empyfree Posted May 12, 2015 Share Posted May 12, 2015 Looks good, throw a pic up of the finished setup, these look really useful. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paulears Posted May 12, 2015 Author Share Posted May 12, 2015 I've spent the day making up some base plates that can cope with a flat floor or raked stage. I did come across one small snag - the 150mm top plate is too narrow for some of the things I'm going to put on them, so I'm having to make up some bigger top plates - I've gone through almost my entire collection of bolts, nuts and washers today. The end plates are, as expected prone to bend, so large spreader washers seem to stiffen them up. It was a sunny day - so I knocked them up in the garden instead of the workshop - and the black paint dried almost before the next brush load came along! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
empyfree Posted May 13, 2015 Share Posted May 13, 2015 Nice! "Mega tank traps"! Is the threaded bar at the "front" your rake adjustment? Or is it for an up lighter? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paulears Posted May 13, 2015 Author Share Posted May 13, 2015 Up lighter, next stage is the power. It's all got to be very simple to connect, and set up for simple people. As each piece of truss needs power, I'm a bit stuck. Power consumption is low, so my plan was to use a daisy chain of IEC 1M to 3F adaptors, two to the lights, the third to the next splitter. I have a pile of IEC to IEC already. I'm wondering of there's a better system - maybe a star instead of the daisy chain? My intention is to make the thing as simple as possible, as I said. So I have eight pieces of truss - so wiring each one back to a common point is practical - apart from the DMX - which needs daisy chaining? I thought about using power cons, making up a small box with 4 connectors on each one, but the component cost is higher. IEC adaptors of Chinese origin are about 8 quid for each splitter - doing Powercons means a lot more money unless I buy the Chinese ones - which haven't been too bad quality wise - they work out about a pound a plug or socket. Any bright ideas or pointers. The client who wants these isn't interested in detail - just the end price. They will be pretty well static, but need putting in a store 2 days every week, then getting out again - pretty much that is the brief. I'm keen because part of the deal is I can use them if I need them on these off-days. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarkPAman Posted May 18, 2015 Share Posted May 18, 2015 I quite often have to send simple systems out which are electrically similar to this. I've found getting non technical people to understand daisy chaining DMX to be difficult. They often seem to think the order is important and get into all sorts of messes. So, the simplest cabling is a star with a DMX splitter (example) and power distro at the "centre". The combined power & DMX leads you can get all seem very expensive though, so I usually just tape two cables together. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paulears Posted May 18, 2015 Author Share Posted May 18, 2015 I've got a splitter on the shelf that I could use, never really thought about it. The Chinese LED movers have their version of powercons on them, and they come with some cable connectors, and experiments so far show them as quite decent - I've tried a bit of heavier loading on them, to the limit of a 16A connector on the supply and they show no signs of arcing or overheating, so I'm going to build the splitters with a 10A resettable breaker in each one as I don't need anywhere near that kind of capacity - and a 10A limit will just be sensible downrating. I've ordered a pile of the connectors, so should be ok. The price of proper combined cable is daft - so it will be tape for me too! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peza2010 Posted May 18, 2015 Share Posted May 18, 2015 The price of proper combined cable is daft - so it will be tape for me too! you could spend a little bit more and go for heatshrinking the cables together, bridges the gap between "a little bit shoddy" and "Proper combi cable". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Don Allen Posted May 19, 2015 Share Posted May 19, 2015 Or if you have connectors on the cables, use self amalgamating tape to join the cables together. The tape can be stretched very thin. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paulears Posted May 19, 2015 Author Share Posted May 19, 2015 It puts things into perspective when the actual truss costs less than half the total budget for the project! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paulears Posted June 10, 2015 Author Share Posted June 10, 2015 Finally got around to sticking it all together and perfectly stable loaded vertically on 600mm2 marine ply bases. The only thing I need to do is to make up some wedge plates for the top, as the 2m tall ones maximum depression with a horizontal top plate is not steep enough downwards. Forgot, to be honest. I'm more impressed with the 90W Chinese LEDs on the top. brighter than the 575W old tourspots I've just retired, and the beam quality MUCH better. One gobo is a torus shape with very fine lines, that when coloured green could be mistaken for a laser - they're so sharp! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dbuckley Posted June 10, 2015 Share Posted June 10, 2015 I'm more impressed with the 90W Chinese LEDs on the top. brighter than the 575W old tourspots I've just retired, and the beam quality MUCH better. One gobo is a torus shape with very fine lines, that when coloured green could be mistaken for a laser - they're so sharp!Picture of the unit...? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paulears Posted June 10, 2015 Author Share Posted June 10, 2015 Here are the pictures.http://www.limelight.org.uk/bp1.jpghttp://www.limelight.org.uk/bp2.jpghttp://www.limelight.org.uk/bp3.jpghttp://www.limelight.org.uk/bp4.jpghttp://www.limelight.org.uk/bp5.jpghttp://www.limelight.org.uk/bp6.jpg Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paulears Posted June 11, 2015 Author Share Posted June 11, 2015 and the resthttp://www.limelight.org.uk/bp7.jpghttp://www.limelight.org.uk/bp8.jpghttp://www.limelight.org.uk/bp9.jpghttp://www.limelight.org.uk/bp10.jpghttp://www.limelight.org.uk/bp11.jpghttp://www.limelight.org.uk/bp12.jpg Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TomHoward Posted June 11, 2015 Share Posted June 11, 2015 What's the unit please Paul? Is it one you are importing or have a supplier for? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paulears Posted June 11, 2015 Author Share Posted June 11, 2015 I imported them Tom - I'll send you the details of who I got them from. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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