| Sign in: |
| Members log in here with your user name and password to access the your admin page and other special features. |
|
|
|
|
|| SportsShooter.com: Member Message Board
SHUT OFF YOUR STROBES!
Robert Smith, Photographer
 |
Brandon | MS | USA | Posted: 10:07 AM on 02.25.05 |
->> We have been shooting a HS playoff venue that is a small arena (4000 capacity). The arena is 30+ years old. We have 8 Bowens/Elinchrom 500 w/s Strobes set up in various locations. We are bouncing them off the light color dome ceiling at full power.
Wednesday, one of the tournament directors asked us to shut the lights off because they had a breaker blow and they "think" it was our lights that did it. We had been shooting for 2 1/2 days with no problems when this happened. Is it possible that our lights could have all the sudden caused this problem?
Bob |
|
Daniel Tunstall, Photographer
 |
Pearland | TX | USA | Posted: 11:42 AM on 02.25.05 |
| ->> If someone else added something to that circuit it could trip the breaker. It may be that your lights were fine, but something else put the circuit over... |
|
Kevin Klaus, Student/Intern, Photographer
 |
Tucson | AZ | USA | Posted: 11:59 AM on 02.25.05 |
| ->> Home Depot offers a tool that can be used to measure the current that your lights are pulling. The tool is simply used by clipping the ring of the tool, over the wires running from the strobe to the wall. When you pop the flash, you'll see a peack current measurement that will tell you how much is pulled. I woiuld think that if you were to show the tournament direcors that you are pulling fewer amps than the circuit breaker allows, that you should be fine. If you are pulling more, you should make an adjustment to your pack to accomodate them. |
|
Darrell Miho, Photographer
 |
Temple City | CA | usa | Posted: 5:13 PM on 02.25.05 |
->> a simple check would be that if the lights blew a breaker, then one or more of your lights would not be working.
if the breaker had not been reset yet, then all you have to do is fire your strobes to see if all are firing. if they are, then your lights are not on the same circuit and they could not have caused the problem.
if the breaker had been reset, simply flip the breaker switch off and go out and fire your lights again. if all are firing, then again, you are not on the same circuit and could not have caused the problem.
if however your lights are on the same circuit, then you obviously would need to rectify the matter. |
|
Vern Verna, Photographer
 |
Taylors (Greenville) | SC | United States | Posted: 2:08 AM on 02.26.05 |
->> kevin the tool u r talking about is an amp meter which measures believe it or not the amps u r pulling. now ur theory sounds nice but a speedo pack pulls 60amps when it recycles but i can run it on a 15 amp breaker. The deal is when a speedo goes off for a split second after the flash it spikes to about a 60 amp pull but it does it so fast that a working circuit breaker will not trip. it normal pull for the rest of the recycle is a little less than 15 amps so that is why it will not trip a breaker. now all that being said i would constantly trip a 20 and 30 amp breaker in the new arena at sc when it was built because they had some quick blow breaker in there. they ended up getting 40amp slow blow breaker and they work great lol.
Most strobes dont pull any (just a trickle unless modeling lights are on) power when they are recycled as the way they work is they charge a capacitor. in the case of a speedo u bring ur normal 120 volts outlet in and when u pop the flash the released light is 900 volts dc from the charged up capacitors. To give u an idea if u get shocked by a 120 volt outlet at ur house u probably will live, if u catch 900 volts dc, u r dead no question. But anyway back to the breaker if it is popping when ur strobes are recycled it is not ur strobes but something else overloading it. If it pops right after u fire it is ur strobes as they recycle. One other thing about breakers, they basically are a spring so the more they are tripped the more the spring is worn so the more u trip a breaker, the easier it gets to trip. |
|
Robert Smith, Photographer
|
Brandon | MS | USA | Posted: 12:56 PM on 02.26.05 |
| ->> Darrell: All strobes were firing when I was told to cease. I suspected as much. |
|
Ron Holman, Photographer
 |
Visalia | CA | USA | Posted: 11:36 PM on 02.27.05 |
->> It's not the volts alone that will kill you. Consider the frequent and life-saving use of difibulators (sp?)which are in the hundreds of volts as well.
It's how much current is pushed through you. Typically meaasured in amps. Just milliamps in life-saving applications. Length of charge (time) is also crucial to the benefit or detriment of an electrical charge.
