MS Lighting MVS575I

[smalljoshua]

As per some of my earlier topics on these movers, they have been purchased and put through their paces in a few different situations.

 

The order process couldn't have been simpler, email them, get a quote, haggle, get invoice and pay with PayPal when the Exchange Rate is good. We opted for Airmail as we had some work for them about a week after they were ordered.

 

On arrival, first impressions were good, they came supplied with nice thick IEC leads in a well built flightcase, they also came with a nice quality DMX lead, Osram 575w Lamp, mounting clamps (omega style but without the quick lock part) and a sturdy looking safety cable per unit.

 

On first test, I immediately noticed the fan noise on the units. They aren't quiet, but aren't overly loud. I won't be using them in a small studio space any time soon but for everything apart from Intimate plays I think they'll be fine. The colour wheels don't have as many colours as a Martin or Robe unit but the supplied ones are nice and varied. The Gobo wheels tell the same story. The iris and Prism are nice and smooth even at slow speeds and respond quickly when needed. Pan and Tilt are smooth and fairly quick, it's not going to win any awards for speed though.

 

The construction of the units is fairly spot on, access is through 4 screws on the base and a further 2 per side on the head. Both arms remove and the wiring loom is individually wired and should be easy to swap out in the event of damage, the holes where the loom enters the base and head from the arm both have silicone sleeving over to further reduce rubbing which is a nice touch in a low priced mover. The units also have a tilt lock that is able to lock the heads in a variety of positions which is also nice on a cheap mover.

 

The light output is better than a Mac500 but no Mac575.

 

Control wise, using MagicQ they work just fine. The combined dimmer/shutter channel is a bit of a pig but is workable. Everything else checks out fine. There isn't a Remote Lamp On/Off channel though so once they're powered on that's it for the night.

 

Any questions, fire away.

 

[Dons body armour and hides]

 

Josh

[paulears]

No Josh - exactly what I had in mind, thanks.

 

Question

 

You mention dimmer/shutter being a pig. Does this cause problems with being able to dim them, or just that you cannot fade out a strobe? I think that's what you mean by being difficult.

 

2nd Question

Did you get stung extra for any duty/VAT as we wondered at the time?

[smalljoshua]

I meant a pig in the latter respect, the dimming appears smooth on the unit but if I type 24@FULL it puts the mover into fast strobe meaning that I have to consciously type @50 for full brightness. It would be great if there was a way round this in software but I don't see it being needed very often.

 

Also, I didn't get stung for any duty/VAT either :)

 

I also had the units PATed and they passed just fine. I realise this isn't a full inspection by an electrical engineer but it's a good starting point.

 

Josh

[woody2]

Also, I didn't get stung for any duty/VAT either :)

 

give them time :)

[Joe Bleasdale]

I meant a pig in the latter respect, the dimming appears smooth on the unit but if I type 24@FULL it puts the mover into fast strobe meaning that I have to consciously type @50 for full brightness. It would be great if there was a way round this in software but I don't see it being needed very often.

 

Often when I use cheap units, I make separate intensity palettes for them using the "fixture specific" store option, so the palette can only be applied to those fixtures, then in the palette put the intensity level @50% (full) but name the palette as FULL, then put the fixtures at 25% (50%) and call it 50%. Then you can import the palettes into future shows and use the same palettes to save time. So you now you can hit the palette saying FULL and know it is FULL dimmer, not the whole channel. I hope that makes sense!

 

With some desks it is a good idea to re-record palettes every few software releases as dragging super old cues and palettes through many versions of firmware and software can cause corruption of data sometimes.

 

Furthermore, your desk MAY have an option to change the home values of a fixture. As an example, on my Vector I can set up a look on stage and hit CUE HOME STORE and then every time I hit the HOME button, instead of the fixtures going to default, they go to the look I recorded. I find this useful quite often, today for example I am programming a show with some cheapo LED pars and when I built the profile for them, I accidently put the strobe channel at 100% instead of 0%. So when I hit home, all my MLs and LEDs etc all go to white, but the LEDs are strobing. So I homed everything then wheeled the strobe down to 0% and recorded a home cue. Very useful. May be worth seeing if your desk has a similar feature.

