J Pearce Posted January 24, 2006 Share Posted January 24, 2006 As I understand its for use in the patch room for identifying that there are lamps on all 6 circuits. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
will299 Posted July 20, 2011 Share Posted July 20, 2011 Hello, So I am looking at making my own socapex tester. Could someone please advise on which types of LED and resistor I should go for? Does the Forward Current, Forward Voltage matter on LED’s? If so what should I order? Resistors also come in different tolerances, voltage ratings, and power ratings. Which is the best to go for? Any links as to what you have used / recommend would be useful. Thank you for your help! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Posted July 20, 2011 Share Posted July 20, 2011 Does the Forward Current, Forward Voltage matter on LED’s? If so what should I order? Not in this situation. Resistors also come in different tolerances, voltage ratings, and power ratings. Which is the best to go for?Any tolerance, 250v (not that it matters) and something around 1/3 - 1/2W Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anirae Posted September 1, 2012 Share Posted September 1, 2012 Socapex Tester You will need: 6 Green LEDs (3mm)1 Red LED (3mm)6 680 Ohm resistors7 Pieces of coloured wire1 9V battery1 9V battery connector1 Soca connector of each sex3mm HSS DrillGlue Gun and glueSoldering stuff 1.Drill 7 holes in the side of the female soca shell like so: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7Insert the LEDs into the holes (the red on in hole 7) making sure they are all the same way round. Glue into position. 2.Solder all the short legs of the LEDs together as close to the bottom as possible. Connect the black wire from the battery connector to these short legs. 3.Solder a coloured wire to each remaining LED leg (as close to the bottom as possible) KEEP A NOTE OF WHICH WIRE IS SOLDERED TO WHICH LED .Now cut off any excess bits of LED and cover with glue to protect.This should leave you with 7 bits of wire (one from each LED) plus the red wire form the battery connector. 4.Take your female soca end and clean and tin each pin. Cottect all of the centre pins together using solder leaving just the outside ring of pins. Now solder a resistor to each of the odd pins as close to the resistor as possible. Now connect all of the resistors to each other so that they meet in the centre MAKE SURE THEY ONLY TOUCH EACH OTHER (use some pvc sleeving if you can get hold of it) 5.Now connect the coloured wires form the leds to the remaining pins in the following order LED Soca pin 1----- 2 2----- 4 3----- 6 4----- 8 5----- 10 6----- 12 7 --- Centre pinsNow solder to red battery wire to the resistors. Connect a battery and put the soca together. Label the LEDs 1-6 and label the red LED “earth shortâ€. 6.Take the male soca and use solder to short pins 1-2, 3-4, 5-6, 7-8, 9-10, & 11-12. Job done. You can use this tester to check six lamp bars ect. OR use it with the male shorting plug to check cables. Hope this helps. Grum Thanks for that diagram this is pretty useful, I'm planning to built my own socapex tester (in a 9 circuits version instead of 6) and I'd like to add red LED for each circuit to indicate short circuits... Any idea of how to plug these red LEDs? (I saw some tester on the market with this option but have no idea of the wirin ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shez Posted September 1, 2012 Share Posted September 1, 2012 I'd like to add red LED for each circuit to indicate short circuits... Short circuits between what and what? A cold filament lamp is pretty close to a short circuit so you'd struggle to tell the difference between a normal lamp and a L/N short. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigclive Posted September 1, 2012 Share Posted September 1, 2012 Thanks for that diagram this is pretty useful, I'm planning to built my own socapex tester (in a 9 circuits version instead of 6) and I'd like to add red LED for each circuit to indicate short circuits... Any idea of how to plug these red LEDs? (I saw some tester on the market with this option but have no idea of the wirin ... If you're planning on using a standard 19pin Socapex to run your nine circuits by using a single pin as a common earth then DON'T! The main issue being that you'd be applying live power to connections normally used as earth connections on the standard six way soca cables. This means that if someone plugged a normal six way fanout into your 9 circuit cable then three of the earths would be connected to live feeds and three would be connected to neutrals. Comply with the standard 6 way wiring and you won't end up being held responsible for a death. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anirae Posted September 5, 2012 Share Posted September 5, 2012 Thanks for that diagram this is pretty useful, I'm planning to built my own socapex tester (in a 9 circuits version instead of 6) and I'd like to add red LED for each circuit to indicate short circuits... Any idea of how to plug these red LEDs? (I saw some tester on the market with this option but have no idea of the wirin ... If you're planning on using a standard 19pin Socapex to run your nine circuits by using a single pin as a common earth then DON'T! The main issue being that you'd be applying live power to connections normally used as earth connections on the standard six way soca cables. This means that if someone plugged a normal six way fanout into your 9 circuit cable then three of the earths would be connected to live feeds and three would be connected to neutrals. Comply with the standard 6 way wiring and you won't end up being held responsible for a death. Well I m completely aware about that dont worry :) the point is the company I work with has dimmers rack that are mounted with 9 ways soca, only a few 6 ways soca with female/female connexion so you cant make any mistake... 