Recommend me a scanner

[SmokeAndMirrors]

I am planning for the next generation of my light show which I use for bands as well as discos. Currently I have 8 Acme Dynamos, 4 Smart SSC150s and 2 KAM KS150 scanners. They all have idiosyncrasies, and my next investment should address the problems. Here are my requirements:

 

1. Light. The Acmes are 3.8kg and the SSCs are even lighter. Many scanners seem to come in at 10 or 11 kg which seems way heavy. I'm gonna have 16 of them and I don't want to hurt myself lugging them :D

 

2. Smooth steppers. The Acmes are 8-bit and chug their way to the target position under external DMX control. I want smoother motion.

 

3. Fast colour and gobo change. Cycling through 16 colours when I want to change fast looks rubbish.

 

4. Dimmable. Binary on / off doesn't work too well for bands.

 

5. Bright. The SSCs look much better than the Acmes - 150W can look good.

 

6. Price. No more than £250 each.

 

7. Cases. Must be available.

 

So: any thoughts? Moon on a stick?

[Joe Bleasdale]

ACME winners and rovers? With a universal tour case for them. I know terralec sell them at £500 per 4 and £150 each.

 

hth

joe

[SmokeAndMirrors]

ACME winners and rovers? With a universal tour case for them. I know terralec sell them at £500 per 4 and £150 each.

 

hth

joe

 

Cheers Joe. I've heard some dubious things about those lights in terms of reliability. They're 11kg each, too. So they don't fit my requirements perfectly, but so far they're in the lead :D

[Joe Bleasdale]

Like I say, I dont think terralec would have a problem cutting some flightcase foam for them to fit in a universal flightcase. As for reliability, I think they are awesome!

 

hth

joe

[paulears]

What about criterion 4 Dimmable?

 

I'm no expert on cheap disco stuff, but dimmers are pretty rare, aren't they?

[norty303]

You have too many conflicting requirements, the most restrictive is going to be price.

 

If you want fast, then you are talking about good steppers, so they cost. Thats a minimum of 4 steppers per head.

 

Next is lamp type. Most dimmable fixtures will be mechanical as they run on a discharge lamp. This usually means a heavy ballast, so ruins your weight requirement. Add to the fact that an MSD250/2 will cost you ~£65 each, you're down to £185 or less for the scanner. In this price range the dimmer is single sided as they are 'DJ' effects so you get a wipe from one side of the beam to the other unlike on theatre oriented heads where you'll have a pair of properly shaped shutters to give a smoother dim.

 

16 bit movement is unlikely to come in at this price range.

 

You 'might' be able to pick up second hand heads for about that price that hit some of your requirements feature wise, but the weight one will be your biggest issue. A set of 4 Martin 518's could be had for around £800-£1000 but they are neither fast, nor light, but do have dimmers and 16 bit.

 

Have you checked out any of the Futurelight DJ range? Some of those might come close to fitting the bill, but maybe not in your price limit. Also look at Eurolite or Stairville from Thomann (often the same units)

 

http://www.thomann.de/gb/cat.html?gf=scanners&oa=pra

[berry120]

I'm no expert on cheap disco stuff, but dimmers are pretty rare, aren't they?

Certainly most of the stuff I've seen at the lower end isn't dimmable.

 

As for the fast colour change, what do you exactly mean by this? The colours will be on a colour wheel at this price bracket, and it won't be the fastest of things. I can't see how you're going to get colour mixing! So you're always going to have flashes of other colours before you get the one you want (unless they're next to each other on the wheel of course.)

 

Oh and in terms of the weight side, rather than looking for something really light wouldn't it be easier to get a couple of others to help you lift them? Sounds obvious... but that's the simplest way past it that I can see!

[SmokeAndMirrors]

I am currently thinking Martin Mania SCX500s... they are pig ugly though :D

[norty303]

I think you need to be clear about what you want to achieve. Manias are never going to replace a load of scanners, particularly for band use, although they're a fine DJ effect.

 

If you check out my link there is a scanner undr £200 with halogen lamp with electronic dimming. Not sure of the speed of any of the wheels/mirrors but at this price bracket they're all going to be about the same

[live]

Eurolite DMX scan TS 255's are within your price range MSD250, 16 bit movement,7 rotating gobo's,7 dicro colours.

I've got 4 of them and they work great.

[Jamtastic3]

So wait there... 16 fixtures? Do you mean you just want another 2 more to add to your already 14?

You do seem to have a mish mash of fixtures!

Anyway, I'd say the same as Live and go for the Eurolite T-255:

 

http://www.thomann.de/gb/eurolitedmx_scan_ts_255.htm

 

There's also the cheaper model:

 

http://www.thomann.de/gb/eurolite_ts150_dmx_scan.htm

 

...but I'm not sure we've worked out if the TS 150 is dimmable yet on this forum (after a discussion about it a while ago)

[niclights]

For another suggestion in the 'pro' area I would highly recommend looking at some s/h Clay Paky MiniHPE's.

 

They won't be lightweight but it doesn't require worlds strongest man to carry one in each hand...

However, they are proven. Reliable, bright (300W linear lamp is surprising) & smooth. Colour change is reasonable although it depends what you mean by 'fast'. It's not Varilite speed, but I doubt you could get that in any moving mirror fixture and the alternative is CMY mixing.

 

They are easy to work on and a unit can be made good as new (and kept that way forever) quite easily, regardless of s/h condition.

 

AC usually have some in stock.

[Guest]

Another vote for the Clay Paky MiniHPE's they are always my first choice of scanner for bands. I normally have them on top of some upright chromabanks. very reliable and the colour changing is quite good.

normally about £290 second hand.

I know it is out of the price range but you get so much more including a good customer service from a good manufacturer

[tvi675]

There's also the cheaper model:

 

http://www.thomann.de/gb/eurolite_ts150_dmx_scan.htm

 

...but I'm not sure we've worked out if the TS 150 is dimmable yet on this forum (after a discussion about it a while ago)

 

This site - http://docs.ts-audio.net/n/nt/nte3odywmja/...mx_protocol.htm gives the DMX protocol for the TS-150, and would suggest that it isn't dimmable, just shutter open and closed.

 

I'd give my vote for the MiniHPE's too. I've used a variety of scanners ranging from Maplin's cheapest upwards and have found these great to work with. Also, I've got no personal experience of them but the Acme Leader has a combined shutter/dimmer channel, which, having looked at the personality file for the Winners/Rovers, they seem to be lacking.

[norty303]

Being an ex-owner of the Chauvet Insignia/Intimidator (Winner/Rover under different brand name) I can confirm there is no dimmer.