LauraLiz Posted February 28, 2012 Share Posted February 28, 2012 Hi Everyone, I'm designing the lighting for a series of shows and my director has requested a fluorescent strip light. As the play is very abstract and features a lot of transitions from outside environments to inside environments I was wondering if I could achieve the effect of a strip light malfunctioning and strobing (during the transitions) and then striking for the scene. I've looked through previous threads and on the wiki page but they seem concerned with either avoiding the strobing effect and having a smooth dimming curve or with having a constantly strobing effect. At the moment I have some F100w/33 tubes and am looking into buying/hiring the corresponding fitting. Does anyone know if I would be able to achieve the effect I want by attaching a normal office fitting with the tube to a dimmer and setting the dimmer to 30% (for the strobe) and then 100% for the strike? Would it be best to include a load lamp with the tube? Would this pose a risk of damaging the dimmer or the fitting? Thankyou, Laura Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dbuckley Posted February 28, 2012 Share Posted February 28, 2012 Ideally, you want to get the production electrician to retrofit the fitting with a VIP90 ballast, and then you can control the fluoro exactly the same as you would any other light, so where you need flashes, flickering and strobing etc, these are just chases on the desk. You want unwavering light, you get unwavering light. You want to switch on or off hard, ou get that, and you can smoothly dim too for a nice fade in or out. It really does work a treat. Any other approach is hit and miss. It might work, but one night it might not. And an 8 foot tube is a bloody long tube, I didn't even know they existed! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigclive Posted February 28, 2012 Share Posted February 28, 2012 The eight foot tubes used to be very common, but are harder to get these days. They came in at least three different power ratings, which was annoying. 6 foot is a much more readilly available size these days. Many modern fittings come with electronic ballasts not suited to dimming, so a proper dimming ballast would be a good idea. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LauraLiz Posted February 28, 2012 Author Share Posted February 28, 2012 Hi dbuckley, Yeah, 8ft is rather long! I think it might be cheaper to just look into hiring or buying a smaller tube and fitting. Thanks for your suggestion but I'm not sure that fitting a ballast so that it mimics a normal fixture is the way to go. I would like to have the flicker effect as if it was malfunctioning and trying to strike, I'm not sure a chase on the desk would achieve the same effect. I also don't want any fade at all, would just quite like it to strike to full when the scene is being played. Do you know if I could damage the equipment or dimmers by using a fluorescent like I described? Thanks, Laura Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard CSL Posted February 28, 2012 Share Posted February 28, 2012 I doubt very much that you could damage the dimmers by dimming a florri balast and igniter. Probably best to run a dummy load alongside to prevent spikes on the circuit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LauraLiz Posted February 28, 2012 Author Share Posted February 28, 2012 Hi Richard, Okay, thanks for the idea about the load lamp, I'll definitely do that. Do you reckon I could run a bogstandard fluorrie like that, or would I want it dimmable? Laura Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dbuckley Posted February 28, 2012 Share Posted February 28, 2012 I would like to have the flicker effect as if it was malfunctioning and trying to strike, I'm not sure a chase on the desk would achieve the same effect. The flicker is just random onoffs, so it would be easy to do on a desk, but a long chase would be better so you dont see a pattern. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard CSL Posted February 28, 2012 Share Posted February 28, 2012 Just run the standard flourri down to around 30 percent and you will get the flicker effect anyway, as the balast and ignitor attempt to restrike the lamp. Give it a try, I do suggest a dummy load to prevent surges in the circuit, this wont affect the flicker. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
micromusic Posted February 29, 2012 Share Posted February 29, 2012 I'd just get some actual malfunctioning tubes to do the flicker/strobe thing when required, then strike the good ones on a separate circuit when the scene is ready! Authentic :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adam2 Posted February 29, 2012 Share Posted February 29, 2012 Use of a worn out tube to achieve the flicker effect has something to commend it, but may prove unreliable. A similar approach would be to use two fittings, or a twin lamp fitting with seperate control gear for each lamp.Both lamps to be good ones.Correct starter fitted to one lamp.Incorrect starter* fitted to other lamp.Switch on whichever is needed remotely, preferably not via dimmer. *use a "twin series" starter on a single 4 foot or 5 foot lamp and it will flicker. These are widely used for office lights that use a pair of 2 foot lamps in series. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LauraLiz Posted March 2, 2012 Author Share Posted March 2, 2012 Hi, Thanks for all of your responses. I'm now looking into having two fittings and experiementing with starter motors. At least then we can run everything through hard power and I don't have to worry about the dimmers! I got an opinion the other day that said that the tube might be at risk of breaking if I ran a normal tube and fitting through a dimmer, so that looks like a no go! Just need to find a pair of fluorries now! Thanks again :)Laura Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
themadhippy Posted March 2, 2012 Share Posted March 2, 2012 experiementing with starter motorswhat your making the tubes rotate,cosmic man ,or do you mean starter unit switch Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Posted March 2, 2012 Share Posted March 2, 2012 I got an opinion the other day that said that the tube might be at risk of breaking if I ran a normal tube and fitting through a dimmer, so that looks like a no go!Not from someone who knows what they are talking about I'll wager. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J Pearce Posted March 2, 2012 Share Posted March 2, 2012 In theory if you ran the tube very low for a long time you could overheat the electrode enough to compromise the glass to metal join. Unlikely though! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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