Excalibur
29-11-2009, 12:52 PM
And I've seen plenty of all three. :( Our younger readers may be confused when I refer to sockets with funny current ratings, and round pins. Sorry about that, but they still exist even nowadays, partly cos they've got a couple of bonuses which I can't refer to on here. ;) Until recently I always carried a 15a round pin tio 13a converter. Got me out of a lot of scrapes.
Right here goes, no particular order. May post others as I remember them.
Many of the problems encountered with Electrickery result from working in esoteric, unusual, and different ( ie free :D ) venues. :D
Local farm, off to a bad start, cos he screwed me down to the floor on price, cos "it's for Charidee". Then he asked if Jeanette would like to come, and charged her for a ticket. Anyway, I arrive, there's a band, a mobile self contained outside bar, and me. I'm offered a cable, and I take it. Then it gets dark, and the bar wants some of my 240v. So be it. Evening starts, jolly good fun, band doing first set, and all PA goes down, just backline and a light or two left. Me and the bar are dead in the water. Oh great. :( Some band members wander off thinking the fault's in their kit. As usual, everybody asks the DJ to sort it. Yeah right, we're all electrical engineers, carrying miles of cable and plugs capable of coping with everything, aren't we? So I walk across to the band, and say
"How's about plugging me and the band into the power you have, so we can restart? "
" Yeah but what if it blows the fuse"?
"Well we've got no music, no bar, and no lights now, so how would that be worse? ":confused: :D :D
"OK, let's try it"
So we finish the night thus, half the band are not happy bunnies, cos they can't have their cables back till I finish. ( Tee hee. ) I finish, they unplug their cables, and I'm packing up in Stygian darkness. Whoopee. At least the git of an organiser gave me full fee and a bottle of wine. :D
Hotel gets two new warming trolleys, each with two 13a plugs fitted. No probs, let's just plug them both into a 4way. Result, one melted 4way, and cold warming trolleys. Hey ho. :(
Couple from way back, first one in a Potato Chitting House ( yes it's spelt right. ;) ) Upstairs is fitted with loads of 5a sockets. We've got an adaptor for that, no probs. Until I turn on my lights. My lights don't flash at all, the house lights try to do what mine should, and the decks drop to 50% speed!!!!!! To this day, I have no idea of the cause. Solution? Cut a hole in the floor, drop a cable downstairs into a ring main, with 15a sockets, sorted. :D
Marquee hundreds of yards from the supply. Many many light duty extension cables. Eek! I get set up, and am looking down at some cables, when I realise the shadows on the wall are out of sync. Every time my lights flash, the chandeliers go dim! Oh crap. Set the lights to slow fade, and bin the spots. We made it to the end successfully, amazingly.
Young Farmers Gala Ball. Posh Marquee,( DJ wearing jeans and T-shirt, nobody told me it was a posh do. I expected a mucky barn. :o :o ) Huge Showband, absolutely excellent act. Sadly, the marquee erectors had not let the venue owner sort out the power. Three phases, he wanted to group eveything methodically and sensibly. Oh no, " we know what we're doing, we do this all the time". Morons. :bang: You've seen those puzzles where you've got to follow a tangle of intertwined lines back to source, haven't you? That's what we were up against. My power came from the band. After the third powercut, they said "We'll cut you off, cos you're taking too much power". One CD player, and a desk light, yeah right. They reconnected me during their last song of each set. Think we lost power about eight times before we finished.
Marquee with catering ovens. Alarm bells ringing. ;) " No probs mate, all professionally fitted, about a gazillion amps available, bombproof" It was during the backgrounf bit. I switched the first set of lights on, and: one out, all out. Somethging was re-routed, and no further issues.
Marquee in the lovely grounds of my local Golf Club. Morning of the wedding, and it's in the centre of a lake! One frantic pumping exercise later, and it's above the tideline. I go to set up, and as always" take the high ground". No, that's for the band. Oh goody. I'm in the pond in the corner. Only time I've actually been frightened, cos I'm actually standing in water by the end of the night! Thank the Lord for RCD's, eh?
One I've refrained from telling up to now, but I think I can legitimately put it in here. Marquee wedding, two separate supplies, loads of amps, no worries. We get the rig set up, tested, and left it on tickover, while we go and give the caterers a hand. Funnily enough, the power's gone off at their end. After a bit of investigation, we notice it's also gone off at my end. Drag owner out of house, and search for fault. Ring main trip switch in garage refusing to hold, so a chain of voices is formed, and all unplugged so it will reset. Caterer says " It can't be my gear, cos it was all PAT tested yesterday". Famous last words. One of the hostess trolleys has an earth fault presumably, and kicks the trip out either in the garage, or even worse the house sometimes. Two hours it takes us to find the offending one by elimination, as each time we get it wrong, we lose power, and have a trek to reset it. Also, there's six folk involved, so you know how that helps. Eventually we bin the dodgy one, and the owner actually has an identical one in the house, which he lends to the caterers.
