timmeh2

The 3pin/5pin fixtures are a great idea, as long as you don't try to use them as splitters. A shame some newer fixtures have gone to 5pin only.

Hi

I'll admit to doing this when someone forgot to send the right number of DMX links. Very bad Timmy.

It does appear that 3-pin sockets are being ditched on some lines. Chauvet appear to be sticking with both 3 and 5 pin for their smaller fixtures, but their larger fixtures are all 5-pin with ethernet for their stuff that supports pixel mapping, which I think will become the norm.

Going back on topic, I wouldn't trust those combined jobbies as far as I can throw them, because they have an awful habit of changing modes if they detect even the slightest gap in the DMX stream, so when using wireless, I prefer to use dedicated TX and RX modules.

All the best

Timmeh

Hi

Sure others have done the same, I've used a proper noose but made it safe by cutting the loop in half and then used a few stitches to put it back together.

If you tried to hang yourself with it, it would just snap.

All the best

Timmeh

Hi

They are used for opening Cabinet rim locks, which can either be flush-fit or recessed, depending on type.

Frequently seen on large bits of set that needs to be dismantled in a hurry, e.g during scene-changes or intervals.

The tapered design is pretty old now, most modern keys are shorter with a chamfered edge to assist insertion.

https://www.isaaclord.co.uk/product_images/image/417.jpg

All the best

Timmeh

Edits;I can't use the media tag very well.

Hi all

In full working order with a 64Mb card. LCD backlight is a bit dim but still readable.

Might be of use to someone.

Cheers

Tim

Hi

The terms 'Fan In' and 'Fan Out' can be just as ambigious and have frequently seen it where they've been supplied with the wrong ends. I've even had soca jumpers wired up the backwards leading to the bemusing but downright lethal hecta-widowmaker / killer spider / black widow (choose your analogy)

Especially on foreign jobs, it's important to identify your needs properly, so I always specify the genders at both ends, even go so far as to tell them which end should have the pins on.

All the best,Timmeh

Hi

Not a bad paper but it is quite general in its scope, but much better than nothing.

There are websites out there which offer real-time detection and display of lightning strikes for most of the world, although it is better suited to the EU as that is where the majority of the detectors are based. The entire UK is covered with a high level of accuracy.

www.lightningmaps.org.

You can also try the UK's lightning detector network however the display updates every 15 minutes which may not be of much use to a storm moving at 30mph.

For those that can read weather charts, then this page is a fairly good indication of where and when storms are likely to form.

https://www.theweath...storm&model=gfs

Lighting detectors are available commercially and a big festival/event should have these deployed at monitoring stations some distance away from your protected area, quite often alongside sound measuring equipment.

All the best

Timmeh

Hi

Just my 2p-worth

Concerns about GDPR must always be secondary to Health & Safety; if you dig deep enough into the regulations you'll find conflicts when it comes to protecting people's data and actually physically protecting the people themselves.

The signing-in sheet is the perfect example. I help run a kiddies' activity centre which requires us to keep a tally of guests as we have a strict limit on how many children can be in the centre at any one time. We take the child's name and age, and software logs the time they came in, then we sign them out as they leave. It tells us how many guests we have in total, how long they've been in, and we can also add notes to their record if, for example, they have accident, however unlikely.

It is up to the person collecting/storing the information (I.e the Data Controller) to ensure that what they are keeping is actually required and not superfluous. In this instance, the only thing we store is the child's first name, age and if they are staying with us on park or are an external visitor. As the data becomes useless after they've left, and cannot be used to identify them after-the-fact, it's compliant.

The data is also automatically destroyed after a set period, again one of the requirements is that you don't store things for longer than you need.

With regards to a paper sheet, if you put it into a filing cabinet, locked it, kept the key yourself, or had strict control over who gets to open it, and then shredded it after 28 days you'd be compliant.

A lot of solutions out there are expensive and wholly overkill, mostly down to profiteering by people trying to cash in on other's fears.

All the best

Tim

Hi

You can remove the original coating and use ultra-high temperature spray paint.

The surfaces will have to be prepared to a very high standard first; i.e. completely free of oxides and grease before applying the paint in several thin layers. The stuff I'm thinking of (ProCote VHT) requires use of PPE. It's highly irritating to the lungs, skin and eyes and the propellant is a mix of acetone, isobutane, pentane and xylene, which can form explosive mixtures with air, in the right concentration.

There are companies out there that can do it for you, if you don't fancy trying it yourself.

The other option is for you to send them away to be professionally powder-coated.

All the bestTimmeh

Hi

Probably not of any use but I've had the same issue on ART2000 racks, turns out that a loose connector from front panel to the boards caused certain channels to act like switches rather than dimmed outputs.

All the best

Timmeh

...You carry the can for the team playing badly, and once they start, you can't do a thing!

Indeed Paul.

That's why some like to work under the cloak of anonymity.

All the best

Timmeh

Hi

'changes to latch design' will be warmly welcomed as I've lost count of the number of connectors I've sent back due to the latches falling off.

