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.

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

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

Slightly off topic, but the first section has the statement
I would have said that this was incorrect - surely colour wheels were pre-cursors to automated semaphore changers.....

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

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

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)

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

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

I see you point gareth and others and I shall refrain from it in the future. Sorry!

It was just the older scrollers I was not so hot on because I have never used them, just the neweer ones such as the Chroma Q's.

Tom

Possibly, the ones I used had 5 or 6 sliprings with a gap corresponding to each colour. To change, power was applied to the relevant ring, the motor turns, and stops when it reaches the gap. At 24V fine, at mains, more than a bit scary!

How's this for a starter...
Courtesy of our old friends at the Strand Archive
We had 4 of these until a couple of years ago, when I dug them out from the dusty cobwebs and sold them on to a fellow stagecraft lister...
I gather they're performing quite well, too!
And yes - they were indeed selectable - reed switches, if I recall correctly, and Gareth said.
We had 4-way control box with thumbwheels to select which colour on each wheel, or continuous rotation.

Alas, the same Strand Archive index page has a semaphore unit with a similar vintage "style", but neither unit has a date. So we don't know any more for certain than we did before.

http://www.strandarchive.co.uk/control/effects/index.html

I am still looking for a line drawing I remember, in a book or a catalog, of a semaphore unit inside a ceiling, with something like a 1400 series Lekolite behind it.

Talking about Indexing colour wheels, I remember using 20 years ago a multiplexed system from CCT (MX????) It was a low voltage system, with facility to control (6?) wheels. The control surface was a (6? x 5 grid) with a button for each colour, and each lantern. Each lanterns colour could be preset, and went on the press of a "GO" button.

It was quite cool looking, with a Red, Green, Yellow ... button for each colour - Great until you put different colours in the wheel!

I seem to remember seeing reed switches on the unit itself, and it had low voltage circular connectors (Din?) (possibly XLR?)

I have since tried to find information on the interweb, with no luck!

As an aside it was with these units that I learnt my second lesson in the theatre, - Never fire a streamer cannon in close proximity to a rotating colour wheel.

Jim

CCT used a similar control layout for the semaphores.
They connected up on XLR, somewhere in the region of 10pins I believe, so I doubt they were multiplexed.

From the corresponding U.S. archive, for Kliegl Brothers, here's a 1925-1928 catalog sheet for a solenoid operated boomerang/semaphore unit, with descriptive text:
http://www.klieglbros.com/catalogs/bulleti..._3_c1925_p2.jpg

Here's a 1932 patent for a semaphore unit that seems to use geared, synchronous motors, not solenoids. Of course, the existence of a patent does not prove that the product was ever manufactured.
http://www.klieglbros.com/patents/1875814/default.htm

I believe the patent application unit is shown on the page before the solenoid unit:
http://www.klieglbros.com/catalogs/bulleti..._3_c1925_p1.jpg

This 1934 catalog page has text describing both automatically and string-operated indexing color wheels.
http://www.klieglbros.com/catalogs/B/Klieg...og_B_%20021.jpg

So for now, I'm going to say,
"Semaphore changers existed before indexing color wheels."

I want to note that although I'm more familiar with Kliegl equipment than Strand (or as we used to say over here, Century) equipment, I do not mean to suggest that Kliegl came out with something before Strand did. I think the Kliegl internet archive is just a little bigger than the Strand archive.