question about arch construction

[jonstacey1]

I was wondering what a good number of channels should be dedicated to 1 arch. so far I build four arches with four channels per arch. They seem to work well, but i am wondering if i should make them with more channels. I am taking people input on this topic. Thanks

Jon

[fxdwg]

for my display, i followed Mr. Holdmans design and did 4 arches 9 channels each. they are made from 1" gray sched. 40 PVC, 20 feet long. (2 sticks) used 200 clear mini's per segment.

hope this helps.

-troy

[Max-Paul]

Well I have just finished building 3 of 4 arches. Looks like I will be cutting off about 1' of the 10' long 3/4" electrical PVC conduit. I have 70ct strings for 8 segments. I have yet to test them out though.
Put to answer how many channels per arch. I have heard two camps, one is for 7 or 9 channels per arch(or any odd number). Another camp is for 8 channels (or any even number) The odd number of channels camp says that they can clap so that the middle channel is the only channel on. The even camp says that if you use 8 channels, that most of the music is in a time that 8 channels is perfect to sync with the music. So, that 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8-down beat, repeat. But then too with 7 segments one can clap on the down-beat with something like this, 1-7, 2-6, 3-5, 4-down beat.
So, it is a personal preference for most.

Hope this might be of some help.

[-klb-]

I'll chime in that fewer than 7 is going to be tough to get a good motion effect out of. At the park, we are using 8 channel arches currently, with two colors on each arch, so one controller per arch.. I can see some value in 7 or 9 per arch, but I don't know if we will ever switch them. We might be rewrapping them next summer...

[Papa-LF]

8 or 10 are good numbers. I use 8 most all the time. When I have taught arch winding at the mini's I teach 6.

Pull up my videos - two listed at http://www.papasplace.us/video/08LOR/

click on part 1 and 2.

[NWSanta]

-klb- wrote:

I'll chime in that fewer than 7 is going to be tough to get a good motion effect out of. At the park, we are using 8 channel arches currently, with two colors on each arch, so one controller per arch.. I can see some value in 7 or 9 per arch, but I don't know if we will ever switch them. We might be rewrapping them next summer...

I'll agree anything less than 7 is hard to get motion out of. I have exactly 7 on mine.

If you want to see them in motion they are here:

Cheers
Evan

[George Simmons]

I'll chime in favoring the odd number of channels. I use 7 channels in my arches and nine in my poles. It has nothing to do with downbeats, upbeats or anything like that. I'm not that musically inclined. I simply like having just one channel in the center because there's so much that can be done with that. 4 beats, 8 beats, none of that matters to me. I typically subdivide timings into however many sections I need for the device in question. If I want an arch to completely sweep from one side to the other with each beat I subdivide the timing into 7. If I want a pole to sweep all the way up or down with each beat, I subdivide by 9. If I want to do it at half speed, I subdivide by 4 or 5 respectively, etc.

[jeffandnicole]

Your #6 video "Requested by Jessica" shows the arches in very slow motion in the beginning, which gives great detail about how tightly wound the lights are!