All the best

Timmeh

Hi

A bit of an aside but if your access point doesn't have DHCP,and you want it on the cheap, find any old thin client box on eBay and stick NT4 or Windows 2000 Server on it, as it has a DHCP service built in.

All the best

Timmeh

Hi

Personally I'd go for distributed computing and stick your media servers on the crane along with whatever your equivalent system for DMX replay is (in the GrandMA world we use NSP and NDP) - that way you're just sending control rather than huge amounts of DMX and video down your pipes, which would be far more manageable.

Microwave links are point to point and fixed. If you have something that moves then it's a non-starter. They are also a single point of failure.

All the best

Timmeh

My turn...

Wireless power would be handy for installs where the nearest socket is 300m away.

Oh, and serious mode... lighting and sound kit that can run natively on 400Hz AC, rather than having to use heavy and inefficient phase converters.

All the best

Timmeh

Hi

Pages 164 to 167 of the reference manual will contain the information you require. You can assign pan functions to a CC message but the desk has not got this set up by default so you will need to add your own parameters to the CC list.

All the best

Timmeh

Hi

Personally I would refrain from dragging their names through the dirt as this kind of action can rapidly escalate into more than just words.

People tend to be more responsive if you do it quietly.

Hi

Registered Charity or not, if you have a contract in place where they agree to pay you for a service, it makes no difference in the eyes of the law.

At this point I wouldn't get into a verbal conversation with them - everything needs to be written and documented.

The 'I didn't get your email' excuse is common. Send it to them recorded delivery, that way they have to sign for it, which makes it harder to argue they haven't seen it. You can't remove the discount for non-payment but as others have said you are entitled to add additional charges; check here for the what the government says. https://www.gov.uk/late-commercial-payments-interest-debt-recovery

If you don't get a reply within 21 days of the date of the letter you are then permitted to send a solicitor's letter stating that if you do not receive payment you are legally entitled to sue them. Again, you have to give them time to react, usually another 21 days. Usually the solicitor's letter does the trick as any MD worth his salt will no that if they go to court they are pretty much guaranteed to lose, and a judgement against the company can damage their reputation with banks and suppliers, and you can also apply to have the costs of the case levied against them.

The thing with legal action is it is a very long drawn out and protracted affair, however the more patient you are, the more you are likely to succeed.

If all the nicey-nicey has been exhausted then don't feel you are doing the wrong thing by chasing them through the small claims court - that's what it's there for.

All the best

Timmeh

Hi

I have dimmed bog-standard 240v strings off betpa for a show, and they worked very well. I used 4 circuits on the tree which means I could chase them.

Finding mains-voltage lights might be a tad difficult though, they're pretty much all LED now.

All the best

Timmeh

The Rolacue has/had a mysterious 25 pin DIN connector on the back: was that the DMX Pro-Patch output ? Analog Socapex is evident - we multiplex converted to DMX it when needed...

 

Probably RS232 Serial port? The original Rolacue Pearls had this on, for a riggers remote.

 

Are we talking about a 25 pin D-Sub connector? I don't think I've come across a 25 pin DIN connector.

Hi

Just to clear things up, all the classic Avo consoles from the D2 onwards have a 25-way D connector at the back. It strictly isn't RS232 but a rather odd protocol for communicating with the graphics tablet, which would have been the Genius Newsketch HR-II or HR-III, depending on age.

The riggers remote works by emulating the tablet's output.

All the best

Timmeh

Hi Lars

Thanks for commenting - I too thought that CITP was a replacement, rather than an addition. I think maybe I misread the thread too because I got the same impression you did.

You're more than right about Art-Net's physical layer being a bit confusing. All the problems I've seen is people misinterpreting the 2.X.X.X. rule when building their networks.

All the best

Timmeh

Slightly OT... but we all know Art-Net is dying. I hate it to be honest. And Captures way of doing it direct with a ton of manufacturers protocols is much nicer IMHO!

 

Thanks :)

Huh?

So you'd prefer Tower of Babel scenarios where different bits of kit can't talk to each other because they're incompatible?

Art-net is great because it is universal. And it's open source. And free. As a C++ developer I can easily and quickly write applications that can read, translate and decode an artnet network and do anything I want with it. I couldn't do that with sACN or MA-Net unless I cared to pay money for it.

Art-Net has been, and always will be, the default protocol for DMX over IP, You don't see video walls for sale that will only work with one console or media server, they all talk Art-Net.

People talk about a new protocol - be it CITP or some other reinvention of the wheel. Yes, it would be nice to have all these media server and visualiser extensions so I can see what effect parameters from server X are running on console Y, and then watch them in real time on Visualiser Z.

But I don't have to wait for this, I have it already. All my thumbnails appear in my console. I know exactly what effects are running, because my desk tells me.

And like others have said, now Art-Net 3 is about, which is faster and more powerful than all the other protocols, I suspect that the big console manufacturers will update their products to work with this as well, rather than ignore it.

All the best

Timmeh