 

Thanks,

[Ashley R]

On arrival, first impressions were good, they came supplied with nice thick IEC leads in a well built flightcase, they also came with a nice quality DMX lead, Osram 575w Lamp, mounting clamps (omega style but without the quick lock part) and a sturdy looking safety cable per unit.

 

With the 'nice and thick' IEC cable, the Chinese are notorious for adding a bit of extra plastic to a 0.75 or even as low as 0.5mm cable to make it feel like a 1 or 1.5mm one. so Im wondering what is the marked dia' of the cable? )im keeping in mind though that ive seen cable marked 0.75mm but after inspection was no where near that, I was guessing arround the 0.25mm mark!)

 

Out of curosity, what type of flight case is it? a dual or a pair of singles? and it it a Tea Cosy stye one or one with a hinged lid and the head sits suspended? And is it the 'default case' meaning you just asked for a flight case and this is what they provided.

 

Have you pulled appart the DMX cable to inspect what type of cable has been used? And what type of connector is used? (Of course copy :Switchcraft, Neutrik or that silly connector that has a small clamp on the bottom not sure who originally designed it though.)

 

I wonder if that 'Osram' lamp is genuine, as after a bit of grilling of one of my contacts at MS they told me the Phillips lamps they were selling at 4x the price of a generic Chinese one were in fact high quality copys and not the genuine thing.

 

On first test, I immediately noticed the fan noise on the units. They aren't quiet, but aren't overly loud. I won't be using them in a small studio space any time soon but for everything apart from Intimate plays I think they'll be fine. The colour wheels don't have as many colours as a Martin or Robe unit but the supplied ones are nice and varied. The Gobo wheels tell the same story. The iris and Prism are nice and smooth even at slow speeds and respond quickly when needed. Pan and Tilt are smooth and fairly quick, it's not going to win any awards for speed though.

 

How many fans are in the base unit? How many fans are in the head? As a thought that came to mind would be to swap out the cheap rubbish that they have installed and put in a much quieter Sunnon or equivalant fan that has the same or higher airflow/min than the one you took out.

 

Just one that just came to mind as I was typeing the last paragraph. How noisy is the shutter if it is noticeable, as the sutters on my PR Solo 250's are quite noticeable and I wished they were quieter.

 

 

The construction of the units is fairly spot on, access is through 4 screws on the base and a further 2 per side on the head. Both arms remove and the wiring loom is individually wired and should be easy to swap out in the event of damage, the holes where the loom enters the base and head from the arm both have silicone sleeving over to further reduce rubbing which is a nice touch in a low priced mover. The units also have a tilt lock that is able to lock the heads in a variety of positions which is also nice on a cheap mover.

 

Have you compared the internals of both movers side by side? Did you notice any interesting choice of colour for the cables? Such as a green wire being used to come from the Fuse to the transformer.

 

Are the componunts and the quality basiclly identical between both units?

 

 

Sorry for so many questions but ive had some interesting dealings with this company in the past and the quality is all over the place, but they allwase say they specialise in moving heads and I was looking at getting a pair in the future.

[smalljoshua]

Sorry about the delay in replying, I managed to miss this post until now.

 

With the 'nice and thick' IEC cable, the Chinese are notorious for adding a bit of extra plastic to a 0.75 or even as low as 0.5mm cable to make it feel like a 1 or 1.5mm one. so Im wondering what is the marked dia' of the cable? )im keeping in mind though that ive seen cable marked 0.75mm but after inspection was no where near that, I was guessing arround the 0.25mm mark!)

They're marked at 0.75mm and that's what they appeared to be when I swooped the connector to 16a.

 

Out of curosity, what type of flight case is it? a dual or a pair of singles? and it it a Tea Cosy stye one or one with a hinged lid and the head sits suspended? And is it the 'default case' meaning you just asked for a flight case and this is what they provided.

