A Little Help With Scrollers Please... Options

[gregog]

Hello there Ladies and gents...

I wonder if somebody could help me. I have been asked to give a demonstration and presentation about scrollers. But I am worried that I don't know enough to be able to give the presentation.
I am relatively confident that I do know what I am doing, but if somebody could please write me a step by step guide of how to use them, starting from attaching and plugging them in so that I can double check and cross reference what I want to show... which I am still to note down. If you could do this it would be a great help, as although I have quite a good general knowledge, I have only used scrollers a couple of times, and this was predominantly rigging and not so much operation. I will be giving the demo on a strand 300 series, which I have to transfer into the space.

I look forward to your help and many many many kind thanks in advance!!!
Steve.

[peternewman]

The wiki page on Colour Scrollers will be a good place to start.

[tom_the_LD]

I wrote pretty much all of that page If you need any more help, wack a PM across

[Ynot]

The wiki page on Colour Scrollers will be a good place to start.

Slightly off topic, but the first section has the statement

The oldest form of colour scroller, or colour changer, is the 'semaphore'.

I would have said that this was incorrect - surely colour wheels were pre-cursors to automated semaphore changers.....

[tom_the_LD]

I have been trying to edit that as I realised it was incorrect this morning, however it will not allow me to as it says that the page is locked for editing

Have tried logging in and out many a time but to no avail

[Andrew C]

I would have said that this was incorrect - surely colour wheels were pre-cursors to automated semaphore changers.....

So go and correct it, that is what the Wiki is all about!

[Cougar]

I have been trying to edit that as I realised it was incorrect this morning, however it will not allow me to as it says that the page is locked for editing

I don't know enough about this topic to edit it but it appears it would allow me to if I were to try (I tried everything except actually submitting an edit)

[Andrew C]

Tom, try CTRL-F5. If that fails, log out, and back in...

[tom_the_LD]

Managed to edit it

Feel free to re-size the images. I am fairly happy with my work even if I say so myself!

(If I has got anything wrong please correct)

I might go back at a later date an maybe add in some more images etc.

[Ynot]

I would have said that this was incorrect - surely colour wheels were pre-cursors to automated semaphore changers.....

So go and correct it, that is what the Wiki is all about!

At that point I was garnering others' opinions....
Who knows - I myself could've been wrong.......................

[tom_the_LD]

Slightly OT, but did the colour wheels have control? As in could they be linked via analouge or DMX and then the motor speed controlled?

Because I have written in the WIKI that they can

[peternewman]

Because I have written in the WIKI that they can

And that is exactly what is wrong with the real Wikipedia. Please don't submit guesswork to the wiki, it needs to be an accurate knowledgebase. I've marked both those sections as questionable for the moment, if anyone has any real knowledge/understanding of these older methods of colour changing if they wouldn't mind contributing that knowledge to the wiki that would be excellent.

[obsoperator]

Slightly OT, but did the colour wheels have control? As in could they be linked via analouge or DMX and then the motor speed controlled?

Because I have written in the WIKI that they can

Wow, that's testimony to the fact that you can't believe everything you read on the internet, and that Wikis should not be acceptable reference entries in academic papers!

For example, on Wikipedia, everything is supposed to be referenced to a "reliable" source. You're not supposed to just write what you think is true!

I will look at home for a Kliegl or Strand semaphore changer with a date. I very much doubt that there were indexing wheels before there were solenoid semaphores. But I'm not certain enough to write it in a Wiki.

[Andrew C]

I will look at home for a Kliegl or Strand semaphore changer with a date. I very much doubt that there were indexing wheels before there were solenoid semaphores. But I'm not certain enough to write it in a Wiki.

On topic; I don't know about the exact timescale, but in the late 70's I was using Strand wheels that were indexed, with quite dodgy mains motor/control. Much better were the 24v(?) type that were a bit later with a control box that allowed simple presetting of the required colour, and a GO. Always ran in the same direction, so some changes took a while.

Off topic; can anyone see a similarity between The Main Wiki On Scrollers and ours.

[gareth]

Tom, I'm sorry to be negative but perhaps you shouldn't really be writing Wiki articles about something of which your knowledge contains such gaps and inaccuracies.

Indexing colour wheels existed before semaphore changers - if I remember correctly, they operated using a simple arrangement of magnets and reed switches. The main theatre in the complex in which I work still has the cabling infrastructure (put in when it was buit in the early/mid 70s) for the indexing colour wheels that were initially used on the tab warmers. I'm fairly certain the colour wheels themselves have long since disappeared, but the control box was attached to the control room wall until two or three years ago - it might still be kicking about somewhere in a dark and forgotten corner of one of our many stores, if I come across it I'll post a photo.