Need help expanding venue's ETA power disto. Please advise.

Marsellus Fariss

Marsellus Fariss

Sophomore
Oct 25, 2011
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The venue I work for has an ETA power PD66 rack mount power distro for audio service. 140 amps on 6 breakers. 2 of the breakers are 30 amps and unused. They isn't any twist lock's or anything for them on the unit. External twist locks or additional distro panels have to be added via screw down terminals inside the unit and cable passed through the back at the rear of the chassis.

We would like to utilize these two additional circuits to feed guest production such as small lighting packages and monitor rigs. We're not doing the work ourselves. We have sparkies.

Question is what would you suggest as a inexpensive and useful way to handle this? The easiest we think would be to simply pass through a short length of 10-3 or 10-4 and ad Hubbell twist locks and let them dangle from the back of the unit when unused. A pair of quad boxes would be made with 20'-30' of cable with twist lock ends to interface the distro at the back of rack.

This is the cheapest and simplest but I'm wondering what else we could do that wouldn't be expensive? Plenty of companies make custom disto panels but their pretty pricey and we can't spend a lot. Anywhere I could find a simple disto panel with maybe a few pairs of edisons and a pair of twist locks receptacles for not a lot? I don't even see us needing breakers in it. Or does anybody sell pre-punched 19" enclosures we could wire?

What do you guys suggest?

Thanks.
 
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Re: Need help expanding venue's ETA power disto. Please advise.

I'd start by not putting 20A rated outlets on a 30A breaker.

Me, I'd be putting whips with L5-30 on them into strain reliefs on the back panel, to be used as needed. Lex Products (and there are others as well) can build you breakout boxes with the appropriate overcurrent protection in them.
 
Re: Need help expanding venue's ETA power disto. Please advise.

So adding whips with L5-30's And quads and using them without any additional breakers / over current protection is not the thing to do then.. That's why I ask. I don't know much about juice. Im just making plans and finding prices. So an additional distro panel or satellite boxs with breakers is gonna be required for using these then?
 
Re: Need help expanding venue's ETA power disto. Please advise.

Hello Marsellus, I have acouple of the PD66 units that I use for mini distros, I use a short length of 10/3 with a L5-30 for one unit, and 10/4 with a L14-30 on the other. Here are a couple of pics of them in action the first picture shows the back of the distro, I will post better ones later.

Regards,
Mark Phillips
Ultimate Sounds LLC.
Office: 757-224-9308
Cell: 757-879-2766
[email protected]
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Re: Need help expanding venue's ETA power disto. Please advise.

Mark Phillips said:
Hello Marsellus, I have acouple of the PD66 units that I use for mini distros, I use a short length of 10/3 with a L5-30 for one unit, and 10/4 with a L14-30 on the other. Here are a couple of pics of them in action the first picture shows the back of the distro, I will post better ones later.

Regards,
Mark Phillips
Ultimate Sounds LLC.
Office: 757-224-9308
Cell: 757-879-2766
[email protected]
View attachment 2538View attachment 2539
Click to expand...

So your saying you use these lengths of feeder with appropriate twist lock connector for the whole mini- distro or just for the two 30 amp breakers from the units that would be otherwise unused?
 
Re: Need help expanding venue's ETA power disto. Please advise.

Also , I would really suggest more cooling for those k2's unless thier on strictky light weight duty. It's my experience that they will get very warm when working hard and need more airflow then crown suggests. And they'er aging as are our rack of K2's. One went last year with a rack space between them and a box fan blowing over them from behind while not even being pushed hard.
 
Re: Need help expanding venue's ETA power disto. Please advise.

Hello again, I use a Hubbell "California" 50a twist locks for power in, so my distros are not being used to their full potential of 140 amps. The two 30a breakers are for each L14-30 or l5-30 break outs. I appreciate your concern for my K2s but I think that I have the cooling issues covered, never had a problem indoors or out.


Regards,
Mark Phillips
Ultimate Sounds LLC.
Office: 757-224-9308
Cell: 757-879-2766
[email protected]


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Re: Need help expanding venue's ETA power disto. Please advise.

Thanks for your help.

I want to use the 30's for L5-30 break outs. What should I break them out too? A second panel with a pair of breakers and some edisons right? Would you recommend a 20 and a 10 or a pair of 15's?
 
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Re: Need help expanding venue's ETA power disto. Please advise.

You and your electrician should take a look at the back of the unit, the edison recepticals are wired to the first (4) breakers, and is labled as such from the factory, and it should be rated for 20 amps. The remaining (2) breakers come unwired and are rated at 30 amps, your electrician should be able to attach your 10 awg and above cabling to the power distribution block inside the box and run them through the cable clamps through the box.

Regards,
Mark Phillips
Ultimate Sounds LLC.
Office: 757-224-9308
Cell: 757-879-2766
[email protected]
 
Re: Need help expanding venue's ETA power disto. Please advise.

Mark Phillips said:
You and your electrician should take a look at the back of the unit, the edison recepticals are wired to the first (4) breakers, and is labled as such from the factory, and it should be rated for 20 amps. The remaining (2) breakers come unwired and are rated at 30 amps, your electrician should be able to attach your 10 awg and above cabling to the power distribution block inside the box and run them through the cable clamps through the box.

Regards,
Mark Phillips
Ultimate Sounds LLC.
Office: 757-224-9308
Cell: 757-879-2766
[email protected]
Click to expand...

Yes thanks. This much we know. What I need help with is whats best to "break out" to?
 
Re: Need help expanding venue's ETA power disto. Please advise.

is there any value in going about this the other way 'round? would it make more sense to hardwire [or put in twistlocks] your audio gear [not sure what you have] to the larger breakers and make some edisons available for guest power? after all, you know what you've got and can match connectors/amperage etc. to that. then all the guest stuff becomes standard 20 amp edison fare.
 
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