ProSoundWeb Community

Please login or register.

Login with username, password and session length
Advanced search  

Pages: [1]   Go Down

Author Topic: new gear, cold weather concerns  (Read 3323 times)

Brian Levy

  • Newbie
  • *
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 7
    • Levy Productions
new gear, cold weather concerns
« on: November 28, 2011, 12:17:54 PM »

over the summer i picked up some new equipment and i'm a bit concerned about the effects of rapid de-coldification.  i'm in northwest indiana, and the temperature sometimes stays below zero for days or weeks at a time.  the juice in my oil hazer never froze, and my movers, led's and old school controllers never seemed to have any problems being turned on shortly after load-in.  but now i have a new controller that is basically a computer, it has a hard drive and touch screens, and i also have a water based hazer.  i know fog juice freezes, and since the water based haze juice (luminous 7) is very similar to fog juice, i figure it's going to freeze.  i also have a laser that already seems to have some trouble, in this 40-50 degree weather, it seems about half as bright as it should be for the first hour or so that it's turned on.

i'm guessing the normal practice is to just open up the cases immediately after load-in, and 4 or 5 hours is probably enough time.  that will probably be fine for my weekend shows, but my weekday shows are a different story.  showtime is generally 60 to 90 minutes after load-in.

the only solution i can think of is to bring the controller, hazer and laser inside the house each night.  however that probably won't go over too big in the wife department, and i'm sure my neighbors won't be too happy to hear me using my liftgate at 4am on weekdays. plus, well, it would just be a bitch.

are there any other possible solutions that i'm overlooking?
thanks in advance for any suggestions/ideas.
Logged

Eric Eskam

  • Newbie
  • *
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 17
Re: new gear, cold weather concerns
« Reply #1 on: November 29, 2011, 12:36:28 AM »

i'm guessing the normal practice is to just open up the cases immediately after load-in, and 4 or 5 hours is probably enough time.  that will probably be fine for my weekend shows, but my weekday shows are a different story.  showtime is generally 60 to 90 minutes after load-in.

Learned this from an old-school photographer.  Put cold gear inside plastic bag before bringing into warm environment.  Condensation from the room air forms on the bag and not the equipment as the equipment thaws.  The colder air in the bag has less moisture in it too.  If really paranoid, you can get silica desiccant packs like you often find inside shipping/retail packaging for new electronics and toss a few in the bag as well.

Works for cameras, should work for your gear too - if it will fit in an airtight plastic bag OK for you :)

Also can you insulate your truck (*flame retardant* foam sheets can work wonders) and then use a safer low surface temperature heater like an oil-filled?  You don't need to keep the gear at room temperature - just need to close the gap between it's temperature and wherever you are loading in.  I dunno - it's an interesting problem.  I never had these issues growing up on the west coast so it's been a learning experience the last 10 years :)
Logged

Brian Levy

  • Newbie
  • *
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 7
    • Levy Productions
Re: new gear, cold weather concerns
« Reply #2 on: December 04, 2011, 04:24:50 PM »

interesting ideas, but i don't think either will work out for me.  i don't think i'd be comfortable running a heater in the truck, no matter how safe they are these days, not to mention the cost of fuel/electricity.  i thought about using a space heater on the open cases once inside, but that could be just as bad as just turning the stuff on, since it would warm up very fast.
the plastic bag idea is very interesting, but it just won't work in this case.  the controller is just too big, and given that i'm having problems with the laser at above freezing temperatures, the condensation from freezing isn't even an issue yet.
and for the hazer, i think i need to keep it from freezing at all, which could result in cracked tubing.
i think i have no choice but to bring the hazer and laser inside, which isn't a huge issue since i could carry those things in just a few minutes.  but bringing in the controller would probably be at least a fifteen minute ordeal, using the lift, rolling down an ice coated sidewalk, and dealing with going up a step to get in the front door.
i think i have an idea though.  it takes me an hour and a half to two hours to get to chicago, so that's at least two and a half hours from when i leave home to when the controller gets turned on.  if i were to cut a hole on either side of the controller case, i could attach a hose to the truck heating system that would thaw it out while i drive.  that might be a bit weird, but it just might be my best bet.
of course i'm still open to other options, if there are any.
Logged

ProSoundWeb Community

Re: new gear, cold weather concerns
« Reply #2 on: December 04, 2011, 04:24:50 PM »


Pages: [1]   Go Up
 



Site Hosted By Ashdown Technologies, Inc.

Page created in 0.031 seconds with 22 queries.