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Useful lighting stuff to try and remember


peternewman

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Posted

Hi all,

 

Okay the deal is I have an awful memory so if I don't write stuff down then I won't remember it, hence I am going to make an insert for my toolbox. I currently have Live, Neutral and Earth colours and positions, XLR3 audio/DMX pinout and the resistor colour code.

 

What else would you recommend I add?

 

PN

 

PS. Admins can you add XLR and pinout to dictionary please

Posted

When you say watts to amps do you mean the wattages for particular amperages such as 16 A, 32 A, 63 A? On a side not why is it 63 not 64? Also what is mains voltage now, is it 230V

 

PN

Posted

I know you know these, but I don't know if anyone else can make use of these.

 

13A Plug wiring.

Take the first two letters of BLue and put it Bottom Left, BRown put it Bottom Right, there's only one place for the last cable to go.

 

The other is that the live is on the right as you look at the back (wiring) of most plugs with the earth pointing up (ie as normal)

 

XLR 3pin.

Its 2 hot here, Ice cream?

....2 - Hot, ......1..-Screen, again only one other place for the last cable .

 

Hey they helped when I was younger! <_<

How about XLR to 1/4" jack, insert leads?

 

Pass on 63/64amps.

The voltage in the UK is supposed to be 230V by European standards, but clever UK decided to increase the percentage they could vary the voltage by, so it can be passed as 230V even though here in Southampton it is 252V. Please correct me if wrong, this was the answer to a question I asked at College.

Posted

as a rough guide 4A= 1kw,not 100% accurate but close enough for questimates

why is it 63 not 64?

seem to recall being told its something to do with horse power,63A is near as dam it 20 hp

Posted

I'm not sure that Lee will thank you if you ask for a Rosco swatch...

 

Anyway, I always thought that it's 63 because they started with a big round number, ie: 1000, half of that is 500, half again, 250, then 125 (we're onto stuff we actually use now) then 62.5 (rounded up to 63) then 32 (again, a bit of rounding) then 16. But I don't know - that was just my logical explanation.

Posted
The voltage in the UK is supposed to be 230V by European standards, but clever UK decided to increase the percentage they could vary the voltage by, so it can be passed as 230V even though here in Southampton it is 252V. Please correct me if wrong, this was the answer to a question I asked at College.

Originally, the UK mains voltage supply was specified as 240V RMS +/-6%. To allow hamonisation across Europe, on 1 Jan 1995: UK became 230V +10% -6%, and Continental Europe became 230V +6% -10%; on 1 Jan 2003: the whole EU became 230V +/-10% (i.e. 207-253V)

Posted

Bryson I can see your logic, but surely (partly from a computer point of view) 16, 32, 64, 125 makes more sense as its only the top ones you round and they follow the binary series. However starting at 125 and dividing like you say seems to give closer numbers, but why choose 125 to start with?

 

PN

Posted

Also, the next one up is 200A (or it least I think that's the case for our powerloc). This nowhere near 250A! What's going on?!

 

Plus I always think the connection between current/power is very tenuous when working in the real world, for example:

 

63A at (207 - 253)V could supply 13 ~ 16 kW of power - so do you connect 13 or 16 1K fresnels? How do you guys do it? Just take 230V and hope for the best?

 

Also themadhippy: 20HP is indeed 14.9 kW - however you could feasibly get that from either 63A or 64A from only a 4V variation in supply voltage!!

 

Oh and another thing: Surely electrical power was never measured in horsepower anyway? Surely by the time electricity was discovered, they already had amps, volts, watts?

 

[** laughs out loud ** - I've just had an image of some historical scientist, sitting at his desk thinking "hmm ... now I've got 4 hooves potential difference and 2 horsehoes of current flowing ... gosh I must have nearly 8 horsepower there" ;)]

Posted
'twas just a theory. The powerlocks are a different system, so it doesn't really count. 125: Because it's half of, half of, half of 1000. Having said that, I don't think there is a 250a ceeform or larger anyway..
Posted
Make sure you have bboth Lee and Rosco gel swatch packs in your toolbox. You can get Lee filters free by logging onto ther website|:

 

www.leefilters.com

 

Sam

 

Bryson: Note the edit

It says you have to pay for them :S

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