here. I understood the OP to say his grand master was limiting his outputs to a maximum of 80% and he was looking for a way to expand the output back up to where full on the master would equate to 100% from his dimmers.
Toodleoo!
Ron Hebbard.
Mac Hosehead
Well-Known Member
Sorry, I was responding to the original topic of the thread. I generally would not give suggestions to compensate for failing components if there was an option to replace it.
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