alistermorton

It needs a discharge lamp, doesn't it? The one linked to is a filament lamp, so if I'm right and it does use a discharge lamp that won't work. I think this is the requisite lamp.

If you can find them in stock, I'd stick to the specified lamp. And since Philips have, as far as I know, withdrawn from the entertainment market, I'd suggest carrying spares if you can find them. Unless the likes of Ushio or Osram step in to fill the void I must say I'd be wary of using "off brand" discharge lamps.

3 hours ago, Stuart91 said:

Is that an actual physical switch contact like inside a jack, or do they use some other method to detect an ongoing DMX chain?

Single physical contact as far as I know.

22 hours ago, themadhippy said:

xlr connectors with switching contacts like wot  jack sockets have.

Some manufacturers use switched 5 pin connectors for automatic termination of the DMX line so they do exist in some forms.

On 10/22/2023 at 12:36 AM, Ynot said:

ETI, anyone?

Definitely ETI, and before that Everyday Electronics, Practical Wireless, Practical Electronics and Elektor - one of my friends was a real Elektor devotee, and a different one built the ETI Trident 8080 home computer. Come to think of it, a different one again built a UK101 - wasn't that a PW project?

Edit: Practical Electronics ran the UK101

Absolutely identical AFAICS

20 year old Anytronics will be leading edge triac, so sub-optimal for dimming LED. As Tim suggests, you'll likely get better results with a trailing edge dimmer. 

Personally I'd number it for the position of operation whichever side you're on, so that the ascending numbers go SR-SL DS-US in the same way which ever side you operate from. Just a patching issue, after all.

I'm not a qualified electrician, which is why I ask, but to me an eight way unit fed by two cables, in and out as part of a ring is conceptually the same as 4 double sockets in a ring - or am I wrong, and if so, why?

This is a genuine question; I'd like to understand. 

Well, Arafwch Nawr, I guess, really. 

That would be the Araf Nawr, to give it its full scientific name, presumably?

It appears there's a lot of villages called "Gwasanaeth" in Wales, just near the M4

😉

When I got the "stage" key for our Ion, it came in a polythene bag, in a jiffy bag, in a box filled with "quavers". At least it was only a small box, about chocolate box sized.

Alternatively, a 650W or 1kW profile running 24/7 (or even 8 hrs a day) would soon get expensive to run. May actually be better to look at LED shop fittings specifically  designed for projecting logos, in the long run.

25 minutes ago, sunray said:

From my school days I seem to remember soda for cleaning is soda carbonate

The soda crystals that are really corrosive (and attack aluminium) and are also used to clear blocked drains (because they convert fat into soap, effectively) are sodium hydroxide.

Really nasty stuff if you get it on your skin (you can feel the fat in your skin becoming soapy) and you always add the crystals to water slowly a little at a time, never pour water onto the crystals or just dump a load of crystals straight into water as there is a lot of heat given out when they dissolve and the water can boil, spitting corrosive liquid. Gloves and eye protection are a really, really good idea. 

Most fixtures either run their auto programs or respond to remote (DMX) control, but rarely both. I can't think of one that does both, but that doesn't mean it doesn't exist. 

A chap on FB in one of the lighting groups has Frankesteined a Beamz 50W RGBAW Cob light into a Patt 123 and it works ok for eye candy but of course it's not as bright or the same quality of light as a real 123.

Thanks, worth knowing.

Just such stands appear to be available from the site linked above (mirror-balls.co.uk) 

Indeed so. One we had a couple of years ago manifested by LED battens occasionally flashing, which was eventually traced to a poor quality XLR on the DMX out that the terminator was plugged into and wasn't always terminating.

I was going to suggest that, but was worried that connecting the reds and yellows as pairs effectively put a dirty great aerial on the connector too. CMR should do it's thing, but I just wasn't 100% comfortable.

Could it be that at some point someone has rewired with 4 core instead of 2 core and only connect one each of the red and yellow at the mic end. In which case it's trial and error to find the two connected cores.

Some are worse than others. Missions are well known for falling apart like that in the d0m35t1c hi-fi world.

Enjoy your new freedom to do what you want.

Presumably doing it "the olden way" isn't considered cost effective these days so some way is sought to "streamline" the process i.e. take less tie and cost less in labour?

Or a coarse/fine drive, as used to be popular on communication receivers?