pigeon_boy

edit: axiS not axix haha OK so ever since a young age I've always enjoyed lighting, and one that always caught my eye, not sure if it was on TV (probably Top of the Pops?) or a fairground ride (my local traveling one, probably on a Waltzer or something) was those big 1980's cosmos balls. I've done research over the years and know all the names that did them back in the day like Coemar and Clay Packi and a few others. Sadly they're super rare.... - so probably sought after and expensive too for that reason. Also they look HUGE! I bet some of them are like 30 kilo! or more!!! Then out of no where... I don't think I was even looking for modern equivalents but ADJ came out with this new LED cosmos ball ... and a proper one too not those crappy home party / disco "jelly / jello" ones with just one light in the middle of the ball (seems like a massive cop out to me!) It's called a galaxy 1000 or something like that. BUT it's like £99999 which I don't have. Are there any manufactures doing smaller ones for like... maybe around £200-500? LED ones that is. Love the cosmos ball! I don't think it's a design that will ever go out of fashion really.

I got 2 "classic"? 90's lighting fixtures recently. NJD (which I assume is well known here) Blitzer, and something else called a Abstract "Hyper Moon" ** laughs out loud ** I got them and tried them thinking they'd have aged well, but maybe not so. I still like them but the effect of them is quite delicate compared to the fast sharp sweeping effect you get now with the LED scanners etc. but imma still keep them cause they just have that nostalgia vibe to them for me. It's a shame both of them never came with DMX but I guess this was before DMX was standard.

Went for a 200watt LED strobe. does what it says on the tin but when it's on it just doesn't "feel right" to me, it give off the strobe effect but it's more of a yellowy-white flash, with the xenon, (when it did work) was a zappy WHITE flash. it was just more white and zappy (hard to explain) maybe it's just the fact it gives off the 'clack clack clack' sounds as it strobes. I do feel like a failed cheater though, I don't wanna say there's strobe connoisseurs out there but I do feel the xenon is the real deal if you're gonna strobe. Just don't have the power to justify one. Anyway I'll try and sell the xenon.

Ok guys thanks for the advice. I'd still however like to know the answer to my question though that, why is it that if I have the dimmer setting set to a low setting (the first 1 quarter of power) - can't the strobe just draw in the correct amount of power for that setting? You can get as technical as you like with me on that as I actually want to learn as it's been bugging me for a while now. Yeah I just noticed there's also LED ones, although I've always had this slight dislike for LED stuff maybe cause I feel a strobe should be traditional oldschool style with a xenon tube but if that's what I need then that's what I need. Anyway the whole LED love/hate thing is another topic really. EDIT: OK done a bit of research and ADJ do 1500watt strobes and a 800watt strobe but the latter is long disconnected and almost impossible to buy in the UK. Unless I have it shipped but it's not worth the hassle really.

Correct. It takes more power than a UK 13A plug can supply. I am not sure how it comes to have a 13A domestic plug on it, the plug (from your photo in post #11) is an adaptor fastened over a Euro/Shuko plug which is rated 16A. If you have been sold it with this plug fitted, whoever sold it has done a bad thing. yeah I found that out just now. as I have accidentally dropped the fuse inside the plug so I had to open it to get the fuse out, as I opened it I was simply just that, a domestic UK plug adapter surrounding the 2 prong euro plug. I feel like that's what it originally came with like it's more aimed at pro's and I dunno, those fairground ride attractions with their big generators. I got it on ebay. I'll basically have to sell it, no idea if anyone would want it even! It's annoying because logic tells me if I just have the dimmer set to something not so intense it will be fine but nope. Another thing I saw was it It was missing flashes every 1 in 8 at one point. Must be because it simply does require a super stable power source. Bulb is clearly fine. As for buying another strobe I can't seem to find the middle ground products, it's either super pro huge watt intake strobe or £30 home disco party weak strobe. Dammit I just want something in between.

no not winding anyone up or at least trying to. Just no zero all about electronics. my bag of 13amp fuses came today so I could test it further. basically I can get it going if I start from slow rates low dimmer and gradually build it up over time using the dipswitches thing is I don't want that as it all seems too fragile to get going in full effect straight away at my call. but if left off for a short while and put back on again it will just flicker for 1 second then pop, it will draw in a lot of power, super SUPER (almost blinding) flash for 1 whole second (with a buzz noise) and will blow the fuse and stop. It's like it half works half doesn't and for that reason it's so frustrating if I should sell it as broken or not. I just want a reliable strobe. Maybe I should have got an ADJ one. I've just been through about 8 fuses now!! What do I do? is it simply not for home use even though it has a domestic plug?

