newbie question about duty cycles

Hi Control1200
If you want lighting effects to run all night (set and forget) then you need to avoid those which have a duty-cycle.

Those that do have duty cycles basically mean you have to let them cool down otherwise they will overheat and generally shorten the life-span of both the fixture and globe(s). The duty cycles range from 10-25 minutes, eg. 10 minutes on and 10 minutes off.

Intelligent scanners/fixtures usually don't have duty cycles, par cans and pin spots are ok and usually the lower power output effects like the Minigem don't have duty cycles either. If this important to you, always check whether a duty cycle exists of any lighting fixture before you buy. It could save a lot of money in the long run.

DJ Scan, sure it can provided it doesn't have a duty cycle, I believe it doesn't, have a closer look at the AA web site on the specs of this product.

A thermal switch is an internal temperature sensing relay which will automatically shut down a device depending on what temperature it is set at.

Most cooling fans in any lighting is not intended for cooling the effect as a whole. Those spin-n-puke light effects are either power-on or power-off. For these effects the cooling fan usually is there to keep the internal electronics cool during operation. The more expensive branded lighting with no duty cycle incorporate a thermal switch to automatically shut down the globe but keep the fan running to cool the fixture down as best it can. These are found in most Intelligent fixtures. I must say that if you are tripping your thermal switches in an intelligent effect you must be doing something wrong. Positioning and ventilation have a lot to do with this.

Comparing manufacturers lighting is totally up to the consumer, IMHO with lighting you get what you pay for. AA products provide excellent value for money, that's all I'm gonna say about that.

Hope this info helps.

ROQ out.

I have 2 DJ Scans/rg and I think there is no suggested duty cycle. But if I leave them on for over 20 minutes they start acting a little odd like slower gobo and color change, so I try to follow a 20 min on and 10 min off. But I also have a pocket scan and I can leave it on for 4 hours and no prob. Just buy a higher end intelligent light from American DJ and you will be ok with the duty cycle.

Or buy a like 3 effects so you can change them out to let them cool down.

But like what was already said. Just go with pars. They are simple, cheap, and effective.

any light without a duty cycle can run all night.
but the problem with that is that the crowd will get tired of the same light on all night. It is much better to get a few different lights so that you have a bit of variety in your light show

Their is another very important issue and that is "lamp life" If you run a fixture all the time, not only will the crowd get tired of the effect, you will be replacing lamps more often.

It would be better to have more (or several) smaller effects that can be rotated than to have 1 or 2 larger effects on all the time.

...Yep, I know people who have effects stop working after a short period because they didn't follow duty cycles and ran them for hours at a time. The bulbs were ok, fuses ok, it just broke... Better off to follow duty cycles than end up having to get a effect repaired which can be expensive.

if the fixture is dimmable, run at 90%, not only will the crowd not notice the difference, but it will extend your bulb life considerably (about 20% in my experience).