Jeffery m Posted April 6, 2017 Share Posted April 6, 2017 Okay guys so this year I'm wanting to do a ferris wheel and a carousel so my question to you is are battery operated lights my only choice Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard365 Posted April 6, 2017 Share Posted April 6, 2017 You should be able to use any lights. You have to figure real carousel use 110v lights. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheDucks Posted April 6, 2017 Share Posted April 6, 2017 The term you need to research is: Slip Rings. Your cars alternator uses them for the rotating field coil. 120V is more dangerous, but less sensitive to contact issues. I would not try to do 5V for anything but a very low current (position?) sense lead (My Navy radar set had over a dozen in the Antenna. Some carried many amps (they were silver plated) of AC or DC. I was lucky, I never had to service them, it would have been Hours with my head down a tunnel.) I think we can rule out "Rotating Transformer". first it is AC only. Second: it is cu$tome built Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeffery m Posted April 6, 2017 Author Share Posted April 6, 2017 I was wondering more about how to plug in the lights without cords being wrapped around Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheDucks Posted April 6, 2017 Share Posted April 6, 2017 41 minutes ago, Jeffery m said: I was wondering more about how to plug in the lights without cords being wrapped around That is what slip rings are for. You feed the IN to 'brushes, the attach the outlet to the rings, which are on the rotating member Here is a good summary of your issue http://www.electro-miniatures.com/HowSlipRingWorks.shtml BTW if you only need 1 circuit (2 prong) Use a isolated split axle Each bearing is insulated from the support and is one conductor to the axle (really 2 small with an insulator between --x-- ) A see-saw roto-motion might be simpler. Rotate ~400 degrees, reverse. Repeat Use very high strand count wire 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard365 Posted April 6, 2017 Share Posted April 6, 2017 51 minutes ago, TheDucks said: That is what slip rings are for. You feed the IN to 'brushes, the attach the outlet to the rings, which are on the rotating member Here is a good summary of your issue http://www.electro-miniatures.com/HowSlipRingWorks.shtml BTW if you only need 1 circuit (2 prong) Use a isolated split axle Each bearing is insulated from the support and is one conductor to the axle (really 2 small with an insulator between --x-- ) A see-saw roto-motion might be simpler. Rotate ~400 degrees, reverse. Repeat Use very high strand count wire Runs in the same theory as bumper cars run on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lightingnewb Posted April 6, 2017 Share Posted April 6, 2017 You can use battery operated lights if you don't want them synchronized with your show. If you want to control the lights as part of your show, battery operated lights will not work, since you need to plug them into the controllers... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
k6ccc Posted April 6, 2017 Share Posted April 6, 2017 9 minutes ago, lightingnewb said: You can use battery operated lights if you don't want them synchronized with your show. If you want to control the lights as part of your show, battery operated lights will not work, since you need to plug them into the controllers... Regarding a ferris wheel with lights and no wired connectivity, you could run low voltage DC powered lights (either dumb lights or smart pixels). For synchronizing the lights to your show, you could use either WiFi (for LAN based communications) or Easy Light Linkers (for LOR network based communications). Then power the lights, controllers, and communications from one or more batteries. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeffery m Posted April 6, 2017 Author Share Posted April 6, 2017 thanks for the input all. My ferris wheel will come on at end of show with the other static all that will be on a timer Is it possible to put the battery powered lights on a timer? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheDucks Posted April 6, 2017 Share Posted April 6, 2017 Ya mean something like this https://www.amazon.com/FAVOLCANO-CN101-Digital-Programmable-Switch/dp/B012FSL2GK/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1491521717&sr=8-1-spons&keywords=12v+dc+timer&psc=1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lightingnewb Posted April 19, 2017 Share Posted April 19, 2017 Battery powered lights... are... always on? They run on battery power, so... I would assume not. I have zero experience in this field, since my display is not static (fully synchronized). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bigfrog 59 Posted April 22, 2017 Share Posted April 22, 2017 Hi Jeffery I am also looking to add a Ferris wheel to my display this year. I looked at many different options as to how I was going to light it and came with using a 3 wire slip ring to get 120V power to the inside of the wheel. I found these 3 wire 30A slip rings on E Bay for $21.84 http://www.ebay.ca/itm/NEW-3-Wires-30A-250Rpm-600-VDC-VAC-Wind-Generator-Slip-Ring-Wind-Turbine-/321492537873?rmvSB=true and purchased 2 of them(1 for back up) and after testing found that they work great. I am going to use a CMB-24D dumb RGB controller and ELL mounted to the inside of the Ferris wheel to control the lights. Only because this will be located to far away from the nearest controller to daisy chain. There is another web site that has multiple styles of slips rings (ie. data network slip rings, just about any wire config. you could need) for a very reasonable price. Most of them are under $100.00 dollars. For the length of time that this will be running I'm hoping these slip rings will hold up (got spare just in case) as the commercial ones are quite expensive. They use these ones on windmills at 250 rpm so I think they should hold up on a Ferris wheel at 25 RPM. Will keep you all posted as to how they work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mega Arch Posted April 22, 2017 Share Posted April 22, 2017 On 4/6/2017 at 8:30 AM, Jeffery m said: Okay guys so this year I'm wanting to do a ferris wheel and a carousel so my question to you is are battery operated lights my only choice Might pm the question to LIGHTZILLA here on the forum. He (Scott) has a Ferris wheel, a Merry-go-round, a Train... He had some how-to's on the Canadian forum, but I'm not getting them to come up right now. Here's one of his videos from a few years ago: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
k6ccc Posted April 22, 2017 Share Posted April 22, 2017 Bigfrog, nice find on the slip rings. Off hand, 25 RPM seems awfully fast for a ferris wheel.Sent from my phone using Tapatalk, so blame any typos on Android! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bigfrog 59 Posted April 23, 2017 Share Posted April 23, 2017 Your probably right Jim 25 RPM seems a little fast. I'll have to do some more research on what everyone else is doing for speed. That being said these slip rings should hold up to the lower RPM speeds. If they do I will be putting one on every seat so I can power up an inflatable. I got a really good deal on 16 - 3' minions ($5.00/each) after Christmas and I would like to put one in every seat. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheDucks Posted April 23, 2017 Share Posted April 23, 2017 I think here should be a decimal point in there. 2.5 RPM For those of you that remember 33-1/3 LPs. We know how fast that is Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bigfrog 59 Posted April 23, 2017 Share Posted April 23, 2017 On 4/22/2017 at 9:16 AM, Mega Arch said: Might pm the question to LIGHTZILLA here on the forum. He (Scott) has a Ferris wheel, a Merry-go-round, a Train... He had some how-to's on the Canadian forum, but I'm not getting them to come up right now. Here's one of his videos from a few years ago: After looking at the video, kind of looks like it's turning at about 4 to 5 RPM. Nice speed I think I'll go with that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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