That's a pretty dangerous bit of kit to use as bedroom decoration !! Quote from user manual - "International laser safety regulations require that lasers must be operated ........ with a minimum of 3 meters (9.8 ft) of vertical separation between the floor and the lowest laser light vertically. Additionally, 2.5 meters of horizontal separation is required between laser light and audience or other public spaces." That's quite a big bedroom !! yeah. don't worry I've taken it down for now. Reason I got that pandora was... I had that £100 beamz laser they do, and the blue's and reds on it were terrible so I thought, if I save my pennies for something better. The 600 was like nearly £300!!! it should look better and to be fair it did. but sister was not impressed with the whole no safety. Also I passed my driving test this year and apparently if you're blind in one eye you're not allowed to drive anymore so I might actually sell the pandora 600 and find a way of doing some digital video editing trickery to make the cheapo laser look cooler.

Please, please tell me you already recognised that a 13A connector has a 13A limit and the fitting of a "16A BS1362" fuse clearly doesn't stack up and that finding such items on eBay does not make it ok. yep don't worry, I soon realised putting a 16a fuse in would jeopardize the whole thing. Here's some pics of the fuses I used the one that actually says 13A is the fuse that came with the strobe the ones underneith are ones I took out of other things around the house, they just say 3A on them, I assume they are actually 13A but didn't have room on it to put the whole 13. anyway these are all blown know. here's a pic of the actual power plug (proper chunky one) and here's proof I was running it on a very low dimmer setting, speed was quite fast though but that shouldn't effect the watts coming into it. (dipswitch #9 just means test mode ON basically)

there's that popular disco light channel dude called Briansred. that American. I reckon he should do a video on it people will listen to him I guess. I don't know of many other lighting channels, there's hardly any. doesn't seem to be a popular hobby for some reason ** laughs out loud **

I know some one who might be able to take a look at it. as for the fuse, I've just read on the plug that it says 'don't exceed 13a fuse' so ummmm,yeah guess I better not then. I'll keep you all updated, my only guess is something got too cold/damp. the bulb clearly still works.

sorry to hear for your friend! I also didn't take the laser eye damage too seriously on these things either. Then my sister (who's good with electronics) told me I need to be very careful, she was surprised I even had a class 4 laser (beamz pandora 600) in my bedroom just pointing across the room. I forgot about the whole bouncing of laser beams so I either need to rethink where I place the laser or get special googles when it's on. I've seen videos of those fairground waltzers where they've got lasers going into the crowd, maybe they don't know either! I can't remember what she said but I think anything from class 3b up is dangerous.

OK replaced the 13a fuse and that was indeed the culprit I've also got my DMX terminators so that's good Question though before I even run a manual test mode on it, with the power on (and the fan going) there's like a faint clicking noise coming from it (I guess the light tube) is this something to be worried about? it's not even a constant tempo just... as random as random can be. not sure if it's a temprature thing, my room it's been in for about a week is about 6-10? degrees (when the heating isn't on) it's quite cold in the UK at the moment. should I let it some how warm up a bit? ** laughs out loud ** I'm so scared of this thing it's like... I feel like it might explode in my face at any minute, serious kit for a hobbie user. EDIT: just remembered you mention the blinder function... this comes without it as stock... I think you were looking at the newer "blaze" model? sadly that's become so popular that the normal titan doesn't have many google results to it. the manual just mentions you can fit something on to it (hardware?) that lets it do blinder but that's no other information than that. EDIT2: ok after about 10 minutes of leaving it on the random clicks have stopped. gonna go and test it now with the dipswitch manual mode. right, it shut down again after one flash, it wasn't even very high on the dimmer setting. #5 to be exact. that's less than half! looks like the new fuse I put in has blown again. It came with a 13a fuse, maybe I need to put a 16a fuse in it instead as the manual says: Fuse 16A / 250V it's not like it want it brighter than the sun, I just want it brighter than my crappy £60 party strobe. doesn't make sense how it was running fine when it got it but after having it not been on for a month or so it's blowing fuses.

