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I designed a part that makes the Aputure 300d better


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Hey everyone, This is my first real post on this forum so bare with me. I've come here for a few years when I have questions but have always found the answers without needing to make an account. Anyways... Like some of you guys, I bought into the hype around the Aputure 300d about a year ago. I own and operate a lighting rental company here in Phoenix and the promise that this LED could potentially replace some of the smaller HMI's we generally use was enticing. Not long after using the fixture for the first time, a huge design fault became apparent, as I'm sure it became apparent to a lot of others. So I decided to do something about it. After a few sketches on the back of a call sheet and a few hours in Solidworks, I came up with a pretty decent work around. The issue that faces this fixture, as well as a lot of other LED's is the shear amount of junk you end up hanging off the bottom knuckle of a stand. The bracket I designed helps to tidy up the cable management as well as keeps the components close so they can clamp to a stand via a mafer clamp.

 

After getting my first prototype back from the machine shop, I was finally able to release the kickstarter with an effort to pre-sell a decent amount of them, with my goal being what the machine shops minimum order quantity was. We surpassed our goal within the first 48 hours.

So I'm sharing the project with you guys to try and broaden our reach.

Thanks for checking it out.

 

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/thundergrip/thunder-grip-aputure-300d-dimmer-bracket?ref=creat

 

2656dcf3291e4acfa2a2c2bd3a8e01df_origina

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I like that. The criticism of the Aputure open-faced LEDs is that they're too much of a pile of parts. I understand why -there are benefits of modularity - but this is a nice idea nonetheless. I wish they'd done the mains power supply as a box with a v-mount on it, then you could latch them together much as you have there.

 

At least the earliest versions of the 300D had rather noisy fans in the power supplies; how do you find it? And did you get the upgraded dichroic filter assembly?

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The fan noise is noticable in close quarters; but in my experience with it, it’s rarely been an issue. I use this light most commonly as a background wash, an edge, a window push, popped into the ceiling to lift the room, very seldom is it used as a key close to a mic. The main inspiration for the bracket was at the time I was putting it on a menace arm with a 6ft octo quite frequently, and the length of the head feeder provided left made it so I was zip tying the whole mess to the speed rail which was frustrating

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