Intelligent Lighting surviving the Playa

muvment · Post by **muvment** » Sat Dec 01, 2007 1:16 am

Yeah, its awhile to go b4 the playa. and i never post here (this may actually be post #1), but its getting time to figure this out...

I'm trying to figure out what fixture I can take, put on our art car, and get home in 1 piece. Power is no problem. I'm thinking about taking 8 trackspots and a stack of AF1000s. Will these guys survive the week? Will they survive for years to come? What should I prepare for? Bunches of extra stepper motors? Will boards blow? Can i run some sort of filter device on them or seal them in such a way to keep playa dust out of the inards and still cool them?

And, the longshot, if i bring 8 technobeams instead of trackspots, should I just kiss them goodbye? They're much harder to gut and clean and I don't think I want to do that to 8 technobeams.

Also, what about controller durability such as an HES Intellabeam LCD controller and an AF1000 mini controller (or even possibly an AF1000 LCD controller if it will survive). I'm plan on bringing a backup controller in case they blow, but it would be nice to know my chances in advance.

Finally, anybody ever run AF1000s off of a generator and what results?

robotland · Post by **robotland** » Sat Dec 01, 2007 7:58 am

Anything with vents big enough to let air in and heat out will allow playa in as well...If there's any way to provide a sheltered environment that will minimize dust penetration, I'd pursue it. It might be possible to encapsulate the pivot points and actuators with custom flex-boots made from dryer vent tubing or rubber automotive shifter sleeves- You could also fabricate some dust covers that you can bundle 'em up in between shows after they've cooled down, just to reduce the length of exposure since the dust NEVER goes away entirely. While boards would still be subject to heat failure you can protect them from some degree of playa incursion with rubber cement (!) or plasti-dip. Bring some fine-bristled paintbrushes! Canned air's good too, but watch the condensation.

Dork · Post by **Dork** » Sat Dec 01, 2007 8:46 am

How were you planning on mounting them in the car, exactly? If they're mounted externally, they'll fill up with corrosive dust pretty quickly. You could probably rig up some sort of filtering system with a shop vac filter and dryer vent tubing, but then you'll still get dust on the mirror, lense, and stepper motors which are (or were, 12 years ago the last time I used trackspots) exposed. If the strobes are sealed you might be ok with those.

If you can mount the trackspots inside a relatively sealed vehicle pointed out (or not) you would probably be ok. I know a few people who use video projectors like that - just mount them in a truck cab pointed out through the windows. For the controller, remove the knobs, wrap the whole thing in pallet wrap, then put the knobs back on. Pallet wrap is like saran wrap but thicker. It will keep most dust out. You can get it at packaging stores.

Clean generators are your friend - if you can spring the dough for EU2000i's you won't have a problem running electronics.

The CO · Post by **The CO** » Sat Dec 01, 2007 10:42 am

The Unichronia (waffle) burn used intelligent lighting out there, but I don't know what the failure rate for them was. I worked on a show that used MAC 2ks & mini-MACs in a very dusty enviornment (touring horse arena with 20-60 tons dirt in it) & we had to clean & service the lights every 2 months. Are you renting these or do you own them?

Post by **mdmf007** » Sat Dec 01, 2007 10:47 am

I have never tried it, but was thinking positive pressure might work well.

Sealing them completely leaving one vent hole, and then plumbing each of them to an external pressured air source.

Its not as hard as it sounds.
1 compressor
2 supply tank
3 regulator set way low - I imagine 1 pound or so is all you need

sealing them up is the easy part, and no that I think of it, use big enough plumbing for flow, and you probably could simply use a filtered fan and forego the compressor entirely. the air would also cool the light, motor whatever.

just an idea - any thoughts?

muvment · Post by **muvment** » Sat Dec 01, 2007 8:05 pm

Clarifications:
The lights are all mine. They wil be on the outside of the vehicle. They will run for 7-10 days during all nights and if required, wrapped up each morning. They will be removed and cleaned every 2-3 days. The cleaning will include a blow out of the interior of the unit and a light cleaning on all inerior dichros, gobos, lens, uv filters, etc. They will also get a good cleaning of the exterior lense and mirror.

My thoughts on filtration: There is a vent on the front and an intake port on the back. I think I would attach a car air intake filter to the front of each unit. I will try to fabricate some sort of car based filter on all othe intake ports. The units will all be seriously gaffer taped on all seals and seams to eliminate dust getting into the internals.

Questions:

Who do I go to in order to create custom sized filters for the intake ports? Will the stepper motors that will be exposed to the elements survive for a week? And somebody mentioned something about the dust being corrosive. Huh? I know its an alkaline substance, but will that actually eat away at the circuit boards?

Rat Bastard · Post by **Rat Bastard** » Mon Dec 17, 2007 6:05 pm

From what I know, that corrosiveness starts as soon as humidity hits it.

muvment · Post by **muvment** » Sun Feb 17, 2008 11:09 pm

So i've decided to use 8 trackspots and 8 weatherized AF1000 dataflashes with Lightwave LCD controllers for both. They will be used on the exterior of an art car and covered up during the day. The dataflashes will survive the weather with no maintenance. The worry is the trackspots. I plan on blowing them out with a compressor every day. What are the chances they would survive 7 nights of constant useage with no filtration system? Should I just bring a box of extra stepper motors and lamps and probably make it through, or could disaster strike?