More later, if any more neurones fire up.
Right here goes, no particular order. May post others as I remember them.
Many of the problems encountered with Electrickery result from working in esoteric, unusual, and different ( ie free :D ) venues. :D
Local farm, off to a bad start, cos he screwed me down to the floor on price, cos "it's for Charidee". Then he asked if Jeanette would like to come, and charged her for a ticket. Anyway, I arrive, there's a band, a mobile self contained outside bar, and me. I'm offered a cable, and I take it. Then it gets dark, and the bar wants some of my 240v. So be it. Evening starts, jolly good fun, band doing first set, and all PA goes down, just backline and a light or two left. Me and the bar are dead in the water. Oh great. :( Some band members wander off thinking the fault's in their kit. As usual, everybody asks the DJ to sort it. Yeah right, we're all electrical engineers, carrying miles of cable and plugs capable of coping with everything, aren't we? So I walk across to the band, and say
"How's about plugging me and the band into the power you have, so we can restart? "
" Yeah but what if it blows the fuse"?
"Well we've got no music, no bar, and no lights now, so how would that be worse? ":confused: :D :D
"OK, let's try it"
So we finish the night thus, half the band are not happy bunnies, cos they can't have their cables back till I finish. ( Tee hee. ) I finish, they unplug their cables, and I'm packing up in Stygian darkness. Whoopee. At least the git of an organiser gave me full fee and a bottle of wine. :D
Hotel gets two new warming trolleys, each with two 13a plugs fitted. No probs, let's just plug them both into a 4way. Result, one melted 4way, and cold warming trolleys. Hey ho. :(
Couple from way back, first one in a Potato Chitting House ( yes it's spelt right. ;) ) Upstairs is fitted with loads of 5a sockets. We've got an adaptor for that, no probs. Until I turn on my lights. My lights don't flash at all, the house lights try to do what mine should, and the decks drop to 50% speed!!!!!! To this day, I have no idea of the cause. Solution? Cut a hole in the floor, drop a cable downstairs into a ring main, with 15a sockets, sorted. :D
Marquee hundreds of yards from the supply. Many many light duty extension cables. Eek! I get set up, and am looking down at some cables, when I realise the shadows on the wall are out of sync. Every time my lights flash, the chandeliers go dim! Oh crap. Set the lights to slow fade, and bin the spots. We made it to the end successfully, amazingly.
Young Farmers Gala Ball. Posh Marquee,( DJ wearing jeans and T-shirt, nobody told me it was a posh do. I expected a mucky barn. :o :o ) Huge Showband, absolutely excellent act. Sadly, the marquee erectors had not let the venue owner sort out the power. Three phases, he wanted to group eveything methodically and sensibly. Oh no, " we know what we're doing, we do this all the time". Morons. :bang: You've seen those puzzles where you've got to follow a tangle of intertwined lines back to source, haven't you? That's what we were up against. My power came from the band. After the third powercut, they said "We'll cut you off, cos you're taking too much power". One CD player, and a desk light, yeah right. They reconnected me during their last song of each set. Think we lost power about eight times before we finished.
Marquee with catering ovens. Alarm bells ringing. ;) " No probs mate, all professionally fitted, about a gazillion amps available, bombproof" It was during the backgrounf bit. I switched the first set of lights on, and: one out, all out. Somethging was re-routed, and no further issues.
Marquee in the lovely grounds of my local Golf Club. Morning of the wedding, and it's in the centre of a lake! One frantic pumping exercise later, and it's above the tideline. I go to set up, and as always" take the high ground". No, that's for the band. Oh goody. I'm in the pond in the corner. Only time I've actually been frightened, cos I'm actually standing in water by the end of the night! Thank the Lord for RCD's, eh?
One I've refrained from telling up to now, but I think I can legitimately put it in here. Marquee wedding, two separate supplies, loads of amps, no worries. We get the rig set up, tested, and left it on tickover, while we go and give the caterers a hand. Funnily enough, the power's gone off at their end. After a bit of investigation, we notice it's also gone off at my end. Drag owner out of house, and search for fault. Ring main trip switch in garage refusing to hold, so a chain of voices is formed, and all unplugged so it will reset. Caterer says " It can't be my gear, cos it was all PAT tested yesterday". Famous last words. One of the hostess trolleys has an earth fault presumably, and kicks the trip out either in the garage, or even worse the house sometimes. Two hours it takes us to find the offending one by elimination, as each time we get it wrong, we lose power, and have a trek to reset it. Also, there's six folk involved, so you know how that helps. Eventually we bin the dodgy one, and the owner actually has an identical one in the house, which he lends to the caterers.
More later, if any more neurones fire up.