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This topic comprises 2 pages: 1 2
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Author
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Topic: ORC Rectifier only putting out 40Amps
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Frank Angel
Film God
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Posts: 5305
From: Brooklyn NY USA
Registered: Dec 1999
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posted 07-30-2005 01:11 PM
Final result: We got to the point-of-no-return when the rental house ran out of patience when the producer asked them to send another rectifier since the one they sent didn't work. They said, the one they sent worked fine when it left the shop, so our people had to have "damaged" it in transit or when we hooked it up.
That's when we went with plan B -- long play reels instead of 12 change-overs (SOUND OF MUSIC). I was able to get it all on 3 reels -- it was estar base; got the entire last 5 reels from Intermission on, on one 7000ft-er so stopping didn't even look like a mistake.
I had them put splitters on the DC lines from the one good Xetron rectifer so that I could use both projectors. At the reel change, I just killed the rectifier, swapped the positive cables of the lamphouses, powered the rectifier back up and struck the other lamp. That took only maybe 15 seconds. I waited another 15 for the lamp and then rolled the next reel. It wasn't terrible. Fortunately the audience (4000 +) was with us the whole time the one change-over with that short black screen didn't seem to bother them at all. They were singing along, applauding wildly at almost everything, even the baron kissing Maria the nun got ooohs and aaaahs. It's a really fun venue, even with the technical shortcomings.
However, here is a wrinkle that has come up with our one good rectifier Xetron, and it happened twice in the past, where the lamp will extinguish for a fraction of a second and then re-ignite immediately. It's so fast that I don't think the audience even notices it, but of course I did and looked to the most obvious -- the safety switches, especially the exhause vane switch because I had trouble with it before on that lamphouse that is feed from the Xetron. I cleaned and oiled the hinge and then last week it happened again. With all the drama around the IREM rectifer failure, I didn't get a chance to revisit that instantanious interruption problem.
But low and behold, it happened again last night, twice but on both lamphouses which of course tells me the power interruption, however brief, is not a lamphouse issue, but a rectifier one. So, now I am worried. We have a film next week and only ONE rectifier. Last night over the course of a 3 hour film, the interruption, albeit brief, happened two times. Should I be worried? Or should I be VERY worried? Any ideas as to why a rectifier should or could have a spike (dip, actually) like that and recover without any other ill-effects?
Oh -- interesting side note surrounding the IREM failure that I didn't mention: all while the first reel of the film was running, of a sudden a lighting instrument came up on stage to full - shining right on the screen. I asked what was going on --the lighting guy thought he had hit a fader on the lighting console with his arm. He didn't. A few seconds later the IREM started smoking and sparking. So, either we are looking at something the IREM did that caused the lighting console to freak, or it could be that Con Ed might have had a surge in the entire power system -- they were playing with the system all day because of the near-capacity power demand. I think they said they were doing rolling brownouts in various areas. Anyway, it I just thought I'd mention the thing with the lighting console because it adds mystery. Interesting to say the lest, eh?
But any ideas on why a rectifier will cause the lamp to extinguish completely for a less than a second and then restore? To me loose connections seem to random to cause these momentary drops -- they are always the same duration -- a fraction of a second; loose or failing connections wouldn't be the same duration each time, or as absolute -- totally off for .2 seconds, the totally back on without flicker or evidence that something is intermittent.
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