Re: [LCtalk] Is this a viable set up

[Amanda Steggell]

On Jun 24, 2008, at 4:34 PM, Carl Byrne wrote:
> > Okay. How does 2 weeks continuous tun sound in terms of maintenance/need 
> > for repair? Does repair mean replacing an actual relay box?
>
> I don't know how the relay box is designed. If a relay were to fail, it may 
> need to be unsoldered, and replaced. However, running for two weeks it 
> seems hard to imagine a relay failure. I was thinking this display would be 
> in place for some number of years.

No. this one is a portable version that will pop up in urban spaces for a 
couple of weeks or so.

This project is taking place as the first/pilot project of an art/industry 
partnership initiative, where the little portable fountain (which was my 
original artsy idea) will function as another pilot project for building a 
large, permanent one scheduled to be completed in 2010. For the little 
fountain I have a an okay but moderate budget (as far as art projects go) 
and a small team at an engineering company working for a restricted amount 
of time. It is the first time they've done anything like this, so it is 
challenging all round. They build all the fountain stuff according to my 
idea. I provide the antenna/detection bit and the fountain control bit.  The 
reason why I want to do the latter is to be able to work on the choreography 
myself  and in a more arty process time frame. I also need to be able to 
calibrate the fountain for each new place it ends up in (because of varying 
electronic fields, etc). I have never worked with industry partners before, 
and my conclusion is fast indusrty/slow art! The fountain design bit must be 
completed this week (I thought we would have time to try stuff out first), 
so I'm very grateful for all your input.


> I am surprised that a dimmer pack would work with a motor. I think you got 
> lucky. Typically a motor (otherwise referred to as an inductive load) will 
> toast a dimmer if it is not designed to handle an inductive load. Most 
> dimmers are designed to handle resistive loads (lamps.)

:-) No blow out so far! But I will obviously have to work through this one. 
I rather thought that companies supplying variable speed pumps for 
electronically controlled variable water flow were dmx dimmer compatible. I 
looked at some musical fountain examples that were dmx controlled .....


> > (PS. what I'm also exploring now is other approaches to utilizing the 
> > audio signal - such as spectral analysis, peak and trend monitoring, and 
> > anything I can think of)

(The analysis/monitoring described above is all software base - done in 
max/msp. The result of the analysis is scaled to the correct values for 
outputting to dmx (or whatever), and sent to a modified version of the 
max/msp - Lanbox patch example on the lanbox site. )

> The tricky part with this approach is converting the output from these 
> devices into a DMX or UDP signal.

When you say "devices", what are you referring to?
The physical devices - pumps, solenoid valves, lights, etc, or the signal 
going in to/ coming out of the lanbox?

(Sorry, I'm a bit confused about everything again ....)

a