How to keep technical equipment clean in the desert?

[burningexperience]

What are you supposed to do to keep you installation (like camera's, music gear, computers, CD-players, ....) dust-free in the desert? Anyone has some good ideas? Thanks

[Zhust]

Dust-free? You don't.

You just try to cut your losses. Use a watertight storage container and only bring it out when you need it. For my first burn, I bought an underwater single-use camera and it held up fine. I also had a snapshot camera I modified with a manual "bulb" feature (a paper clip stuck in to keep the shutter from closing) and I kept that in a watertight case, only using it when there was no dust storms.

I don't have experience with trying to do fine cleaning out there, so maybe somebody else can fill you in.

[AntiM]

Protection first, don't let your things get dusty (hah). Zipper bags and more plastic zipper bags. I'll bring cameras, but my laptop and music stuff stays home. I can't afford to lose them to the environment. My contigency plan is rather drastic: if it dies due to dust, so be it. If you're in an RV you'll fare better.

Yeah, I know, likely neither all that helpful nor what you wanted to hear.

[Ron]

Take a look around for outdoor use (and waterproof) bags custom made for your equipment. When I was shooting a documentary on playa I had two Cannon XL-1s in BRC shooting nearly constantly. Before we left I found a company that sells water proof protection bags for them, tailored to fit the camera perfectly. We shot for about 10 days on the playa and the cameras were in great shape at the end. Had to give 'em a good cleaning, true, but they've lasted for about four years since then and shot many off playa events, movies, and people fucking since then.

Ron

[phil]

I'll join in the rest of the clamor that you can't keep stuff clean. I've brought cameras every year, and I take my good stuff to a pro and have it not only professionally cleaned but restored to spec.

I use an Ewa Marine bag on my Nikon CoolPix, but it's a bad solution during the day - you can't see the LCD view screen through the plastic from a combination of glare on the Ewa bag, dust from the playa, and oil from my face (face oil and sunblock combined). Additionally, during the day, the temperature in the bag climbs, and the camera gets seriously warm, but no failure so far. If you go with Ewa, be _sure_ to get one now, try it on the devices to be sure it fits, and exchange it for another if the one you have doesn't fit. Their tolerances seem to be rather variable.

The issue isn't that you can't cover it, the issue is that you can't leave the item in the dust-proof cover for the entire event. You have to change batteries or recharge, get the flashcard or film out and put fresh in, change CDs, and so on. Playa powder is _everywhere_.

Louise and I bring GMRS radios to the playa. They are out in the dust at all times. The static electricity on the playa can affect their performance (sometimes they won't turn on), the sun discolored the plastic, and the sun and powder turned the rubber plugs (covering the mic and earphone jack and the power-in jack) to a grey, crumbly mass that eventually came off. We eventually gave up on our first pair after several years (along with frequent use the rest of the year), and I'm not sure they didn't last as long as they would have; they just looked remarkably abused.

I say go with whatever you want. Bring big baggies, big ziplocks, Ewa marine bags, a few cans of Dust-Off, and whatever else you can think of. Your stuff will get dusted. Playa powder will get into everything. C'est la vie.

[Burp!]

For small items the plastic baggy approach works fairly well, for the bigger items like computers, stereo equip and projectors, I've not had any luck keeping the dust off them. Though to date, 8 years of bringing things like this to the desert, we've had no real losses, even after major dust storms left layers upon layers of dust on these items.

We usually go through alot of effort to protect these larger items from dust, but inevitably the dust gets at them no matter what we do. Our rule has become, don't bring it if you can't live without it. We usually just hope that they survive the week without issue. For computers we usually put them in a box of some sort. We use those jelly keyboards instead of the standard types, which work really well. CD players and such we again have some sort of sealed box that we run the wiring out holes from.

Last BM I built a jukebox that housed the computer and stereo equipment in. Built it out of a bathroom vanity we had lying around. This worked pretty well as we put the computer and stereo equip below and had the cd player in the drawers with a spring action to make sure the drawer shut after using.



T.

[MrMullen]

If you don't want it destroyed, you don't take it to the Playa.

I have a whole set of eletronic items that I only use on the Playa and camping. If they get dust in them, get lost or grow legs and walk off, I don't really care.

[trilobyte]

Gamera gear went into ziplocs. Accessories for cameras also in ziplocs, and only came out when something needed to be used, then back in again when done shooting. Simple. Cheap. Effective.

Music gear (CDJ's, turntables, amps, etc) all were in flight cases or rack mounted. The rolling 19 inch rack held the amps, EQ, and even a rack-mount power strip, and were all mounted in the top of the rack, with open space on the bottom (so dust would settle drift as far away from the gear as possible). We kept tarps/covers handy for the music gear at all time in case of dust storm or other foul weather (the plan was to put the DJ under all the cover too so he could keep playing haha). We got braver by the end of the week, and didn't feel the need to cover it all up in the dust storm after the temple burn. But whenever it wasn't in use, we put the flight case covers on the gear.

Brought out many cans of compressed air, and about 4 times throughout the week I hit everything pretty hard (about 10 mins). When I got back to LA, I went back through it all with more compressed air, and a washcloth I'd soaked in white vinegar and then wrung nearly dry. The vinegar neutralizes the alkalai in the playa dust. The TLC session with everything at the end took a couple hours, but was well worth it as everything is still in top shape. Hope that helps!

[burningexperience]

Hey thanks for all those replies, these thing are really helping us out! If there are any more suggestions, we would love to hear about them :)

Thanks again dudes!

[Steven bradford]

Also, baggies are great for storiing, not as great for operating the equipment in the bag. I discovered this stuff last year, GLAD Press'n Seal wrap, which is textured plastic wrap that sticks to equipment surfaces quite well, not just too itself. This protects your gear further when you have to pull it out of it's protective bag or box. What's nice is that it's thin enough you can just cover most buttons and knobs and operate them through the wrap.