It's a dual flightcase with a hinged lid, they sit base up with the head suspended vertically (with the tilt lock) below. We bought the case as extra but it was $90 so was too good to pass up.

 

Have you pulled appart the DMX cable to inspect what type of cable has been used? And what type of connector is used? (Of course copy :Switchcraft, Neutrik or that silly connector that has a small clamp on the bottom not sure who originally designed it though.)

It's marked "Digital Telephone Cable" and appears to be of good quality. It's using Neutrik X Series copies.

 

I wonder if that 'Osram' lamp is genuine, as after a bit of grilling of one of my contacts at MS they told me the Phillips lamps they were selling at 4x the price of a generic Chinese one were in fact high quality copys and not the genuine thing.

I've not had a chance to check, but they seem to be performing well.

 

How many fans are in the base unit? How many fans are in the head? As a thought that came to mind would be to swap out the cheap rubbish that they have installed and put in a much quieter Sunnon or equivalant fan that has the same or higher airflow/min than the one you took out.

They were all 80mm Dell case fans and noisy ones at that, being computer fans, I could find cheap, quiet and higher flow rate units easily.

 

Just one that just came to mind as I was typeing the last paragraph. How noisy is the shutter if it is noticeable, as the sutters on my PR Solo 250's are quite noticeable and I wished they were quieter.

That's the one thing that I can say is quite quiet about the units, I've not noticed this once.

 

Have you compared the internals of both movers side by side? Did you notice any interesting choice of colour for the cables? Such as a green wire being used to come from the Fuse to the transformer.

 

Are the componunts and the quality basiclly identical between both units?

All wires are black, all stepper/sensor wires are equal thickness, lamp wires are very thick and fan wires are in-between. I've not poked around too much in the base though so may have missed some of the odd wiring conventions.

 

Both units are also identical.

 

Josh

[Ashley R]

Beautiful, thanks for that Josh.

Exactly the kind of info I was after. Coupled with one of my friends has bought 4 of their Chauvet Q Spot 260 LED copy's and hasn't had a single problem with them. I might look into buying a pair.

 

Yep those flight cases are dirt cheap! Even if it was something I didn't like the design of it I would still buy them, just to protect then during the long journey from China, their cardboard is absolute rubbish! (too high a recycled percentage to new stuff I think)

[tom_the_LD]

Hi Josh,

 

Very informative post.

 

Just wondering if you had any pictures of the units in question? In the rig, so we can see what they look like in a show and how they compare to other lanterns and also in their flight cases so we can see what these look like and how they're sat in there.

 

I've also sent a PM.

 

 

 

Cheers!

 

 

Tom

 

 

Edit: Josh is this it? http://www.mslighting.com.cn/ProductShow.asp?ID=159

[smalljoshua]

Hi @tom_the_LD

 

Those are indeed the units.

 

This is a ballet style piece (set in a haunted forest) I lit in a panto back in November, the units are approx 3m off the ground and spaced 5m apart.

http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc4/hs1160.snc4/150219_501838626150_185785341150_7709646_2105164_n.jpg

 

I've not got any pics of them in their flightcase at the moment I'm afraid.

 

I've replied to your PM too.

 

Josh

[smalljoshua]

As this topic has recently been brought back up. I figured an update would be in order.

 

All the fans in the units are now lower volume, higher flow units and the movers are now running cooler and quieter as a result.

 

I have had 0 failures or faults on the units. Absolutely none. They have been used on about 60 different shows now, abused and thrown about by local crew on a couple of jobs and there is nothing wrong with them.

 

Every 6 months, they're striped down, screws tightened and everything lubed with either grease or graphite powder depending on where in the unit the part is.

 

I've been very happy with the units and wouldn't hesitate buying again.

 

Josh

[david.elsbury]

Problem is, if you Place another order, how likely is it you'll get identical units with the same parts?

 

David

[smalljoshua]

According to their website, the unit is still current and available.

 

I'm not sure if it'd be the same, but I wouldn't want more of the same. I'd likely get different units, I'm looking at the 3w RGBY units with Zoom at the moment. A number of them would be very nice.

 

Josh