Picture time: Lets see your Power Distros...

M

Matt Vivlamore

Senior
Jan 11, 2011
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Southern MD, USA
www.meerkatsound.com
After working a variety system at different shows the last few months, getting power to the rig has different among the rigs... How are you doing it?

On my person rig, I have a hombru, 6 breaker distro box with an attached 14-50 Range plug. (I need to get a picture) I use it a few times a year.


Here are a few a rigs set-up I freelance on:

TM Rig: On his small shows; he has a 2x 5-15 male plug cable with a single L14-30 female into the Motion Labs Rac Pack.
On the medium shows or ones with a 14-50 rang plug, he’ll use a 14-50 Range plug to a L14-30 adapter and run that into the Motion Labs Rack Pack (L14-30 in/thru) and then daisy chains all racks off the one power send.
On his larger shows: he has a 200 amp/single phase power distro that uses mini cams for the shows with direct tie in. On his small shows; he has a 2x 5-15 male plug cable with a single L14-30 female into the Motion Labs Rac Pack.

WS Rig: He has a hombru plywood panel distro. . On the shows I’ve been with him, he’d uses a Cali 50amp plug to run the power into the breaker box with mini cams.

ET Rig: has a 400amp/3-Phase power distro with Cam inputs. The disto has a mix of 5-15, L5-20 and L14-30 plugs to supply power around the stage. To power the amp racks, they are using L14-30 (each rack has 2 Macrotech 3600 & 2 MacroTech 5000).
 
Re: Picture time: Lets see your Power Distros...

Matt Vivlamore said:
he has a 2x 5-15 male plug cable with a single L14-30 female into the Motion Labs Rac Pack.
Click to expand...
ha, I'm reading this wrong I think. I'm picturing 2 male edisons plugged into the wall feeding a single L14-30. No, that can't be right.
 
Re: Picture time: Lets see your Power Distros...

Small shows; that have a stove plug....Stove plug to L14-30 female into the Motion Labs Rac Pack or Motion labs stinger.
Medium show - Daisy chain into all racks off the one power send.
Larger shows: 200 amp/three phase power distro on large cam for the shows with direct tie in (or 100amp single phase panel).
Cam thrus, normally feed sensor rack ( 24K, or 48K) depending... if they have a seperate feed (which is never), I would use that...
 

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Re: Picture time: Lets see your Power Distros...

Matt Vivlamore said:
I attached a picture of it...
Click to expand...

Your friend is tempting fate. These work fine when you are certain that the two outlets are separate phases, but when they are both on the same phase (but separate breakers) the 30 amps neutral connector in the L14-30 can be easily asked to carry as much as 40 amps. Same can be said of whatever the L14-30 plugs into, up to the point in the distro where the neutral gets distributed.

And of course if one of those Edison outlets is wired wrong you run the risk of 120V present on the pins of the other male connector.
 
Re: Picture time: Lets see your Power Distros...

Milt Hathaway said:
Your friend is tempting fate. These work fine when you are certain that the two outlets are separate phases, but when they are both on the same phase (but separate breakers) the 30 amps neutral connector in the L14-30 can be easily asked to carry as much as 40 amps. Same can be said of whatever the L14-30 plugs into, up to the point in the distro where the neutral gets distributed.

And of course if one of those Edison outlets is wired wrong you run the risk of 120V present on the pins of the other male connector.
Click to expand...

The 2x 5-15P to L14-30R scares me less than the 14-50P to L14-30R adapter. The former can be used safely (presuming one meters the outlets it's plugged into, and knows that the outlets go to the same panel), but the latter will allow you to properly cook your line and neutral conductors (unless there's overcurrent protection in it, which is unlikely but not impossible). Neither meets Code or good practice.
 
Re: Picture time: Lets see your Power Distros...

Milt Hathaway said:
Your friend is tempting fate. These work fine when you are certain that the two outlets are separate phases, but when they are both on the same phase (but separate breakers) the 30 amps neutral connector in the L14-30 can be easily asked to carry as much as 40 amps. Same can be said of whatever the L14-30 plugs into, up to the point in the distro where the neutral gets distributed.

And of course if one of those Edison outlets is wired wrong you run the risk of 120V present on the pins of the other male connector.
Click to expand...

We call those "firestarters". We had 3 edisons to L21-30 and under load it's easy to burn the neutral. Plus they don't work with GFCIs as the current differential with the three (or his cas 2) hots is enough to trip them, even at idle. We stopped using them regularly but still did for testing in the shop an occasionally for low current draw apps at gigs. It's not a best practice and not code compliant. But it works.

At the gig just in my room I have 4 x 200 amp panels breaking out to wall duplexes or strips in racks. OSHA and Clark County Fire are up our ass harder than a fist in a German porn video on electrical issues. Convention services has a bunch of either Nutech or Motion Labs we use in the room when there is a special event. Otherwise, we've made it all hardwired to the destination.
 
Here is a pic of my baby distro to overcome the 50 to 30 amp issue discussed here. After that everything is L14-30 standard. Larger gigs get a real distro.

A word of caution on using off-the-shelf panel distros like the one I own. This past weekend one from a very reputable sound co had the neutral bar come loose causing the show to lose power and brutal voltage swings. Two stages were sharing one generator (sound only) so the other stage had to power down to disconnect the distro and do a repair on site. 7000 or so unhappy punters left waiting, an embarrassed sound co that was unsuccessful in diagnosing the problem themselves, and the client's confidence was shaken; this after one Whisper Queit failed midshow on the mainstage and a couple other power related issues (sub rented air star balloons that had their glass fuses replaced with a drywall screw and so forth). While the distro was open we found solid copper wire that had worked its way lose on two breakers as well. In other words, do it right the first time and stay clear of these products that were not designed for the rigors of the road!

(For those wondering, the connectors on the larger distro are ceeform)


Posted via Tapatalk app - lower standards may apply.
 

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Re: Picture time: Lets see your Power Distros...

I like the Cee connectors. Would love to see more over here. Shouldn't the 120 vac Cee be yellow or is that blue a 2 pole 240 vac?
 
Re: Picture time: Lets see your Power Distros...

Dave Stevens said:
OSHA and Clark County Fire are up our ass harder than a fist in a German porn video on electrical issues. Convention services has a bunch of either Nutech or Motion Labs we use in the room when there is a special event. Otherwise, we've made it all hardwired to the destination.
Click to expand...

It's interesting that they're on top of you guys like that when it seems every year at NAB I see Camloks on the ends of a 5 wire SO cable all the time. They're coming out of the distro panels on the pillars that way. IIRC, cams are only supposed to be used on individual jacketed wires. Someone said in a post years ago that one workaround could be to use heavy shrink around each of the tails coming out of the SO jacket and then one big one where the SO jacket transitions to the tails. But I don't see them doing that at the Vegas conversion center ;)
 


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