Skip 3 paragraphs to get the the main issue. OK So I got a showtec titan strobe... I know most guys here probably have that martin atomic 3000 but I can't afford one of them so I have to do with this knock-off. it doesn't look too bad though. It has a proper mains wall plug and not one of those big blue big-man power plugs that I can't even use. I don't even know what those plugs are called but I know it's for the serious boys. ANYWAY. So using the dip switches on the back (before I bought DMX controller) I managed to get it to do some basic stuff with the manual mode, dip switch settings for speed and dimmer.... I ran it on top dimmer for s****s and giggles and it made other things in the house go crazy so I turned stopped it within a second, like everything with power in the house was struggling and the loud popping and blinding power of the strobe actually caught me off guard!! not used to strobes this powerful - I've just come from a £20 mini strobe from Maplins background hahahaha! I was never happy with the speed setting, I wanted an in-between speed of 2 speeds (if that makes sense). So in comes Mr DMX, I chose a real cheapy - a chauvet dj Obey 10, it probably looks like a toy compared to the things you guys use but I'm such a novice in this game. So I've got used to the basics of using DMX controllers, I had the strobe working via DMX for 10 seconds, then it just made a loud buzz noise, the strobe was holding ON for like 1 full second (like a 'Blinder' effect, except for the fact this showtec strobe doesn't even support this feature so you know it's messed up) then it just powers off. It didn't even flip down the circuit breaker on the back of the strobe. Things I noticed were 1, it wasn't hot. 2, the tube/bulb didn't look like it was burnt out. So I rested it for about 10 minutes, and luckily it came back to life, then I tried to control it with DMX again for a 2nd time and the same thing happened! after that 2nd time, no more goes it seems. So yeah it won't even turn on, and by turn on I mean the fan on the back doesn't even spin. I've tried various power sources in the house too. in fact - the first time it happened it zapped my 4-way which is a shame! Is there some safety feature inside that's not letting it turn on? the manual doesn't mention this. Just warns me not to open it unless I'm experience etc etc. As it turns out I didn't have a "DMX terminator" on the strobe so I've just gone and ordered one of those! but I doubt anything DMX related could cause the strobe light to not even turn on any more. Such a shame ! that strobe cost me like £200 which is a lot for me I hardly have any free money left for things I wanna buy for my hobbies.

Hi I'm new here so Hi. I'm amazed I've actually found an active lighting forum, I don't have facebook and was worried anything like intelligent lighting discussion would be on some FB group. Anyway, I want to know if it's possible to make my own floyd droid. nothing made up from scratch but using existing products. .... ok this is more of a sort of disco light than what you guys are into BUT it has DMX! the equinox scantastic 4. I plan to get 2 of these and link them together with an XLR cable. and also by some controller ie. chauvet dj Obey 40. now in theory I can just straight-out-the-box start programming both simultaneously with no problem. Before some one asks what a "floyd droid" is, it was a special light fixture (4 of them to be precise) for Pink Floyd during their 1987-1989 tour. They looked a bit like robots and raised up from the stage floor, they were big boxes with 8 scanning mirrors inside, that could bounce off light like a laser would - the light source may or not be laser? it was xenon or some secret-recipe light source anyway. They were SO cool and unusual to look at. I believe 2 companies made them as a joint effort, Colour-Rays and LaserMedia. Here's a video of them in use: skip to about 4 minutes sorry if the music isn't to your taste, as it happens I like PF so..... So I'm thinking this is how I could set it up (with a bad ms paint diagram!) The next problem is the programming of each 8 mirror! I want 8 beams twisting round in half of a circle cause I believe that's what it's doing here. I've been learning about DMX controllers and the whole scene, banks, chase, 512, address. and all this stuff. I'm guessing I'd need 24 channels used in ONE scene. so pan and tilt x 2 that makes 16. then an extra 2 x 4 for the colour that = 24. Is this possible? Then I need to draw a circle on a massive bit of paper, hang it on my wall, map out about 30 dots on the circle where I want to the beams to fit and then a very long trial and error guessing game with all 8 of the pan/tilts. Notice the ALL 8 beams are always on, and the colour red never gets used. HOPEFULLY the chase on the controller and the mirrors are fast enough to give off a laser like effect like on the actual floyd droids. I can hopefully get a chase to repeat/loop, is that what chases do anyway?? and control the speed with that slider. Then I plan to hide the scantastic 4's in a box and do the cool looking 4 slits on the front. I'm not gonna go the whole way and have it mounted on a moving crane though. I'm beginning to think is this even worth it haha.