pmiller056

Because this adapter has been widely available for a long time and is affordable as a 'first buy' for a beginner, there is chatter about these in other lighting-related online forums about them. Can you get this adapter to work with different DMX control software? There are some useful tips about getting this adapter to work on the QLC+ website (free to download and use). Use the correct USB drivers, taking into account if you are using a 32 or 64 bit version of your operating system. There appear to have been a few different versions over the years. Make sure there is sufficient power from the USB host - if necessary, use a powered external USB hub. Reliability problems may be fixed by reducing the DMX refresh rate and the DMX universe size.

The wiring loom may be faulty. In the first instance, trace the wiring back and check that the hall effect signal is getting to the relevant connector pins on the controller PCB. With any moving head fixture, after a lot of use, cores in the loom will break where it goes through and around moving parts, twisting and turning as the fixture operates. When this happens there can be many intermittent, varied and weird faults to find. If this is found to be the case, the effort and cost of repair will likely be uneconomic on such a cheap fixture. Budget fixtures tend to use internal wiring that will not survive this use for long.

The circuit diagram I have says 100k Ohm for this one. This pot is in the feedback circuit around an opamp, not (more conventionally) directly in the audio path. I don't know if it is a linear or log potentiometer.

If the venue is part of a chain of hotels, they likely to have a requirement as part of their conditions of hire that any drapery provided by the hirer must be be flame retardant. If this is not a required by their entertainment licence, then it will be required by their insurers. Drapery/curtains as well as soft furnishings used in any hotel room where people sleep should be flame retardant anyway, so the requirement will most likely apply over the whole hotel site. Unfortunately, you will need to find another supplier who has a better understanding of your requirements.

The Philips lamps linked to dim correctly from off to on, both ways. No flickering, popcorning or 'step' at low brightness. The dimming curve takes a bit of getting used to - it is noticeably 'S' shaped. The dimming curve is very flat around 'off' and 'on' and steep in the middle. They work well and correctly with an all-led load on the SCR dimmer in use. The filter inductor in the dimmer no longer buzzes like it used to! Please thank @sandall for directing me to these lamps. These lamps are less than a year old, so I've no idea how well they will age. In our case, they are in open fixtures so heat related ageing should be minimal.

The community theatre I work with has successfully swapped their tungsten GU10 houselights to LED, retaining the SCR/Triac dimmer. The following post has relevant information. https://www.blue-room.org.uk/topic/77016-small-theatre-house-lighting-update-suggestions-anyone/#comment-603906

My choice would be (my employer's) Weller W101. Big chunky tip that holds lots of heat and can heat a joint quickly before the heat 'runs away' up the wire being soldered. Much lighter and less tiring to use than a 'gun'.

In an installation with a mains electrical supply present, I would reasonably expect to find green/yellow coloured cable cores to be used as the safety earth/ground connection and never for any other purpose. If a green/yellow core in a cable is used for another purpose (even in a SELV application), it should have another colour sleeve fitted over it to show that it is not being used for an earth/ground function.

I'd be very wary about using 3d printed replacement plastic parts without understanding more about the end-use application and materials used for both the original and replacement part. Most 3d printed plastics will soften, potenetially deforming at relatively low temperatures. Plastics used in the construction of electrical/electronic equipment will have well understood and deliberately chosen flame retardant or self extinguishing properties - does the (unknown) plastic used for the replacement part have the same or better properties? For me the risks and potential liabilities of this approach for equipment used in a public place or for commercial gain are not worth it.

I'm of an age where I learned my technical drawing and design skills with a drawing board and T-Square. There is a big shift in mindset required to use modern 3d design software. My original learning was to use lines, circles, triangles, rectangles etc as the elements to construct the needed item. With 3d design software the design elements to build your 'thing' are spheres, cylinders, cones, cuboids and so on. Once I got my head past that, progress was quicker. Being able to view your design from any angle in 3d is great.

I have used something similar. My experiences are... The beam of light is narrow with sharp edges. The beamwidth is fixed-ish (and not documented), so you may need to move the fixture to get the desired illuminated area. The 'spot' of light is reasonably uniform to the naked eye. There is a 'focus/zoom' adjustment that does not appear to do much. The spot of light has fringeing at the edges when using mixed colours (eg a Yellow spot will have some red and green fringeing) because the LED light sources are not all in exactly the same place inside the lamp. The fans are small and fast turning, so fan noise may be an issue in a quiet environment. The short power lead will probably be terminated in a non-UK plug. DMX control works, but documentation is usually unhelpful, so be prepared to do some exploring. They can also be set to go to a preset colour when turned on ('wake up' delay is 1-2 seconds in this mode).

