Teaser... since we're posting them

Edited by LightsOnLogan - 23 Dec 2009 at 2:12pm

I'll post some more video of some of the Q-Spot effects tomorrow. 

It is really fun to select a snowflake gobo, rotate the gobo, select the prism (splits the rotating snowflake into 3 rotating snowflakes), and also set rotation on the prism. 

Even in songs where I don't "use" the Q-Spot to move around and do fancy stuff, I set up little things like that unique to the specific song.  Another example is where I select a Christmas tree gobo on gobo wheel 1, select a radiating line glass pattern on gobo 2, and rotate gobo 2 while keeping gobo 1 in focus.  It adds a ripple like animation effect to the projected tree.

The gobos are size "E" and Rosco has a ton (thousands) to choose from.

FWIW, it is worth it to spring for the 300 to get the extra DMX channels in advanced mode.

The only downsides I've had with the Q-Spot:
1- The color wheel gels are not interchangable... you are stuck with the stock colors (white, blue, green, yellow, magenta, pink, orange, and UV [blacklight])... NO RED!  You might be able to put a gel into one of the gobo wheels, but that will restrict your flexibility in other ways somewhat. 
2- DMX lamp mode... you can send commands to the lamp mode channel to turn the lamp on and off.  This is good because you can command the lamp on in your open sequence and off in your nightly close sequence... except it has bugs.  If you command the lamp off via DMX and the power goes out before the next on command, then the lamp is stuck off and you have to manually navigate the panel menu to turn it back on.  I wound up just putting the Q-Spot on a 15A appliance timer instead of using the lamp mode commands.
3- Color wheel vector speed... way too slow!  It takes 0.2 seconds to switch colors, so you'll have to lead them by about 0.1s in the sequence.  If you need to go from one end of the wheel to the other though... that takes over a second.  You will need to plan your sequences around the color wheel changes.
4- The rotating gobo wheel is easy to install new gobos in, but the fixed gobo wheel is a real pain.  There are no index marks, so it is a lot of trial and error getting the gobos aligned at the proper angle.

Other than that, I love the Q-Spot.  It is built quite well (the thing is 60 pounds) and has worked flawlessly in the harsh environment.  I put it in a homemade "container" for weatherproofing.  Basically, I made a cylinder out of acrylic and bolted an acrylic lid above that.  That all sits on a plywood base with an intake vent in the back and fan exhaust in the front.  If you can spring for Lexan instead of acrylic I would recommend it though... the acrylic reduces brightness by about 20% and throws a reflection of that 20% off in another odd direction.  The transmissive properties of Lexan are supposed to be much better.


Edited by LightsOnLogan - 23 Dec 2009 at 10:27pm

I still can't get your videos to work for me. 

Nope.  It asked me to choose a program and that's the program I chose.  It thinks about loading it for a few seconds, then displays the failed message.

Me neither, but the zip file worked.  Maybe Firefox was in a bad mood or something.  That looks great!  I really like the 4 f...fly arches, especially with the closer spacing you have.  I may do something like that next year, but I don't have spacing for 4 of them in their current location. 

Your DMX Q spot is a nice touch.  I could use something similar that has Christmas gobos.  People keep telling me that the chimney needs something and that would be perfect for it. 

After the madness ends, I'm looking forward to seeing the rest of your songs.