We have had a few enquiries about using the true bypass relay board with the control switch remote from the board itself (original article here) (kits available in the shop here). We should emphasise that as it stands, the true bypass board is designed for the ‘Stomp Here’ switch to be mounted in the same box… Read More »
Updated – see below for information on improving the design to lower the output impedance. We have had enquiries about adding volume and tone controls to the Unbalanced Piezo Preamp (available in the shop here). The PCB was not designed for the addition of these controls, so this article represents something of a hack. Here’s… Read More »
I had an enquiry about using the new unbalanced piezo preamp to buffer a guitar lead and I thought I would do a write-up on the low-down of buffering and bypassing. The basics of impedance and the effect of long guitar cables. When we talk about impedance, we are talking about resistance to the flow… Read More »
In the first part of this series, we introduced the idea of power control separate from the dimmer system and gave an overview of different ways we can manage switching of power to installed appliances. In this second part, we will look at remote-control schemas for independent contactors. One Big Relay So, the first option… Read More »
In my introduction to theatrical lighting systems I considered the many and varied lighting installations you might find in a performance venue and talked about independent power control which we will discuss further here. In days gone by, practically all of the performance luminaires in a theatrical installation would use filament lamps and be suitable… Read More »
There are many different aspects of lighting in a public space – so many in fact that even seasoned technical crew can be confused. This article offers and introduction to the different lighting systems you might find in a performance environment. Consider a traditional small theatrical venue. The venue has public spaces and non-public spaces.… Read More »
Updated 1st December 2019 Part 3 of this series introduced two professional cue light systems both using a three-wire system with an XLR grounded cable shield. One system is relay-based and the other microcontroller-based. Either system would be suitable for a professional installation. However, the two systems use different arrangements for the outstation. In fact… Read More »
In part 1 we introduced cue light systems and discussed simple 2-wire a.c. systems. In part 2, we introduced d.c. switching and moved on to latching STANDBY. Later in part 2 we introduced a microcontroller-based design. In this part we will consider adding MASTER GO to relay systems and then expand on microcontroller-based designs. Note… Read More »
In the first part, we covered an introduction to cue lights are and how they are used. We also looked at a simple two-wire system. In this part we are going to look at three-wire systems with automatic flashing. Note that the circuits presented here are not complete designs and there are many and varied… Read More »
Some years ago I designed a theatrical cue-light system and I recently came across the drawings. The system was based on relays and I thought it would be interesting to see how cue-light designs have progressed over the years. I found that there are many different ways of doing cue lights and I thought I… Read More »