Jumping Gobos

[David Buffham]

This may be a stupid question, but how do you stop gobos jumping in the gate when they initially heat up? You know when the lighting state comes up and the gobo physically moves - really annoying.

 

We have this problem particularly with Source 4s, and pre-heating the gobo in the previous cue doesn't always work if the previous cues are dark and we can't afford too much intensity on the gobo lantern.

 

As well as the visual annoyance, the physical movement of the gobo can also cause the gobo indexing to go awol, meaning getting to the lantern for refocus before the next show.

 

I guess one solution might be to clamp the gobo down in the holder by tightly bending in the three metal bits, but I'm not too keen on this unless there's no other way.....?

[Ellis]

One option is to use LeMark Bow Ties to hold the gobo in place. Another would be to use Selecon Pacifics which have an even cooler optical gate than a source 4

[Kate Bonney]

Or plot them in at a low level in a previous cue to pre-heat.

[andy_s]

or use little bits of blacktak lightmask foil to stick the gobo to the holder. Blacktak useful to have around for other things as well, like stopping light coming out of the wrong end of pat 243s.

[David Buffham]

Thanks for the ideas.

 

Pre-heating doesn't always work for me as I can't always run the gobo lights that bright without them being visible in the previous cues. And then they still jump going into their state.

 

We've got a roll of BlackTak in the office, so that's the obvious solution! Thanks.

 

David

[P. Funk]

hmm.. could you not run them at 15% or something from the beginning of the show onwards?

[Guest lightnix]

I think I remember something about giving them a "firm but gentle" beating with a hammer on a hard surface, but I've never tried it myself and I don't know if it actually works.