Slack cables in rig

[dedwards96]

Hi

We have recently purchased 10 LED par cans to add to our slowly growing stock of stage lights!!!

As you are probably well aware, these are a pain when it comes to rigging as each unit needs 16A power connector and 3 pin DMX. Our bars are internally wired but only have 15A sockets sadly so we have to rig it all ourselves! When it comes to wiring up these things there is unavoidably a few feet of slack in the cables and we struggle to keep them out of the way as there is normally several other standard fixtures on the bar too!!

What's the best way to deal with slack cables in the rig?!?!

Sorry if this is in the wrong area or seems a bit basic but it's such an annoying problem!!

Thanks!

[GridGirl]

Hi

We have recently purchased 10 LED par cans to add to our slowly growing stock of stage lights!!!

As you are probably well aware, these are a pain when it comes to rigging as each unit needs 16A power connector and 3 pin DMX. Our bars are internally wired but only have 15A sockets sadly so we have to rig it all ourselves! When it comes to wiring up these things there is unavoidably a few feet of slack in the cables and we struggle to keep them out of the way as there is normally several other standard fixtures on the bar too!!

What's the best way to deal with slack cables in the rig?!?!

Sorry if this is in the wrong area or seems a bit basic but it's such an annoying problem!!

Thanks!

 

I would normally just run the excess length back and forth along the bar between the unit's hook clamp and the next one, then tape it neatly. I'd suggest 15A-16A adapters so you can plug the cans into your IWBs but even if your IWBs are patched to dimmers/hot power rather than hardwired, without extreme care and attention it can end with an LED can plugged into a dimmer, which it won't like at all.

[dedwards96]

Thanks. Our IWBs are connected to dimmers so that's not an option sadly! I suppose that would work - probably better than leaving a coil hanging from the rig held up by tape!

[mark_s]

Running the slack along the bar and back is the preferred option, although if you have a lot of fixtures and a lot of excess cable it can very quickly get to be a complete pain in the rear end. I recently dealt with a rig predominantly composed of Arris. The standard long cable on an Arri, whilst ideal I'm sure for their 'normal' use, is an absolute nightmare when you have a lot of them, hanging, next to each other.

 

You can also coil the cable and tape the coil to the bar, but that's not a particularly neat solution, and you may have the urban myth police come after you complaining about how your cable will spontaneously combust or otherwise defeat the laws of physics in an inherently unsafe manner.

[MarkPAman]

In case you're not aware of them, 16 Amp T-Connect (or similar) can often save quite a bit of cabling. They can be found about 2/3 down this page

[abbotsmike]

I could well be missing something, but couldn't you run in cables from the light end back, and hide the slack somewhere else, away from the bar?

[ninjadingle]

Buy shorter cables?

 

Most of the DMX cabling I use with LED Pars is either 0.75m or 1.5m long. so not much slack to lose there! Also easier to extend "that last little bit"....

[stevep]

You could make up cables with 16Amp outlets spaced along it - easiest but perhaps not cheapest is that B&Q do a 13amp version which I think has six 13amp outlets spaced along it, you could then used 13A-16A adapters or permanently change the outlets to 16Amp connectors (annoyingly blue cable though)

 

if it's a regular set up then you could do worse that make up a number of short mains cable lengths and tape the DMX permanently to it - makes for more rapid setting up.

[jonathanhill]

Do you rig the lights in the same position each time? If so, it makes sense to do something like using T-Line through plugs or similar on the lights if you don't mind not being able to hard reset individual fixtures, or having custom Soca fan-outs made. I would then make up some custom length DMX and, if required some custom mains extensions and then loom them together. That way no excess needs to be hidden.

If you don't rig the lights in the same place every time, then consider if you could, then do the above..

[Roderick]

[snip]

these are a pain when it comes to rigging as each unit needs 16A power connector and 3 pin DMX

[/snip]

Just to clarify, please tell me you are not running 16A to each LED Par?

A single 16A feed will happily supply for all 10 pars!

You also mention that the IWB's are connected to dimmers, surely there is a patch field involved somewhere?

Any reason why you couldn't hardwire one of the outlets?

[Jivemaster]

LEDs usually NEED hard power, and may kill attached dimmers. Make a cable assembly with sensible lead lengths and run the industry standard 15a dimmed cct and 16a hard power. Regardless of the connector a LED PAR should use little power

[danburns]

You also mention that the IWB's are connected to dimmers, surely there is a patch field involved somewhere?

 

The dimmers in at least 2 local venues I can think of have IWBs connected directly to dimmers with no patch bay in sight.

 

Also, a trick I was taught once when plugging stuff into IWBs that are a mix of hot & dimmed power was to turn on just the hot power first to check everything plugged in the hots powers up. The logic behind this was that a PAR 64 given hot power is going to get less upset than a moving head given dimmed power.

 

 

 

[alistermorton]

The IWBs on our stage all go to a patch bay, but the IWB in the forward FOH position is hard wired to the dimmer channels, so I can sympathise.

[djmatthill]

Hi Guys .

 

Would 1 LED Par Can really need 16 Amps.

 

I thought LED stuff was very low on power consumption ?

 

 

Matt

[Obiyahwah]

Umm pretty sure 16A refers to the current of the load and not the power required??

 

Am sure tho a more detailed explination will be forthcoming