HOw do you deal with triggered strobes ?

[Mystic]

Ihave a little question, about old strobes and how to drive them from a Avo Pearl 2000 (but any other hint for some other console is good). I have two old Collyns 1500W strobes that can be driven by 0/10V input, however the input is some kind of trigger, so whenever the voltage changes on this line the strobe will trigger *once* and flash *once*. I drive this analog line with DMX through a common demux from a pearl.

 

So if I take this fixture as a dimmer channel if I flash the channel, the strobe will flash once. If I want to have a stroboscope effect (with many flashes per second) I can program a very very fast chase to do this (on, off, on , off), however it is not really practical for me because I cannot easily control the speed of the chase.

 

I also have two strobes, sometimes I'd like to make a burst on one and then on the other (like a burst chase) and programing this with the previous solution is a pain, it is also very difficult to synchronize this with tap tempo because my chase has many steps where I would like to have just two (burst one and two).

 

So here is my question : Is there a magic fixture type that could allow me to program this easily and generate the flashes at a predetermined rate ? or is there any other mean to make my life easier with this old trigerred strobe ?

 

 

ps: sorry to be a bit lengthy but I wanted to be as clear as possible.

pps: this is a double post with the Avo forums but I may have to use thoses strobes with other desks, so...

[peter]

If you were using a Strand 500 series desk, you could assign a customised fade profile to the strobe channel, which took each 1% increase as either an on or off, thus a fade from 0 to 100 would give you 50 flashes. Do that in a second and you'd be sorted.

 

Not sure about a pearl though, as I don't think they do fade profiles.

[Flyingwysiwyg]

Hello Mystic,

 

As far as I know, there is no way to right a personality for the pearl that will allow you to use a standard Strobe De-multiplexer to achieve the results you want. The only way to do it as far as I know would be to have some software built into a Strobe De - Mux with 2 or three channels of control (depending on the strobe Rate, Intensity & perhaps effects) similar to what you have on a modern DMX strobe (like the Martin Atomic).

 

There are some single adaptors around that will give you some degree of control over old strobes, but they do tend to come in single packages.

 

e.g: this offering from Chauvet

 

It may be that somebody makes a Strobe De - Mux that will allow you to do this, though I have never come across one of more than one channel.

 

I commonly use an Anytronics Strobe De - Mux (with the good old 400W Terrastrobes and generally write a couple of chases on the Pearl to give me the desired effects. Set time on the wheel and away you go)

 

Perhaps we should build one. By next year we'll be Millionaires Rodney!

 

Cheers,

 

F - Wyg

[Ekij]

This sounds like an interesting task for budding DMX DIYers out there.

A DMX receiver, that takes the DMX value (0 to 255) and converts it to a value of 10V pulses per say 2.55 seconds (inverted).

So 0 would produce no pulses

255 would produce 255 pulses per 2.55 seconds (1 flash every 10ms).

 

Then two faders would control the two strobes.

[Mystic]

This sounds like an interesting task for budding DMX DIYers out there.  

A DMX receiver, that takes the DMX value (0 to 255) and converts it to a value of 10V pulses per say 2.55 seconds (inverted). 

So 0 would produce no pulses

255 would produce 255 pulses per 2.55 seconds (1 flash every 10ms).

 

Then two faders would control the two strobes.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

If you input a voltage and output a frequency of pulses, that could be the job of a compoment name voltage-frequency converter. that's my B plan for this but I was first searching for some hack or software solution.

[henny]

anytronics do a 16chan strobe controler £100 ish http://www.anytronics.com/download/16ch.pdf

 

can do single or dubble puse eg, single - on the way up past 50% , dubble on the way up and down, also has latching on last 6 channels rather than pulse, great for foggers, Q lights or other fx that requrie 10V trigger eg a drop box .

 

other option, a relay driven off a dimmer channel swithcing a 9V pp3 accross the strobe.

 

easyest way to control either of theses from any desk is to create a 2 step chase , step 1 , chan at 100% , step 2 at 0%, set v fast speed, sorted.

 

I use the any unit with 16 x £15 strobes on a random chase to create a false cam flash / press thing for awards evenings, I gust randomley scatter the strobes around the set.

 

any questions just ask,

 

ian

[lonfire]

hi henny,

I have an older version of that anytronics strobe controler.. the 10 channel version..

 

for some reason though my strobes seems to miss some of the pulses it produces.. I put a scope across it and my other controlers create a pulse that is around 10ms longer than the one from the anytronics.. not sure if thats the problem or not.. but its VERY anoying..

 

what £15 strobes do you use?

 

thanks

chris

[henny]

hi , the strobes I use are called jumbo strobes , there about the size and shape of a short nose par 64, give ged at northern stage a ring he found them for me

ian

[Flyingwysiwyg]

hi Lonfire,

 

I have the 10 Ch Anytronics as well. The problem lies in the trigger voltage. Someone modified ours to give a greater trigger voltage and the problem was solved. (This was with Terrastrobes).

 

F - Wyg

[lonfire]

hi,

thanks for that.. any idea how they did this? I haven't taken mine apart yet so I might be able to trace the circuit through and tweak something..

 

thanks for the info (any more greatfuly recieved)

 

chris

[Flyingwysiwyg]

I'm not 100% on this, but I think there is a transformer that gives the +10V trigger on the original Anytronics. I have a feeling we just made it +12V, but it was a very long time ago. If I get chance, I'll whip the lid off and have a look.

 

F - Wyg