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H07RNF good for rewiring lanterns?


Angus

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A lighting hire company recently told me they use H07RNF in their lanterns. I'm rewiring some Patt123 and Patt23s and wondering whether I should do the same or go the extra expense and get silicone cable (I want 6 metres of cable on each of them). Any thoughts?
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You'll want silicon or other high temp cable inside the lamp. Min 180degC. You could put a 1m tail on the unit and then use a junction box to swap to anther cable type.

 

TRS cable insulation goes brittle and breaks off when it gets really hot.

 

Adding ceramic sheathing is a good extra protection but not a replacement.

 

Good luck!

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I would also be going for the silicon cable, and putting some fiberglass sheathing over the exposed single sheathed cables inside, as they can get nicked fairly easilly.

 

Came accross a little while back some wonderful PAR 56's that were wired up useing H05RNF (I think thats the right code) 1.0mmsq PVC coated cable. quite easy to guess that all of the plastic on the inside had melted to bugger and the inner copper cores were all showing....................

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I's quite a difficult choice really, because the correct cable isn't tough cable, outside the lantern. Silicone cable copes with high temps but can split when caught around right angle bends, exposing the cores. The very convenient outer cover removal by a sharp bend and tug, is exactly the opposite of what you need for toughness - so I can see why some people might well find H05 and a bit of sleeving tempting.
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Well done Angus for having the nous to do some research on BR before you started cobbling.

 

Shame on the planks at the lighting hire company who suggested anything but silicone sheathed cable. Angus, did they ask what lanterns you had btw? HO7 might be fine for LEDs I suppose.

 

Enlarging on the topic, it may be useful to suggest to any other folk faced with the same problem, after all Angus is hardly likely to be unique in this situation, that in all cases of replacement of a worn or duff part in any lantern it would be prudent to google for the manufacturers' info pages and see what was specced originally, (note mention of heat resisting cable btw, note also that the length of cable supplied in the '123 is 6ft):

 

http://www.strandarchive.co.uk/lanterns/p23.html

 

http://www.strandarchive.co.uk/lanterns/p123.html

 

In some instances you could either buy a replacement cable terminated both ends, as in Cantatas, say, or just one end terminated with the lamp holder, as in a Par can. For those not too well acquainted with Pars it is worth noting that some Pars have a riveted lamp holder and it may not be practicable to open up those sort to replace the lead.

 

(Plus, and I would take advice on this one, if you did successfully replace the cable on a riveted lamp holder and re-secure with screws you may find possibly an objection from the person doing the PAT as the device was not as per original design.)

 

It should be appreciated also that the lead may become perilously close to other lanterns and may be (over) heated by these other lanterns...not necessarily the lantern to which a lead is attached...when aiming/focussing, and apols if you did..you would aghast at what happens at our venue...some can't be arsed to shift the "c" clamp along a bit.

 

Ref your plan to fit 6mtrs of cable to each one. You should know that the silicon cable:

 

http://www.cordsncables.co.uk/acatalog/Silicone_cable_-_180_deg._silicone_heat_resistant_cable.html

 

is not built for rough stuff and is nothing like as tough as the aforementioned H07, which would be ideal, nothing better really, as an extension lead or out of the multi for use in a rig which sees lanterns moved around all the time, say.

 

I would suggest that a metre of silicon cable is perfectly adequate out of the lantern; thence to a 15A plug and so on and so forth.

 

HTH

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But was that braid confined to the inside of the lantern body? I was alluding to the trailing length outside the lantern casing. I have not (yet) seen any additional braiding on a silicone lead. I have some doubts that any braid would serve as well as H07 in the "toughness" dept.

 

You will see perhaps that the original spec includes no additional braid. I felt that 6ft of heat resistant cable may be too much and a single metre would be fine...then connected in the "normal way", which could be a 15A skt as part of a spider (fan out), say or perhaps an IWB.

 

FWIW some of our Pars have a mere 300mm lead. We make sure, or some of us try to, that the H07 it is connected to is not draped anywhere near another lantern.

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Thanks for elaborating on that - I'm going for the short lead with a 15A socket, as recommended by the good people of blue room.

NB the standard cable supplied on the original Patt123 (as specified in the above link) was 0.75m, whereas the 6ft cable is offered as a 'variation'....or perhaps that should have been 'deviation'.

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FWIW some of our Pars have a mere 300mm lead. We make sure, or some of us try to, that the H07 it is connected to is not draped anywhere near another lantern.

 

Blimmin hell thats short! Mine have all just had a rewire and so are now 700mm long leads. (oh and the addition of new Par safes)

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