Our website is made possible by displaying online advertisements to our visitors.
Please consider supporting us by disabling your ad blocker.
Page 1 of 3 123 LastLast
Results 1 to 10 of 27

Thread: Decisions decisions....

  1. #1
    Imagine's Avatar
    Join Date
    Feb 2014
    Location
    Ely, Cambridgeshire
    Age
    53
    Posts
    2,450

    Default Decisions decisions....

    One of my trusty KAM Power PartyBar WFS units has gone to lighting heaven

    Although it works in S2L mode, the DMX & Master/Slave side of things seems to have gone down the pan....and that's not good. I tend to use them in pairs in bigger venues so they need to play nicely together.

    I ordered a replacement a couple of days ago, and was sent a PartyBar V2 (not the same but will possibly keep it as said Amazon supplier is horrified by his mistake and has offered a very large discount to save the hassle of me returning it). The WFS units are now rarer than hen's teeth it would seem (obviously because KAM are no more).

    Soooooo.....looks like I need to invest some pennies in a pair of lighting bars.

    I'm preferably looking for:

    * Pre-wired bars of 4 par cans with a decent brightness
    * Multi function LEDS as opposed to having a mix of RGB to make white (although the effect is the same, I really don't like to see colour mixing whereby you see the red, blue and green LEDS separately)
    * 35mm tripod fixing so they can sit atop my Gravity stands
    * Most important...a "reasonable" price. Anything up to about £500 for the pair. I could be swayed to spend more for the right fixtures, but they'd have to be good

    I'm only looking for wash here, I'm not interested in Swarms, Shards or Hadron type effects. I need total control over the colours.

    It's either that...or is there somewhere where I can purchase new PCBs for the WFS?

  2. #2
    Dinosaur Excalibur's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jul 2006
    Location
    East Yorkshire
    Age
    68
    Posts
    26,833

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by Imagine View Post
    I'm only looking for wash here, I'm not interested in Swarms, Shards or Hadron type effects. I need total control over the colours.
    Ahem! Those of us prescient enough to get the 4-in1 Hadrons are enjoying the benefits of Red, Green, Blue, Amber, White and U/V wash, plus Moonflower, Strobe and Laser. Two of these fellas are brighter than my Teutonic Powerbar. Bad news is, they're discontinued, and heading for the hen's teeth category. The 3-in-1 isn't any use whatsoever, but if funds allow, the Chauvet Swarm Wash offers the same features, but the DMX functionality isn't as user friendly, requiring eighteen channels.

    These Don't fit all your criteria , but are insanely bright, and have RGBW. They're also cheap.
    Excalibur. Older than the average DJ.

    www.excaliburmobiledisco.co.uk

  3. #3

    Join Date
    Feb 2015
    Location
    Reading, Berkshire
    Age
    40
    Posts
    1,439

    Default

    Peter got there before me.

    The Wash FX 2 looks great.

    I had the original Wash FX and regret selling them.

    Immense light output, and from a nice tidy box, rather than a long bar.

    RGB, but colour is mixed on the LED, and I remember getting a perfectly good white out of the original Wash FX. The new one comes with UV as well, should that be useful?

    Or for something really compact: https://www.djkit.com/chauvet/chauvet-fxpar-9.html

    Do you really need 8 x par cans?

    Or, here's my curveball suggestion:

    I think these are the most under-rather lighting fixture available:

    https://www.djkit.com/misc-supplier/...eadbanger.html

    Great light output. 4 of those (2 either side) will not only give you a lot of wash light, but also the added versatility of being able to move them. So you can point them to the floor, or even to the ceiling. And just £445 for 4 of them.

    Plus, moving wash looks amazing.

