10 Bulb CFL Brute (Sample Video)

[Tim Duran]

Guy and Eileen: I've not only read your comments, but I'm copied them to my workbook for problem solving. Great and thoughtful comments. Your style is fairly technical which, for many, might put some to sleep. I appreciate the amount of time you both take in trying to be helpful. My suggestion is if you want to reach the most readers, come up with some additional analogies or visuals so that the reader has something to visually tie their throught into other than a sein wave. I have no, as in zero, electrial experience. However, I know this stuff is important so I forced myself to plow through your text. Yes, it was worth it and I thank you for all that work. I already have a new respect for all the magnetic ballasts I have I was thinking of tossing for "flicker free" units. You might consider titles such as "Don't toss that magnetic ballast" or "Is Flicker Free problem Free?" or similar titles that might apply to more of the Reduser readers .

 

[Guy Bryan Holt]

Your partner Eileen Ryan did post pretty much the same … messages like this are called advertising and Jason Ramsey handles agreements for this site. You might want to contact him about that.

I resent the implication of this post. Eileen Ryan is not my partner. She is an area freelancer, occasional spark on my crews, and a rental customer. If she has experienced the benefit of working with low line noise on my jobs and wants to quote liberally from my article to share her enthusiasm, the worst that I am guilty of is not discouraging her. Richard impugns my motives for posting by suggesting they amount to advertizing. I would like to make clear that I post as a professional gaffer and can offer the following credentials:

IATSE Local 481 Certified Generator Operator

Certificate Holder of the MQ Power "MQP Special Generator (Crawford) Technical Service Seminar"

Gaffer, Set Electrician, and Generator Operator on numerous features and television productions (for a partial list of credits see my imdb listing at http://www.pro.imdb.com/name/nm1471247)

Owner of ScreenLight & Grip, a lighting and grip rental company renting Honda, MQ, and Crawford generators for motion picture production for 18 years.

Yes, I have posted extensively on the harmonic noise generated by HMIs, and now I am posting on the harmonic noise generated by fluorescent fixtures because it is a problem that is becoming more prevalent. Richard seems to imply that I am trying to sell an ignorant public a product they don’t need by scaremongering, when in fact I am only trying to raise an awareness of the adverse effect that an increase in harmonic noise as a result of a change in lighting technology is having on set power. But, don't just take my word for it: apparently, harmonics when using a generator for lighting is enough of a problem to warrant several sections in the third edition of the "Set Lighting Technicianís Handbook." To quote Harry Box (Page 337 under "Power Problems from Electronic Loads"):

"Much of today's lighting technology relies on electronics such as DC rectifiers (electronic HMI ballasts), silicone-controlled rectifiers (SCRs), capacitors (magnetic & electronic HMI ballasts), and high-frequency switching power supplies (the IGBTs of electronic ballasts). These kinds of load can have undesirable effects on the current waveform, revealing themselves in the form of overheating or failing equipment , efficiency losses, circuit breaker trips, excessive current on the neutral wire, interference and instability with generators, noisy or overheating transformers and service equipment, and even loosened electrical connections. In the following sections, we discuss the power factor and current harmonics and look at their effects. Your awareness of these effects will help you to build systems that avoid or mitigate problems and show how to test for problems.(the parenthesis are mine)"

Now does this sound like harmonics is not an increasing problem when using a generator for lighting and I am just "scaremongering"? If at times it sounds like I am hyping the Honda Inverter generators and power factor corrected lights, it is not because we sell and rent the technology. Rather, it is because, as a professional gaffer of numerous low budget historical documentaries for PBS, Discovery, TLC, and the History Channel, I feel other low budget productions can benefit as well from the low line noise they offer. If, as Richard seems to suggest, there is only space for “advertorials” by paying sponsors in this forum, I will post the impartial results of my research on the use of portable generators in motion picture production elsewhere. Somewhere that doesn't ask me to dumb down or limit my posts.

Guy Holt, Gaffer, ScreenLight & Grip , Boston

 

[Ryan E. Walters]

In the middle of catching up on this post today, my two PAR 64 can lights arrived, bought from ebay.

Temp link:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=200433798189&ssPageName=ADME:X:AAQ:US:1123

They mount with a screw clamp onto any pipe or table top, 2x4, etc. Perfect for a simple vertical pipe in cement bucket "stand" as I already made.

$25 bucks each!

I'm looking at these bulbs:

http://www.bulbamerica.com/OSRAM-SY...luPAR64-PAR64-par64-VNSP-56017--3952-prod.htm

Only $24 for a 1K spotlight bulb, 3200K. "400000" candle power -- is that lumens?

Anyone know if there will be a difference between the "very narrow" and "flood" bulbs, when sitting way down in an aluminum tube?

I have used these parcans on projects before and here are a couple of things to keep in mind-

1. These lamps are best used as a direct light. The way they get all their power is through their reflectors / bulb design. If you try bouncing the light off of a card, or other object you loose the umph that their design gives you and it is working at the same levels / output as a traditional 1k tungsten lamp.

2. The differentiation between NSP (Narrow Spot) and VNSP (Very Narrow Spot) delineates the spread and intensity of the beam. From the tests that I did, the VNSP is roughly 1 stop stronger then the NSP. (Not exactly, just a rough measurement.) The VNSP also has a smaller beam / spread to it.

3. Be sure to get the yoke adapter for these lights as it makes it much easier to mount to a C-Stand, and it make working with them much more enjoyable. As they are, they are not veery friendly to mount ...

These are great lights as they are affordable and pack quite a punch. I'm adding some to my collection of lights. I have been able to light a set from over two stories up and still get a T4 / T5.6 reading on the set floor.

 

[Joe G.]

Thanks guys. I ordered a very narrow and a medium flood, to check out the difference. Should arrive next week.