I had a look at the ETC cueing system suggested by @themadhippy. It is too sophisitcated for our simple needs. I have spent a lot of time browsing the web looking at many different systems from various vendors, but I could not find anything obviously suitable for our application. To be honest, a system with functionality similar to an old Stonewood/Granite Audio one would be adequate for our needs. Unfortunately this manufacturer no longer exists, nor is there any obvious alternative supplier of similar equipment. The simple cue light system designs I've found all require individual wiring from each outstation to the central control station. With the exception of a very simple 1 or 2 remote outstation system, extra electronics will be needed to do anything more complex when using conventional data network installation cabling. Other suggestions I found to use the data network wiring for a cue light system included audio tone signalling (DTMF and/or CTCSS) and RDM/DMX control (with modifications to suit the wiring topology), however nothing is popping out as a simple, obvious way of getting the job done with simple components. Maybe I'm thinking about this in the wrong way to fit in with today's way of doing things....

The community theatre that I work with is in the final stages of installing a wired data network throughout the building. We currently use a very simple cue light system between stage prompt corner and the tech gallery operators. This system uses illuminated Red and Green pushbuttons at each end. It works well. Crucially for us, this system allows two-way signalling which is used and appreciated by all who use it. This functionality must be provided by any new system. The new data network brings new wiring to places where on occasion we can usefully use cue lights to aid a performance. We want to try and use this infrastructure for a cue light system with a single master control station and up to 4 remote outstations. Does anyone have any ideas or suggestions on how we can do this? I've had a rummage online and I've not found any simple cue light system that can be hosted on data network cabling. For such a simple system, I'm uncomfortable with going down the full 'IT' and networked data route. Our members/users cannot be assumed to have good data network setup, management and fault finding skills. This could make future maintenance and reconfiguration very difficult. Is there some simple, older technology that can be used to make a simple cue light system, which uses the network cabling as 4 twisted pairs or 8 cores to each outlet? We have access to the main network patch panel. Provided essential services are not disturbed, we can reconfigure and use elements of the network infrastructure system as needed. Thanks, Peter

Is the IC socket contact with the EEPROM slightly tarnished? Remove and re-seat the IC and check if the equipment now works correctly. It is a known problem with cheap IC sockets. Sockets like the one shown in the photo make repair easy, but they make the equipment less reliable. If you are making something and have to use an IC socket, use a 'turned pin' socket - the extra cost is worth the improved reliability, particularly if the equipment will be stored or used in a less than ideal environment.

Read the manufacturer's datasheets for the lamps and the ballasts you are trying to mix'n'match before trying anything. Depending on the manufacturer, there should be compatibilty information included in this documentation. Use the lamps that the ballast was intended to run. Different lamp technologies will have different ballast requirements, even for the same output power. Without further research, your proposal is likely to end with expensive equipment being wrecked for no good reason.

Panel mounting 10 turn pots can be expensive to buy. If you have the front panel space for two pots, a much cheaper way is to use a dual track pot as a 'coarse' control and a normal single track pot as a 'fine' control. See the image below. This works well if the pot is used as a voltage divder and the end-to-end resistance of the pot track is not critical (most cheap mass-market pots are typically +/-20% anyway). The values shown are appropriate for a 50k pot. Scale the values for your application. This idea only works where a linear-taper pot is needed in the application.

I'm not familiar with these fixtures or the internal workings of them. When PAT testing I have come across older non-consumer equipment with electronic power supplies where there is a varistor-type surge suppressor connected between the live conductors and earth. These will cause the equipment to fail a 500V DC insulation test. They will usually pass a 250V DC insulation test (I'm not comfortable relying on such a low insulation test voltage for 230V AC powered equipment) and a leakage current test (unless there is an unusual mains powerline filter too....).

We got some of the lamps suggested by @sandall. They work well, dimming smoothly to off. The old Anytronics houselight dimmer works correctly with these lamps without a tungsten lamp 'ballast' to help it. We'll be buying more. The colour temperature is supposed to get warmer as they dim, which is a nice touch. For reference, the Philips product number is 9290020657. EAN13 Barcode for a box of 6 is 8718696721674. Thanks for your suggestions.