  4. #4

    Join Date
    Jan 2009
    Location
    Bristol
    Age
    45
    Posts
    3,487

    Default

    I take it that you've given up on your bars? It does sound like it's going to be as simple as a cable break in one of the DMX connectors or a connector failure, both of which should be quick and cheap to fix?
    http://www.bristoldiscohire.co.uk - Quality Disco and Equipment hire for Bristol & Bath
    Weddings, Birthday Parties, Kids Parties, School Disco's and more
    https://julianburr.co.uk - Wedding, Family, Portrait and Product Photography

  5. #5

    Join Date
    Nov 2014
    Location
    Durham, Co Durham
    Posts
    3,157

    Default

    Dmx (rs485) transceiver chip probably gone wonky in the kam fixture. Doddle to fix & cheap too. Or even easier, if it's as Jules said & it's just a broken connection on a DMX socket!

    Anyway why not consider the gigabar? Now only available in v2 versions but one v1 has been pretty much enough for everything I've ever done wash wise. Even 2 would come in your budget if you can find a deal.

    The washfx2 I can't recommend until I see what it's like on camera. They claim it's flicker free but their own specs say the led switching frequency is about 80Hz which won't play well with any camera with a rolling shutter (dslrs etc). The Washfx I have is alright on camera til I dim it, then horizontal bars are visible on any rolling shutter camera - and its LED switching frequency isn't much lower than the washfx2
    Last edited by Nakatomi; 29-03-2018 at 10:55 AM.

  6. #6

    Join Date
    Jun 2005
    Location
    Doncaster
    Posts
    814

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by rth_discos View Post
    Peter got there before me.

    The Wash FX 2 looks great.

    I had the original Wash FX and regret selling them.

    Immense light output, and from a nice tidy box, rather than a long bar.

    RGB, but colour is mixed on the LED, and I remember getting a perfectly good white out of the original Wash FX. The new one comes with UV as well, should that be useful?
    I agree. I still have my Wash FX (the original) and, when I got it, it replaced 4 x ADJ Mega Tri Pars and I STILL have to dim it down. I even use the "white" on full blast at the end of the night, should the venue staff be a little tardy in applying the house lights.

    I've looked at replacing it with a mark 2 version, but it would need a wholesale reprogram of the DMX as the channel configuration is slightly different, and, basically, I can't be bothered!!!

  7. #7
    mbp's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2016
    Location
    Derbyshire
    Posts
    105

    Default lights


  8. #8
    Imagine's Avatar
    Join Date
    Feb 2014
    Location
    Ely, Cambridgeshire
    Age
    53
    Posts
    2,450

    Default

    OK - thanks for all of the input.

    I suspect it's something simple on the WFS, and I've got a chap who knows about electricity to have a poke around this weekend to see what he can find.

    Mind you....I'm tempted by those Wash FX things.....that's got me thinking.......

    Someone asked earlier on in the thread "why bars"?
    I'm still a little bit old school. I actually like to see what appears to be a lot of lights on show as opposed to the Wizard on a Stick look if that makes sense. I know....it's daft because the smaller units can do the same job in a smaller footprint.

    Just call me old fashioned (or just old)

  9. #9
    Imagine's Avatar
    Join Date
    Feb 2014
    Location
    Ely, Cambridgeshire
    Age
    53
    Posts
    2,450

    Default

    Yippeeee!!!!!

    My friend that knows about electricity more complicated than what happens in a light bulb (which is about my limitation) has been round this evening and had a little poke around....and found a dry joint!

    Happy days - panic over. It works again . I'm back to symmetry....

    However....I've been looking at the Wash FX2 online tonight as well........hmmmmm........could be some pennies disappearing shortly.

  10. #10

    Join Date
    Nov 2014
    Location
    Durham, Co Durham
    Posts
    3,157

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by Imagine View Post
    Yippeeee!!!!!

    My friend that knows about electricity more complicated than what happens in a light bulb (which is about my limitation) has been round this evening and had a little poke around....and found a dry joint!

    Happy days - panic over. It works again . I'm back to symmetry....

    However....I've been looking at the Wash FX2 online tonight as well........hmmmmm........could be some pennies disappearing shortly.
    A dry joint, in a KAM unit! Who'da thunk it!

    I've found LED power connectors burnt out in my KAM gobotracers cos the screw terminals hadn't been tightened up properly. The last one to develop a fault - the connector had desoldered itself from the board!

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •