My workbox is filled with all sorts of useful widgets.
There’s the spare power supply for my laptop, a table-top tripod for my camera and a bundle of zip ties. You’ll also find a couple of sets of 5-pin to 3-pin XLR adapters, various types of pliers, and a hemostat for…ahem…delicately removing the gobo springs from a MAC 2000. So, how I never had a widget like this, I’ll never know. But at least it’s there now.
Episode 1: Whereby someone asks an intelligent question…
Standing in the main ballroom of a very large Italian-themed Vegas casino, I surveyed the havoc that was taking place. Roughly a day behind on a two-day loadin, the lighting system was almost ready to fly. This was a good thing, since the audio, video and scenic crews were waiting for it to be out of the way.
As I followed my therapist’s deep-breathing instructions, the master electrician approached me with a question. The final data cabling was being connected, so he probably felt it safe to ask a question.
Him: “You know those outputs on the MAC 2K?”
Me: “Yeah…Why?”
Him: “Um…Can I use them both?”
Me: “First off…Thank you for asking. Secondly…NO!”
I went on to give him a brief description of the horrible things that could happen, given that those outputs were not optically isolated. I may have gone a little overboard, as the description seemed to involve pits of fiery brimstone in addition to the horrors the resulting data reflections were guaranteed to cause…but I don’t really remember the specifics.
Episode 2: Wherefore someone does something intuitive… but wrong…
At a lighting shop somewhere in the continental United States, there sits a young woman. Brand new to this crazy industry, she is diligently doing anything she can to learn the technology, truly wishing to be helpful at the right time.
In her shop-time she has picked up a knack for soldering. A slow day at the shop and a roll of solder in hand, the young lady sits down to make a few adapters. A dozen of those done, she moves on to terminators, cautiously placing the resistors across the proper pins.
As she contemplates the smell of that smoldering thin rosin core solder, an idea strikes her. Furiously, she peers back through her fluorescent-lit magnifying glass. For the rest of the day she deftly solders 5-pin y-cables for their inventory of moving lights.
A week later, she stands at a truss intersection with two rows of moving lights stretching out in separate directions. She realizes that this will be the perfect place for one of her home-brew data splitters.
Hours later…bad things happen.
Part 3: Wherein someone shows us the right way to do things…
When Lex/Electrol’s newest product arrived in my mailbox, I was a bit under-whelmed.
I had received an e-mail about how excited they were of this new gizmo, so I was looking forward to playing with their new LED-enhanced, 4-dimensional, twin-rotating, infinite zoom media server.
But that’s not what showed up in the mail.
What showed up in the mail was a non-descript black box. Billed as a “Plug-In Isolator Splitter/Repeater,” the ISR 1.2 is designed to receive DMX512-A data and provide two identical optically isolated, re-generated DMX512-A signals while avoiding some of the more common pitfalls alluded to earlier. (Reflections, brimstone, yadda yadda yadda.) The box itself is as simple as it could be, without any extraneous buttons, switches, menus, or media servers involved.
With a 5-pin male DMX input on the bottom and a pair of 5-pin female DMX outputs (one on each side), the box feels physically durable, with top-of-the-line Neutrik connectors on all sides. Power arrives via a male 2-prong Edison connector on the back of the unit. A retaining screw is also included, allowing the box to be tightened down to a standard Edison wall-plate in an installation scenario. A trio of LEDs on the device indicate the presence of data on the input and outputs.
Parts 1 and 2 of the article weren’t quite as fictional as I’d like, but they did offer good opportunities to test out Lex/ Electrol’s newest widget. Without fanfare, the box was plugged in and passed along a nice strong DMX signal to downstream fixtures, while ensuring that there would be no ugly reflections coming back at the others.
While Lex/Electrol’s newest product doesn’t seem too exciting at first glance this is a tool that will most likely show up in a lot of work boxes very soon.
Phil Gilbert is a freelance lighting designer / programmer. He can be reached at pgilbert@ plsn.com. Unless you’re Electrol. In which case, I think your little black box may be lost in the mail. What it is: Electrol Plug-in Isolator Splitter/Repeater ISR 1.2
What it’s for: to split a DMX512 signal into two runs without degrading the data distribution system.
Pros: Internal power supply is very convenient, housing is very durable.
Cons: Hard to find any.
Retail Price: $295
For more info, visit: www.electrol.com.