99% of the soca we use on tour are 9ways, so I'd like my tester to be able to test all 9 circuits....durin years of touring with 9 ways soca on big lightin system never had a problem with that.... (+ stand socapex 419B that are 19 pins is wired "straight" so if your spider is 9 ways will work with any soca wirin ... problem would be to have a 6 ways soca spider plugged into a dimmer mounted with 9 ways soca... that would make the main breaker go down for sure !! :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danburns Posted September 5, 2012 Share Posted September 5, 2012 Well I m completely aware about that dont worry :) the point is the company I work with has dimmers rack that are mounted with 9 ways soca, only a few 6 ways soca with female/female connexion so you cant make any mistake... 99% of the soca we use on tour are 9ways, so I'd like my tester to be able to test all 9 circuits.... Hmmm (Cheque in the post Ynot!) Does that mean there's male to male cables involved to connect the dimmers? If so, please stop using them now, and destroy the cables. One day...it won't be screwed in properly, fall out and you'll be groping about in the dark for a live connector. On some dimmers, it's possible there will be lethal voltages (415V) present at the connector. This is a bad thing Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paulears Posted September 6, 2012 Share Posted September 6, 2012 This also means anybody involved in testing the kit at your company is also signing off patently unsafe kit - and needs shooting. You can of course go against a perfectly good standard, and take the risk, but it means that if your kit is ever at event with other hired in kit following the standard, your system is actually a potential hazard. The idea that you really are using female to females is scary in the extreme. You need some nice DANGER - WILL ROBINSON stickers making up! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
timsabre Posted September 6, 2012 Share Posted September 6, 2012 He is in France where electrical standards are... different... not sure how universal the 6 way standard is? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grum Posted September 6, 2012 Share Posted September 6, 2012 I'd forgotten I'd written that post. Which is handy as I realised I'd lost the original instructions the other day when someone asked me for them so they could make their own tester. Thanks Blue-room. Now, just like a Jedi creating their own light sabre, they can become another step closer to becoming a lampy as they build their own soca tester. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anirae Posted September 6, 2012 Share Posted September 6, 2012 Well I m completely aware about that dont worry :) the point is the company I work with has dimmers rack that are mounted with 9 ways soca, only a few 6 ways soca with female/female connexion so you cant make any mistake... 99% of the soca we use on tour are 9ways, so I'd like my tester to be able to test all 9 circuits.... Hmmm (Cheque in the post Ynot!) Does that mean there's male to male cables involved to connect the dimmers? If so, please stop using them now, and destroy the cables. One day...it won't be screwed in properly, fall out and you'll be groping about in the dark for a live connector. On some dimmers, it's possible there will be lethal voltages (415V) present at the connector. This is a bad thing my apoligise... no there's no male to male connectors!!! of course not!!! that would be scary for sure!!! when I say female to female I meant each part of the connector has the ring to screw to soca connector ... sorry if my english is not that good, but of course we 're not usin an male to male connector!!! havin the ring on both side of the cable means you CANNOT connect any 6ways soca onto a 9 ways soca... This type of 9 ways soca has been used for the last 20 years over the world includin on huge lightin system tourin and never enconter any problem, as long as you can identify wish spider is 6 ways and wich is 9ways... I recently used a complete lightin kit of more than 300 fixture for Metallica world tour with this 9 ways soca.. never had any problem... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yorkie Posted September 7, 2012 Share Posted September 7, 2012 Many of the PVC socapex extension cables I've encountered are 18 core cable with the 19 pin connectors. Does this mean that you don't have any earths for your 9 circuits? Lack of European standard prevails... (It looks rather like the French use 6, 8 and 9 way socapex, with the screw thread on either side: http://www.cm2-cablage.fr/produits-1-29.htm) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anirae Posted September 7, 2012 Share Posted September 7, 2012 Many of the PVC socapex extension cables I've encountered are 18 core cable with the 19 pin connectors. Does this mean that you don't have any earths for your 9 circuits? Lack of European standard prevails... (It looks rather like the French use 6, 8 and 9 way socapex, with the screw thread on either side: http://www.cm2-cabla...oduits-1-29.htm) The socapex standard is 19 pin, wired straight with no link between pin on the M/F extension cable, this mean you can have your circuitry eather 6 or 9 ways, it all depends of how is wired your dimmer, and thus you have to use the proper spider (by spider I mean 1 soca male to 6 13 amp plug female)... when you wired soca 419 into a 9 way circuit the cente pin (number 19) is the earth) the french standard is to have the screw thread on either side for 6 ways soca, and to have the screw thread on male connector only for 9 ways socaregarding 8 ways soca, this was the standard for Robert Juliat dimmers long time ago, but I know only one big company in france that still use it... 8 ways soca is a little bit silly cause it's gettin pain in the ass to have you "Phases" balanced on the same wire (much easier to balance phase with 6 or 9 soca cause that make a number of circuitry wich is a multiple of 3, easily balance on ph1 ph2 or ph3..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anirae Posted September 10, 2012 Share Posted September 10, 2012 Ok I just finished the construction of my own socapex tester, test all Kind of 19 pin socapex (6 and 9 ways) plus indicates shorts between phase and earth or neutral and earth. I took alot of picture of the construction, I try to post the pix here but it doesnt work? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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