The less resistance your body has to electricity, the less effect it will have on you. But if there is resistnce and the power source has the strength (available amps or, multiplied with volts to give a rating in Watts), it will literally burn you. There used to be a hotdog cooker that worked on this principle. This is the same reason poor connections from old wiring cause house fires.
Think of a water hose. Voltage is the pressure to get it through. Amperage is the diameter of the hose. Both affect how long it takes to soak any given object.
As far as the breaker goes- they also tend to trip easier the more times they are tripped. Could be that one needs replacing anyway. |
|
Dave Prelosky, Photographer
 |
Lower Burrell | Pa | US | Posted: 5:31 PM on 02.28.05 |
->> Ron, I believe you have your analogy backward. Voltage is analagous to volume, and amperage to pressure
Also, defibrilators discharge power expressed as Joules, rather than Watts. When you either watch ER or hang in an ER, the call "Charge to 300!" is the Joule setting of the defibrilator.
For those interested, 1 Joule =10,000,000 ergs.
Arrgh. |
|
Billy Suratt, Photographer, Photo Editor
|
Nashville | TN | USA | Posted: 8:32 AM on 03.01.05 |
| ->> How many ergs are in an arrgh? |
|
Elisha Page, Photographer, Student/Intern
 |
Athens | OH | USA | Posted: 1:13 PM on 03.01.05 |
->> Actually Ron and Dave: you are both wrong, but on the right track
Using the water through a pipe analogy:
Voltage is a measure of pressure.
Amperage is the rate water is flowing through the pipe (water is measure in gallons per minute).
Ohms is a measure of resistance which would be analogous to pipe diameter as well as length and number of bends in it. |
|
Ron Holman, Photographer
|
Visalia | CA | USA | Posted: 3:54 AM on 03.02.05 |
->> Dave is right about defibrillators being rated in Joules. Joules are units of energy also called watt-seconds (which brings us back to strobes...)
Watts (a.k.a. Power) are calculated by multiplying the pressure (Voltage) by the current (Amps). In the case of defibrillators, it's low current and high voltage for a short time.
Perhaps this will clear it up the health risk issue I was trying to address...
http://van.hep.uiuc.edu/van/qa/section/Electricity_and_Magnets/Electrocutio...
So Robert, what became of your strobe set up? |
|
Larry Vaughn, Photographer
|
Gainesville | FL | usa | Posted: 12:17 PM on 03.02.05 |
->> I've heard of guys being thrown across the room due to a blast from a Speedo pack. Safety precautions should be followed for a reason.
Volts, Amps and Joules are all worthy of a great deal of respect. |
|
Sue Jarrett, Photographer
 |
Beaufort | SC | USA | Posted: 8:54 PM on 03.02.05 |
->> To find out about ergs in an aargh you have to go to pirateshooter.com.
sorry......he started it.............. |
|
Patrick Murphy-Racey, Photographer
 |
Knoxville | TN | USA | Posted: 10:07 PM on 03.30.05 |
| ->> FWIW, Elinchroms are lean & mean machines... I've used 4-1000 mono blocks into a single power strip connected to two 100' extension cords... No sweat... |
|
Lucas Jackson, Student/Intern, Photographer
|
Ventura | CA | USA | Posted: 1:46 AM on 03.31.05 |
| ->> All the confusion and difficulty understanding is exactly why I quit physics classes after I got to the electricity classes. I could never quite wrap my mind around all that stuff because you could not SEE what the heck was going on unlike the rest of physics. *sigh* I do know to make sure to discharge the powerpacks beforoe plugging/unplugging them though. |
|
Michael Fischer, Photographer
 |
Spencer | Ia | USA | Posted: 1:49 AM on 03.31.05 |
| ->> I've got 2 of the 1000 monos.....in a word.....SWEET! |
|
|| Sponsor Special Deals
We BUY & TRADE you OLD Gear
|
Available from:
Adorama Camera
|
Price: $0.00 |
Notes:
We all have some cameras & lenses sitting around collecting dust right?...Or you work at a Newspaper that has downsized?...What to do with your excess photographic equipment? Adorama's Used Dept is looking for your used gear to purchase or take in trade. Contact me directly jsnyder@adorama.com or 1-800-223-2500 X2435 and I can fill you in on the details. Cash in your pocket is better than sitting on the shelf, right?
|
|
-- More Info -- |
|
Return to --> Message Board Main Index
|