fog machine controlled via lor?

[doublea]

I have a cheep fog machine, and I would like to be able to control it with lor, I don't even know if its possible. It has a single button on the controller which controls the pump in the fogger, but the power through the button is 120 volts. I don't know how I could possible control it through lor, are there electronic switches that lor can trigger to open and close? (something under $30) I don't want to fry my lor on a $19 fogger so. Thanks for the suggestions ahead of time. The heater is on a separate circuit in the heater, so that shouldn't mess with anything.

Also assuming now I can use my strobe on lor, I have a strobe light, I have seen people use strobes on lor before, is that special kind of strobe?

Also yet I have a fluorescent black-light tube, I'm pretty sure that would be a no no to plug into lor, just double checking here though.



thanks

[rstephenrrtx]

doublea wrote:

I have a cheep fog machine, and I would like to be able to control it with lor, I don't even know if its possible. It has a single button on the controller which controls the pump in the fogger, but the power through the button is 120 volts. I don't know how I could possible control it through lor, are there electronic switches that lor can trigger to open and close? (something under $30) I don't want to fry my lor on a $19 fogger so. Thanks for the suggestions ahead of time. The heater is on a separate circuit in the heater, so that shouldn't mess with anything.

Also assuming now I can use my strobe on lor, I have a strobe light, I have seen people use strobes on lor before, is that special kind of strobe?

Also yet I have a fluorescent black-light tube, I'm pretty sure that would be a no no to plug into lor, just double checking here though.



thanks

Fog Machine: You might be better off using a timer designed for the fog machine. That's what I did.

Strobe: I've used a "normal" strobe like you buy anywhere. I've learned (the hard way) to only have them turned on/off. No fades, no effects. I've also learned to keep the power on the strobe for a few seconds at a time....and to leave it off for a few seconds as well. In other words, no fast on/off/on/off. The same would apply to C9 style curtain strobes.

Flourescent lights (in general): I would personally treat these lights like an inflatable. Turn it on at the beginning of the show...leave it alone...and turn it off at the end. I don't think you would want to try anything else with that type of light.

My opinions only...

rns

[jeffandnicole]

I've thought about that too. I don't think frying the LOR or the fog machine would be the problem; it'll be the timing. If you got the simple, cheap fogger at Walmart, the basic unit only allows for fairly random bursts of fog. You could try plugging it in to a LOR channel, but the best you can do is leave the channel on at full 100%, allow the machine to warm up, and then it may send out those random burst of fog.

Inbetween songs, when you have that fraction of a second, may screw the machine up also, so beware of that.

I haven't gotten mine out yet this year to remind myself how it works. However, if you would like to time the fog to appear at a certain point in the song, that I believe would be impossible to do...especially with the cheaper units.

[JimC]

More info on fog machine control here: http://planetchristmas.mywowbb.com/view_topic.php?id=2218&forum_id=25&highlight=fog+relay

Good Luck, Jim.

[Donald Puryear]

I'v modified the remote for relay control and good success. Take the remote apart and determin which two wires go to the fog button. Take these two wires to a 120 volt relay. Wire a C7 light parrallel with the coil of the relay then you can control the relay via LOR

[tomskillman]

Donald Puryear wrote:

I'v modified the remote for relay control and good success. Take the remote apart and determin which two wires go to the fog button. Take these two wires to a 120 volt relay. Wire a C7 light parrallel with the coil of the relay then you can control the relay via LOR

I've done the same and it worked relativiely well. There is another option though, if it means that much to you. Now that DMX control is available, there are fog machines out with DMX control. I bought a Chouvet machine and the DMX controller for it. The fog machine and controller will probably run $150-200 (also depends on which fog machine you get). Then of course you need the DMX board too...

[tomskillman]

Millard wrote:

Tom,

How quickly did the DMX fog machine react and provide fog? Is it a time that is regular, and can be accounted for by starting the DMX channel early? I'm very interested in this, as I intend to get a DMX interface and a robospot of some type.

Thanks

Jeff

Jeff,

I was using the DMX fogger with a standard DMX lighting console. It seemed to work well for us. There were a few random puffs of smoke after it was used, just like any fogger will do. I haven't used it in a while, but when I did, it worked well. There are 4 DMX channels. 1 is Off, Timer, or Manual 2 is Interval between bursts for timer, 3 is duration of burst for timer, 4 is volume of burst. I don't remember the specifics, but the entire manual is available online. It is Chauvet model DMX-3F (http://www.chauvetlighting.com/fixtures/dmx3f_fix.shtml, manual is at http://www.chauvetlighting.com/system/pdfs/dmx3f.pdf). Works with any Chauvet fog machine, so you can get a cheap one or a better one.

[bossgroove]

I am electronic term challenged. Please help me. I have a contoller that is used to turn on lights. The end of the line is an A/C female plug to plug the light into. When the controller commands, the light turns on. I want to use this contoller to run a fog machine. It is impractical to start the machine by plugging it into the outlet and run when commanded to. The reason is that the fog machine needs to warm up before it can dispense fog. I've heard that if I purchase a relay that plugs into the female outlet, and plug the switch of the fog machine into the relay, it would be more of what I need.
I don't know what kind of relay switch I should be looking for. The switch part of the relay will be very low voltage, because power doesn't need to flow through the switch, just trigger a connection to the switch of the fog machine.
What should I be looking at? Can someone attach a link or a picture?

[-klb-]

doublea wrote:

Also yet I have a fluorescent black-light tube, I'm pretty sure that would be a no no to plug into lor, just double checking here though.

I use CF blacklights in my show. I think I have the issues ironed out now, but I should know for sure tonight. The CF ballasts appear to have some unbalanced reactance that messes up the LOR zero crossing detection. At minimum, you probably want the fluorescent fixtures on a controller by themselves, and that controller on it's own extension cord and circuit if at all possible.

At minimum, there are reports that when a channel with a CF fixture is on, the controller goes into on/off only mode, with no dimming. So, if you do use the fixture, and you have any issues, try removing the fixture as your first trouble shooting step. I agree that you do not want to be switching any fluorescent fixture on and off frequently. Depending on what numbers you believe, each on/off cycle takes 15 minutes off of the life of the bulb. Of course, for bulbs that get used a couple of weeks per year, maybe that is not as big a deal, but I do tend to stay towards longer cycles on the CF bulbs.

- Kevin