A quiet Patreon stream that should hopefully be smoother than other streams have been recently.
Data connectivity was a bit hit and miss due to maintenance work being done on local cellular towers.
2022-09-14 22:37:14 +0000 UTC View Post
This is definitely a cut above the stuff sold on eBay. It has a decent solar panel and changeable 18650 cell.
It took me a LOT longer to reverse engineer this than I was expecting. The circuitry has some odd quirks, including very simple protection against accidental reverse cel...
2022-09-12 01:19:03 +0000 UTC View Post
Slightly later than normal....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=beD6x4S55sc
2022-09-10 20:11:31 +0000 UTC View Post
A death-daptor with a different twist. Much better quality than the shady ones shipped with cheap eBay goods from China, but with a glaring error that was a direct result of trying to be too clever.
2022-09-10 00:16:58 +0000 UTC View Post
It's worth revisiting this subject from time to time, and since I have a new favourite light I thought I'd give it the waterproofing treatment.
Doing this to your lights can make them last a very long time.
You may not be able to see this video as it has faint music in the background.
It's a classic British fruit machine (slot machine) going through its feature advertising cycle.
As soon as I uploaded it I got a spate of warnings about it being copyright music and blocked in some countri...
2022-09-09 19:25:40 +0000 UTC View Post
I thought it would be interesting to compare the circuitry in three lamps from the same supplier and range.
The circuitry is similar as expected, but there are some odd quirks.
https://www.youtube.com/watc...
2022-09-06 15:32:10 +0000 UTC View Post
I know that some new LED street lights will flash to indicate that they need addresses assigned on the lighting network. But i think these ones have a high resistance connection somewhere resulting in the capacitors charging up, the lights kicking into action and then the voltage dropping t...
2022-09-06 12:12:17 +0000 UTC View Post
It's rare I get this excited about something like a solar light, but this one is inspirational in its design, not just for its unusually open style and water shedding system, but because it has a refreshing twist on the way the LEDs are used.
When your evil neighbours dupe you into getting your kit off by telling you a wasp has flown up your sleeve.
Then they basically shot an onlyfans style porno.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/RjfJWrdgP3s<...
2022-09-05 02:35:23 +0000 UTC View Post
While Poundland definitely started the trend of miswired LED Xmas light charging cables, their arch nemesis "One Below" (formerly Pound World) has set a new standard for badly designed products.
2022-09-05 02:30:30 +0000 UTC View Post
Here's the link to the weekend stream. The show has completed its run, so the stream is back to the normal day.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xrqryBl10nI
2022-09-03 03:29:11 +0000 UTC View Post
There's clearly a lot of money involved in making bubble machines, as the science and engineering in some of them is extraordinary.
That definitely applies to this one. It took a while to put it back together again after I'd made the video.
I'm not sure how well this is going to work, as there have been network issues here recently, and the network providers website indicates that work is being done on local masts.
Hopefully these things will be resolved by Saturday and normality can resume.
It's because they're way too noisy and go on for a few hours, so it would just be ambient noise.
This was a very short notice meet due to the unpredictability of work.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=quE9Q...
2022-09-01 12:45:23 +0000 UTC View Post
I've taken the fluid pumps apart in the past, but can't recall exploring the blower assembly itself.
It's very straightforward, and appears to use an off the shelf vacuum cleaner assembly. The real work would be in fine tuning the hole size and position ratio to get the best foam flak...
2022-09-01 10:38:07 +0000 UTC View Post
The show has now been packed back into three large trucks and sent back to base.
Here's a look in the back of one of our trucks - a very unglamourous and back-breaking bit of "showbiz" that never gets mentioned.
The final outing of the video podiums on the last show of the run.
I don't have any advertising enabled, but the music has been detected, so adverts may be put on by the "music rights society" that harvests copyright.
This module was most likely killed by the accidental bridging of 12V onto a data line. Very easy to do with the close connections of addressable LED tape.
The frustrating bit is that the PCB had loads of protection on other I/O connections.
The best way to describe this tool is as the equivalent of mechanics OBD vehicle interface, but for event-industry lighting technicians.
It plugs into a standard DMX/RDM light or a full network of them, and allows testing and programming of the lights via a phone app.
A windy walk along the South lighting gantry. The wind can cause unusual issues with the lights, notably fan errors and shutdowns because the wind stalls the cooling fans, and sometimes lights losing their positional reference due to continuous wind jostling which confuses the phase quadrat...
2022-08-26 02:16:05 +0000 UTC View Post
It's hard to be nice about a product that has caused so much stress on a big show. But hopefully the manufacturer will resolve the issues that resulted in a number of crashes and erroneous failures to reconnect to the network when their signal path was blocked by large numbers of performers...
2022-08-26 02:10:49 +0000 UTC View Post
But this hazer packed up and required extensive cleaning of its main control PCB due to heavy precipitation of recondensed haze fluid, which is extremely hygroscopic and stays wet.
I'm not sure why they don't put a conformal coating on these PCBs, as this is a common issue with these units....
2022-08-26 01:22:16 +0000 UTC View Post
Tonight's video was supposed to be about a bit of specialist show control equipment that has been giving us a very rough time on the Edinburgh Tattoo.
But adding the description is proving tricky as I don't want to be too mean to the manufacturer as we can't prove it's not rogue equipment c...
2022-08-25 04:18:24 +0000 UTC View Post
Not just any old vintage test lamp though, but the very one I used as an apprentice for my final checks before working on dangerous electrical things.
Looking at the insides It lacks the comfort of an HRC fuse, but that said, the design is simple and functional. And given its age, it'...
2022-08-22 13:45:16 +0000 UTC View Post
Last day off on this gig, so here's a quick stream that is starting slightly later than normal.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OalAL_ZOTqA
2022-08-21 19:45:09 +0000 UTC View Post
This is my section of workshop table at work. It's MUCH more cluttered than everyone else's.
It's not where I fix the big lights though, as they are far too heavy for this table.
2022-08-21 02:47:56 +0000 UTC View Post
Sorry for the reduced output of proper videos, work has been quite demanding from a time perspective. Here's a look at the very modern insides of a clone of the classic Simon colour-repetition game.
Unusually, it does actually have a real number on the chip that traces back to a manuf...
2022-08-20 12:53:01 +0000 UTC View Post
Vince testing the lighting rig with a cue that points all the moving lights at the lighting desk to check they are working and positionally correct. This cue also lights each type of fixture in a different colour so that we can easily identify specific fixtures in the rig.
I posted this on the main channel, but thought it would be a good idea to post it here too. There's going to be a meet up at The Caley Picture House on Sunday at 3pm (21st August).
Not a huge amount of notice because I can't set events up until I know what time I will have when the sh...
2022-08-19 04:30:44 +0000 UTC View Post