JD Hartman

It's a simple matter of applying a power calculation. A cig. lighter outlet can only provide so many watts before the fuse melts. Usually they are fused at 20 or 25A, so a maximum of 300 watts is available to convert to 120vac. If you wanted to power a 1k or larger, the inverter would have to be wired into the vehicles primary electrical system with much heavier cable (#2 or 4) and fused to protect the alternator and battery. It's not something to be done with jumper cables either. Can it be done, certainly. Is it worth the time, money and effort for one shoot, no.

I don't think I'd go to Mole for the part. It's nothing special and if you can't find a junior pin locally, take the yoke to a machine shop and explain what you need made. A six inch length of 1-1/8" mild steel with two turned diameters and a threaded hole in the end. It shouldn't cost a fortune. You might even have them bore a 5/8" hole in the stand end to receive the baby pin. That would eliminate having to buy an additional adapter.

Of course if it was my fixture, I'd just make the pin as I have for some of my others.

In my opinion, they already abused you. If they don't pay, spreading their name around is fair retribution. If they cheat you now on a small rental and get away with it, they may try again with someone else on a larger scale next time.

I would have insisted on 50% payment up front. They didn't have any sort of equipment liability policy, did they?

Wrong, wrong, wrong. That link is for a TVMP (TeleVision to Motion Picture) adapter, used to convert fixtures which are normally hung from a grid via a pipe clamp to stand mount. Fixtures like lekos, par cans, cyc lights, etc. If you had posted an image of you Mole 2k or listed the model nuber, the confusion could have been avoided. From your description, fixture has a cast metal yoke and what you are calling a receiver is actually where the male portion of the junior pipe clamp or junior pin would be insterted. Both are held in place with a threaded bolt. A lighting supply like Barbizon should be able to get you what you need.

As has been noted, there aren't enough details about the cable run to give an accurate answer. In any case more than a 3% voltage drop at the end of a cable run is un-acceptable. Here is a stab at an answer, given the following: load can not exceed the branch circuit size, 30A; single phase; single leg 450 feet; #6 EISC wire. Voltage drop = 11.11v or 10%

Don't take offense at this Nick, but from your posts, its sounds like the first thing you should buy is a good book on lighting. Harry Box's Set Technicians book (and others like it), will explain the differences in fixture types and how they are most often used.

Sure, but I've never had a tungsten fixture other than a nook melt a cine gel (CTO, not diff.) within 10 seconds of clipping it on! Some other especially hot tungsten lights that come to mind: Totas and parcans w/ VNSP bulbs. On the other hand, all the fresnels I've used from 10K down to 150w run much cooler by comparison.

 

 

Of course you can still use them in a pinch, I know I have. But a fresnel will serve many greater functions than a nook, so I still see no reason for Nick to buy one instead of a fresnel. A parcan will likely be a more useful tool for lighting the forest at night since you can swap lenses and control the source better, at the same wattage and with a cheaper fixture too. But hey, what the hell do I know, I'm just a camera assistant. :rolleyes:

When applying a gels to a nook, broad or any open face fixture, I always clip the gels to the barndoors. There's less distance between the globe and face of these type of fixtures than in a Fresnel and you also don't have the Fresnel lens to absorb some of the heat. I never suggested that the nook would be a fixture I'd buy for my primary light kit.

Parcan(s) don't have lenses, the lens is incorporated into the globe. Maybe you are think of S4 parnel fixtures or lekos? The economy of parcans is somewhat offset by the need to carry a selection of globes in different wattages and beam spreads.

A nook light is usually a small rectangular 1K open face light like the one pictured. It's a broad, unfocused tungsten light source that was used mainly for lighting backdrops and cycs. I don't think they're used much anymore since modern fluorescent sources like Kinos get the job done using less power and generating less heat. I haven't seen one in use since film school. They get extremely hot, so you do have to be careful with them.

All tunsten fixtures get extremely hot, not just nook(s), broad(s) or other open face fixtures. I wouldn't suggest a nook light for a basic light kit. As for your statement they they are virtually obsolete, hardley true. They do have a limit to their uses, but the limit is your own ingenuity. If you are lighting a forest at night and HMI's aren't in the budget, 1k broad lights can do the job cheaply.

A Fresnel fixture, like the Lowel Pro that you have would work. Adding a snoot to the fixture would help to further restrict the light to just the face.

Robert, if you don't mind, how long is your grip trailer, approximately how much grip and lighting gear can you haul? A 3 ton package, a 5 ton package? What makes theft a big issue? Is yours a "fifth wheel"?

Dan B. said, "To me, unless you are talking a 38'-42' toy hauler, I don't (have) enough internal room to function as a grip vehicle AND production office, other than a really small one. "

Why would that be an issue? I'm looking for a way to haul my equipment, I'm not providing office space.

Robert, thanks for adding your thought on this subject and for adding the detail on the CDL requirements.

