Shavano Music Online

    DIY Light System Schematic - Part 3

    2/98 - Last update 08/06 - Jens Moller - http://www.colomar.com/Shavano/lighting_sch.html
    DIY band lighting system. The previous entries:
    • The logic behind it - Part 1
    • Construction - Part 2

    The following Schematics show how I wired up my lighting controller. I doubt that you will attempt to duplicate my effort exactly, but it may give you some ideas on how to implement your own system.

    The system consists of 4 lights each on 2 light poles. Each pole has a cable that connects into the back of the light supports. Two cables (one is 30 ft long [approx 9 meters], the other is 50 ft long [approx 15 meters]) are used to allow the light poles to be seperated by 40 or more feet, and they plug into a controller box.

    The Lighting Controller Box consists of a few simple functions.

    • Turn on/off a color of light - affects lights thru both cables.
    • Dim a specific color of light - I usually always leave them dimmed.
    • Swap wiring of one light poles Blue/Red lights - this allows me to have one Blue light turned on (on one side of the stage) while a Red light was turned on (on the other side of the stage). This has become the normal operating mode.
    The goal was to make this so simple that it never would fail on me. I has been kicked around for at least 300 working gigs in the last 15 years without a single failure. It has taken a beating and is pretty dinged up, however considering I worked the on off switches with my feet (they are the same type that most people use for wall light switches - bought out of a bin of real inexpensive 120 volt wall switches), it looks amazingly in good shape. I did change out the connectors once when they started feeling loose, and I replaced the cord that supplies power to the system when it became frayed.

    The Wiring of the lighting units is very simple. I have a common wire that all light bulbs are connected to, then a seperate wire to complete the other side of the connection. I have often thought of adding an extra outlet to the light poles so that I could place a small fan on either side of the stage (it sometimes gets very hot on stage) to cool things down a bit. My connector (and cable) happens to have 6 wires in it, and I only ever really used 5 wires.

    I wanted to get a small mirrored ball at one time and add it to my lighting system. There was never time to get around to doing this for me. Maybe, this is what you'll use the extra wires for.

    The Cables are also quite simple. You only need 5 wires in the cable, but one of mine was made of 3 sets of 18 gauge zip cord (used for low powered lamps and extension cords) with tape every 18 inches to keep the wires together and the other was a 6 conductor Beldon cable with a heavy plastic covering. Both look pretty beat up now, but both have worked without many problems. One of the cable connectors was damaged badly before a show (someone ran a heavy case on large rubber wheels over it), but other than that, they have never failed me.

    Connectors: The Type of Cable Connectors for the lighting cables I use are 'Cinch' models - The Part Numbers are P-306-CCT (Plug - Male), S-306-CCT (Socket - Female), P-306-AB (Panel Mount - Male) and S-306-AB (Panel Mount - Female). All these are 6 conductor, 10 amp 120V connectors. They make these with more than 6 connections if needed. Sold by places such as http://mouser.com/ and http://www.jameco.com/ . They look like:

    There is a little type of nail/metal insert (you can see it on the plug) that when pulled out, makes the connector come apart. Note that they are also keyed (2 pins are offset) so that that it is hard to plug them in wrong. Pin numbers are molded into the plastic.

    Questions? Comments? .

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