Different industries have differing requirements for equipment/appliance safety earthing. What is appropriate in our industry? A friend spent his early career working with medical electronic systems. As a consequence, every bit of exposed metalwork on anything made by this person is separately wired in green/yellow wire to a very crowded, bulky star point earth bolt close to the power inlet. This is appropriate for medical electronics, but probably not for our industry. My approach (because of my background) is any bit of metal that carries or fixes a mains 'live' part is wired to the main earth terminal. Any exposed metalwork that does not have mains live parts on or near it, and so cannot be expected to become live under fault conditions, is casually earthed through the fixing screws. In some equipment enclosure designs, fixing screws for metal panels go into plastic, so a wire to the earth terminal should be added in this instance. Star washers can be used, they are quick and effective, but most get lost during the lifetime of the equipment. On occasion where screening is important such as audio and video equipment, metal panels with no live parts should have an earth connection added. How equipment will be inspected and tested during its lifetime needs to be considered too. Most people doing PAT testing look for an obvious bolt/screw head to attach the earth test probe to, do the test and move on the the next thing. I've never seen anyone test each external metal panel separately - unless the first test was unsatisfactory and a 'better' test point needs to be found. What are other people's thoughts on this issue?

Don't use the commonly available silicon sealant that stinks of vinegar as it cures. The vinegar will corrode a lot of the metal content, working its way by capiliary action along the tape for a bit. Use the type of silicon sealant that is free from Acetic Acid, sometimes known as 'neutral cure'.

I've used several ESP32 Wled boards for various small applications. I've had good results operating an experimental lash-up with wired ethernet control via SACN. I wanted to use wired ethernet for better reliability than Wifi. I did go further and tested providing power to the board as well via Power over Ethernet. It worked well and a simple system will provide 10-12W for LED power. This is usualIy sufficient for just over a metre of pixel tape (depending on number of elements and brightness). I have not yet had time to tidy it into a system that can be used on a stage or installation. Power over Ethernet uses standard network RJ45 cabling, but a specific switch/hub is needed to send power and data down the one cable. The power supply over the network cable is 48/50V DC, so long cable lengths can be used. A PoE splitter/converter is needed local to the ESP32 board to separate the data signal and 5V DC power at up to 2.5A depending on the converter used.

Like @KevinE, I'm very uncomfortable buying electrical/electronic equipment directly from Asia. What puts me off is that there is never any 'Declaration of Comformity' which is a legally required document that goes with a 'CE' mark on any product. The consequence of no DoC is that all product liabilities rest directly with the importer into UK/EU territory. Buying through a 3rd party marketplace does not change this. I may be more interested in buying directly if I could buy (say) 2 sample products to be thoroghly examined and tested. Once satisfied I would then buy more, provided I knew I would get exactly the same as the previously examined samples. As Paul says, this doesn't happen. I accept that products do exolve during the production lifetime, but if I can be assured that safety critical parts such as case materials, overheat protection, power supplies and power carrying/controlling components were exactly the same as the sample products, then I'd be more inclined to directly buy more equipment. I have bought small quanties of Asian electrical/electronic equipment for my own personal use, but I will not buy for transfer or resale to another party where there is any potential public performance or public liability risk - for me, it's not worth it. I do have the skills, knowledge and access to tools and equipment to make my own judgement about directly imported equipment for my own personal use - but that's as far as I'm prepared to go.

Thank you for your suggestion. I'll get some of the suggested lamps and see how they work. The existing dimmer is an old Anytronics one, so I'll talk to them when I need to.

Hi I'm looking for suggestions to update the existing incandescent dimmable house lighting in a local communtity theatre and multi-use hall. The hall is managed by a charitable organisation, so materals cost is a significant consideration, installation labour can be 'arranged' 🙂 At present there are 3 switched groups of house lights with a 2.5kW (SCR) common master dimmer. Each bank of lights is about 4.5m above floor level, illuminating an area approximately 5m x 5m. 2 groups of lights are each an array of 10x GU10 50W downlighters, and there is 1 group of 6x 80/100W reflector lamps. The dimmer is controlled by a 0-10V signal from either the lighting desk (via a DMX demux) or from a wall mounted pot. Suitable replacement lamps are becoming hard to get and energy efficiency is dreadful. The simple solution would be to replace the GU10's with dimmable LED equivalents, but they don't dim 'nicely' at lower levels. I'm not sure what a good replacement for the reflector lamps would be. I'm aware that the existing dimmer may not work correctly with a low power all-LED lamp load. Are there any suggestions and experiences from the Blue Room community to guide us to a suitable upgraded system? Thanks Peter

Use a 100 or 150W filament lamp in series with the power supply when live fault finding. Short circuits in the input circuit will cause the lamp to glow brightly and reduce the risk of other parts being damaged. Before going for the power transistors shown, check all powerline connected components, including the input rectifier, filter capacitors and any varistor-type surge suppression components. Find the correct datasheets for all the major semiconductor parts used - particularly any ICs. Once you understand how the parts are supposed to work individually and together, then consider fault-finding. Random, hopeful replacement of obvious semiconductors is likely to be a futile waste of expensive new parts and your time.