A CDL is required for any vehicle with air brakes, varying class of the CDL exist. I believe any truck over 28 feet in length or xx,xxx gross pounds in weight also requires a CDL (and air brakes). I could be wrong.

As for the need for jockey boxes, it's more of a convenience and a way to utilize wasted space between the frame of the truck and the road. Look at where a moving company (like Allied Van Lines) store their ramps and stuff. In boxes under the frame.

Additional small access doors or hatches could be added to the sides of a fifth wheel type trailer, which open into small interior compartments for cable, sandbags, etc.

As for weight capacity a two axle race trailer usually is carrying two compete cars, engines, spare body andf a complete repair shop. Properly designed, the same type trailer could serve as a 3 to 5 ton grip truck easily. Heavy carts could be pulled into the trailer with a floor mounted electric winch. Ever see equipment fall off a lift gate? Close to the ground, with no hydraulic lift gate to maintain looks like a good idea.

Many of the grip trucks you see, especially if it's run by an owner/operator are former rental fleet trucks, nothing custom built there.

That is inaccurate. An electrical inverter converts DC current to AC current. Genies generate DC power mostly. Big lights usually run on DC power, smaller lights plug to edison outlet, that is AC current. So the problem may not the inverter as I claimed, but Tim's explanation isn't solving the problem either.

I'm not even going to try and strighten out this confuion. I will say that the small (1000 to 5000w) inverter generators produce DC and invert it to AC, but larger (10,000 watt) generators produce primarily AC. They don't have an inverter in them. The only DC produced is is to charge the battery and for the exciter circuit. They are actually motor driven alternators, not "generators".

I concur, most of them use a globe rated at less than 500w, unless it's a projector used for a large conference room. A small halogen PAR-16 like an ENX or similar.

I've done business with the people at AH as well. If your local to them, stop in, they'd be happy to talk to you about their lights. The lamp connectors they sell are actually superior to those used by Kino (IMHO).

You would have to do some measuring, to see if there is enough clearance inside, but this should work:

http://www.hubbellcatalog.com/wiring/catal...es/Page-A23.pdf

If your not familiar or comfortable with performing any electrical wiring, you probably could have a electronics repair shop install the inlet. But it is really a simple task.

Is this ballast made for use in Europe and other 220v countries? What is the input voltage supposed to be? What would you replace the connector with? The connector should match up with the voltage and current specifications of the ballast.

Did the seller state that the unit was working and the used globe was good? It could be that the HMI globe has reached the end of its life (internal electrodes too far apart to strike). You might be able to get your local rental house to access the condition of the globe.

You could rent standard 6x6 scaffold and errect it in the fenced area. It probably would take three or four tiers, require outriggers and need to be tied into the grandstand frame for rigidity. But scaffold rental is cheap.

Besides Backstage Equipment, can anyone suggest other makers of equipment carts? Looking for some alternative designs (taco, grip, stand, etc.), USA East or West coast.

A guy here in town had a fireball ignite from (presumably) dust particles settling on the hot as he was tieing in. This is someone who is a licensed electrician, and who does many many tieins. He lost his vision for (luckily only) 20 hours or so. Doesnt seem worth the risk to me.

My comment, the guy either shorted adjacent phases with his tie-in cable or shorted a phase to ground (the enclosure, etc.) . He "flashed" himself, the arc which resulted is rich in UV wavelenghts, gave him a painful but short lived burn on his corneas, making seeing difficult. Welders call this "Sand in the eyes", it clears up in a day or so, depending on the severity. If the guy had been wearing any type of ANSI approved safety glasses, the lenses (even clear ones) would have filtered out most of the UV. Another example where proper protective equipment is essential.

Even adding breakers into an existing panel isn't a "good" idea if you aren't quite certain of what you are doing. Can you tell the difference between single phase, three phase delta and three phase wye? Do you make certain that you have the phases in the panel reasonably balanced? No current or very little current on the neutral? How do you bring the new circuits out of the panel? Through a knockout in the box or hanging out the front? If the panel cover is left off, you have created a hazzard for everyone on the set.

Did I miss something in your original post? Theft of what? Or is that the local term for, "Failure to bribe a local official."? Will charges be filed against the Tourist official?

Hold the Phones!

 

The Honda 6500 generator is not a 65 Amp generator, as one would guess. I made this mistake in plotting out an equipment package and was fortunately told that the genny was rated at around 45 amps. In other words, the number following the generator is not the wattage. -sean

Not true, the model number represents the peak watts the alternator will deliver for a brief time before overheating. Honda and other mis-represent their generators by stating the peak instead of the continuous output. The same holds true for the Honda EU 2000 and 3000, they will not deliver 2kw and 3kw continuously.

The only small generator manufacturer I know of that doesn't do this is ONAN.

Need an otherwise un-useable, un-economical to repair tripod with a good 100mm bowl. Don't need the head or the legs either. So it doesn't matter how mangled the tripod has become as long as the bowl casting is intact. Let me know what you have. Include shipping in the price to zip 08817.