If possible, I wouldn't mind bringing some technobeams if they could survive.

I'm also planning on bringing 3 extra controller (2 extra LCD controllers and a generic DMX controller) incase the mechanicals of the boards die.

Any possibility of these lights surviving?

Specifically, does anybody have experience running stepper motors in this climate? Will the lights survive? And is there something I can use on the mirrors to allow them to not be scratched through the constant sand without impeding light reflection?

Token · Post by **Token** » Sun Feb 17, 2008 11:43 pm

What are the chances of you surviving if all this gear gets eaten alive by the playa dust and random Pabst Blue Ribbon hurled at it?

Are you prepared to let all this expensive sounding stuff get fried in one show?

If the answer is yes... then yes, all your stuff will sing and dance as you have dreamed it would. The dust is over rated. The alkali content of the playa is like soap. Does soap kill all your stuff?

Bring it all out, gaffer tape them hepa filters on intake and exhaust, blow whatever or whomever you need during the week, and don't piss off folks holding PBR.

...or you could just wear one of them Hawaiian shirts all week and look cool n shit and leave the lighting at home.

If your life depends on all this stuff, don't bring it out. If you couldn't give a rats ass about the bazillions of duckets this shit costs and there is no angry woman rolling her eyes at the lengths you take to waste money ...

...fricking go for it ...

pbmaniac2000 · Post by **pbmaniac2000** » Fri Feb 29, 2008 10:32 am

If you are mounting them on your art car then just build a plexi glass box for them. I have done professional stage lighting for 7 years now, and know the types of lights you are using front and back. If you don't build some kind of dust proof box for them, then don't take them.

Just buy some american dj lights instead. This way when they stop working you will only be out a few hundred bucks, compared to a few thousand.

muvment · Post by **muvment** » Fri Feb 29, 2008 10:41 am

The plexi glass box idea has been suggested, but I'm not too keen on it. I think I'm just going to take them out with no protection, blow them out everyday, keep them protected until nighttime, and bring a big box of extra parts. If its a loss, so be it, they're only trackspots. Additionally, I talked to some of the designers of the fixture at High End and they seem to think that the trackspots will have no problems out there. I don't quite believe them, but its good that they have some confidence.

American DJ? I'd rather stay at home. I've heard they're getting more reliable (like Kia), but I still don't own enough gaffer tape to cover up all the logos. (sorry, i let my lighting snobbhood out of the box)

Rat Bastard · Post by **Rat Bastard** » Mon Mar 03, 2008 11:07 pm

Bring garbage bags that stay clean inside to cover them for that afternoon/early evening dust storm. Compressor is a good idea and works great. Be sure to protect the mirror motor somehow. There's grease near the openings that will get packed with dust quick. Make it a little harder for the dust. Put little airfilters from Home Desprate on the intakes. I wouldn't recommend the outputs being obstructed.

Fuck the LCD boards. They suck ASS. Pick up a DMX card for Hog, Light jockey or ShowCAD. Use it with a cheap ass laptop with nothing else installed (Cept tunes maybe) and run a real lighting grid. Automate. Why spend days programming a crappy set of unusable live LCD boxes. Go with shit that gives you random, selective triggers, MIDI, run ANY fixture, tap into other lighting systems on the playa. These systems can also trigger solinoids via dimmers for fire effects.

Go big or stay home.

Your AF1000s will be fine. Tape em up still including the XLRs. Bring rags or towels to clean them off at night. You will be cleaning a lot. Make sure to check the lenses on the tracks often. Dirty lenses on those is instant overheat/blown lamp. Most important, don't forget to demand as good a view if not better then the DJ has. After all, he doesn't need to see his crowd to mix, you do.

What MV is this going on?

B Deep · Post by **B Deep** » Mon Jul 21, 2008 10:43 pm

Slightly off topic, since I am bringing some Chauvet lights. Not really intelligent, developmentally disabled perhaps?, and ultimately expendable. I am hoping to mount them on the top of our camp's domes, to shoot into the street or back into our camp. I was pondering AC filters gaffed to intake fan openings. I had also thought of trash bags or their kin taped around the instruments, whilst leaving the lens free. The only drawbacks I see are 1) the air inside the bags becoming hotter than the air outside during the day and wreaking havoc with the circuit boards 2) the bags being torn off by high winds ala '99 or '07 and turning into flying moop.
My only other idea, so far, is boxes or styro coolers lashed around the unit. Again, these may easily be gripped by dust storms and hurled into the Slovakian Porn Star camp two blocks down.
Any brilliant ideas I don't seem to have pondered? Thanks!

gyre · Post by **gyre** » Wed Jul 23, 2008 2:00 am

Fancy stuff.
You might keep them covered until you use them.
I would contact Chauvet and ask them about any overheating issues with dust on the bulbs, reflectors and so on.
Let them cool off after sunset too.
Issues have been reported in desert areas from sunlight heating fixtures before they were turned on.

Those would look great on an MV out there.