# Teching up the old girl



## Jay Ashworth (May 3, 2014)

It appears that I may get the opportunity to do some tech refitting in the house my community theatre performs in, this month. Based on working two shows in there (and 2 decades or so of ripping people's crap out by the roots and rebuilding it , these are some notes I sent along to give the relevant people an idea about what I thought might be good to do. 

I invite any comments from the CB community on the ideas I mention, or any other things you think ought to be looked into in a 14 year old house on its first refresh.

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1) Check out the Mackie SR24-4 from top to bottom. It appears to have several problems in the Aux sections: some master sends won't turn the signal down at all; same with a few channel pads and aux sends; it feels to me like maybe something got inside and is all over the boards. Probably needs to be taken apart; might need a real bench tech.

2) Clean up cabling -- it's a mess back there, and just relacing and velcroing AND LABELING the cables would help a bunch.

3) Install permanent cables in the booth for Laptop In, Talkback Mic in, and Headphones.

4) Install a flange and gooseneck for talkback mic on the side of the 9wooden rack) box.

5) Test and repair problems in the snake -- Returns A and B appear to have opens or crosses; I couldn't get either to work right for Stepping; had to reverse a Mic run.

6) Make sure that the Compressor is wired in front of the amp. Since the mixer to amp run is mono (since the amp is in bridge -- I tested this by panning), if there's an available compressor channel, install an insert cable for using it on a mic channel.

7) Clean up the routing on the FX unit (the permanent label was in the wrong place, or someone had left it patched in the wrong place).

8) I will donate a PC and a working 19' LCD for clip playback; wired to the sound board, the lightboard by USB for running SmartSoft, and the projector via VGA and Serial for projection control.

9) Install a permanent PL circuit cable to the light board (in the booth next to the sound board, but in an open booth, it's helpful to have both on headset -- especially since the headsets are left-ear only and the light guy is to your left, calling from the sound board)

10) Test and label all the stage floor and wall mic jack pockets.

11) Run a permanent PL cable to the catwalk follow spot positions and the greenroom, splitting off the relevant circuit in the snake.

12) Clean up and document dimmer assignments; save a base show on an SD card -- specifically, renumber the house and cyc dimmers into sequential positions.

13) If we can get some lamps (120W/130V R40), relamp the rest of the cyc strips, as well as the 2 spares, and make sure they work. Provision appropriate dimmer cables to let them be used as footlights.

14) Foam in the holes in the Stage Left wing so things don't fall down them. The original build had a ladder instead of stairs to get to the catwalk, and they just cut them out...

15) Furnish and install a gel rack in the catwalk

16) Install house-door-closed indicators in the booth (door-alarm sensors, twisted pair, and a couple of 12V LED trailer marker lights)

17) Build and install permanent LED lighting above and behind booth (12V white LED strip in aluminum U-channel; I built one of these for the booth overhead lighting and used it in the last two shows, packing it in and out; it worked marvelously)

18) Acquire and install PL Signal lights for backstage and green room -- can I build these inexpensively, out of the aforementioned LED marker lights, and some passive components?

19) Tie off scrimmer power cables in catwalk and other places as necessary

20) Pull out the stage monitor system, set up and test, after [HASHTAG][HASHTAG][HASHTAG]#5[/HASHTAG][/HASHTAG][/HASHTAG].

21) Write a proper tech manual for touring renters, save as PDF and paper.

22) I might rewire the room as stereo; it's narrow enough for that to work. (It is presently in bridge, fed from only one channel of the Mackie)

23) I'd really like to replace the light switches for the left and right exit pocket lights and the stage fluorescents with Insteons, if I can get ones rated for that amount of power -- they put them where they are *behind* the curtain.

===

The lightboard's a Smartfade 24/96; 2-channel PL main, but only one channel is wired; Crown stereo main amp; Proxima projector; powered screen. One front pipe with catwalk; 16 channels of scrimmer; 3 electrics about 16' high. 4 sections of house incandescent on fixed dimmers. Greenroom RF feed with a 5-way video switch in the booth. Just laid a 1/8 masonite replacement floor, but didn't countersink or prepaint or nickle and dime, and didn't use enough screws either...


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## headcrab (May 4, 2014)

Point 16: I'd use these instead of trailer lights. LED | AutomationDirect.com
They are available in incandescent (if you want that for some reason) and LED, in both 24V and 120V. The 24V indicators also work quite well at 12V. They can mount in a standard 1/2" KO. They look like this (the aperture science logo is a paper insert I put behind the lenses) imgur: the simple image sharer



Point 23: Switch the lights with a contactor. Control the contactor coil with whatever you want.


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## Jay Ashworth (May 4, 2014)

Alas, installing contactors will require bringing in an electrician, and if I do that, I'll just have him reposition the dang switchboxes.

Those lights look pretty spiffy though; I'm planning to install a switch and light for a projector dowser, and they can go on the same panel.

Anyone got an idea for a small projector dowser, BTW? 3" sq total. All the DMX irises I see are built (and priced) to be in front of a focused luminaire...


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## Jay Ashworth (May 4, 2014)

I had in mind something like these:

New Smarthome Insteon 2466s Insteon Togglelinc Relay Non Dimming White | eBay

though I'd have to confirm the max fluorescent load.


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## microstar (Jun 18, 2014)

Jay Ashworth said:


> Alas, installing contactors will require bringing in an electrician, and if I do that, I'll just have him reposition the dang switchboxes.
> 
> Those lights look pretty spiffy though; I'm planning to install a switch and light for a projector dowser, and they can go on the same panel.
> 
> Anyone got an idea for a small projector dowser, BTW? 3" sq total. All the DMX irises I see are built (and priced) to be in front of a focused luminaire...


Jay--

Im a little late to this thread, but have a solution to your need for a projector douser. I’ve built several of these, and they all work great. Referencing the illustration, a junked computer internal CD drive of the tray type is modified for manual control of the tray open/close function and is fastened on-edge in front of the projector lens. An opaque material is fastened to the tray instead of a CD. The CD drive is stripped of all inards except the tray drive motor and open/close mechanism. Most of these motors operate on either 5 or 12 vdc. This will determine the battery pack or power supply needed.

A double-pole double-throw center off with both sides momentary toggle switch must be used to reverse the polarity of the dc voltage. Holding the switch for a moment in either direction is what makes the tray either open or close. Simple, cheap, and reliable.

I used standard mic cables as the wiring from the unit to the remote switch location. You can get junked CD drives for free or for a couple of dollars from most computer repair shops.


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## Jay Ashworth (Jun 18, 2014)

Or, by walking out to my junk box in the other room. That is beautiful. Thank you.

Sent from my SPH-L720


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## microstar (Jun 18, 2014)

Jay Ashworth said:


> Or, by walking out to my junk box in the other room. That is beautiful. Thank you.
> 
> Sent from my SPH-L720



With some serious thinking, could probably be adapted to use a DMX controlled relay of some kind instead of the toggle switch, but its the double pole polarity reversal that's a problem. Good luck!


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