Controling snow machines with LE a good idea?

[dmorey]

I was excitedly telling my husband tonight that since we will run the show with Lynx Express this year (instead of AL) we can operate the snow machines through the controllers. (We have two commercial DMX snow machines that were operated in other years by simply pushing a go button on a remote control when we saw people outside our house.)

Well, hubby said no that doesn't sound cool at all. It sounds like we'll just run out of snow juice a lot quicker, he said. I hadn't thought about that aspect. So I guess I'm wondering for those that operate snow machines through LEs, do you just do a few seconds a song? Or only every few songs? We made our own snow juice so it's not that expensive, but lowering them from tree pulleys we designed is a bit of a chore and not something we want to do nightly. (They're pretty heavy when full on the way up, though they may be on the roof this year instead.) Usually we did it about 3 times a week. Any thoughts on this? Or experience?

[rm357]

How much power do they draw?

The LE can handle about 4 amps on a single channel. There is a strobe light curve that can be loaded that is either full on or full off (no dimming) that can be used if it doesn't need too much power.

If it needs more than 4 amps, you might be better off using a relay with the contacts wired into the remote button.

[tbone321]

If it is truly a DMX machine, then it dis to oesn't need the Express.  All it needs is to be addressed and connected to the control wires and it should respond to commands just lile the Express.  The problem is that snow machines are considered as inductive loads and the Express ia not sesigned to work with them.  If you need to use the Express, then I would create a relay box that the Express can switch on and off and have it power your snow machine.  Relys are also inductive loads so I would pUT a C7 bulb accross its coil leads to protect the Express and use the strobe light curve as suggested by rm357.

[steve_hirst]

I think she is saying that it is a dmx mashine but she wants to know how much more snow juice it would use. The only one that could answer that is the op. It truely would depend on how much you would use it. I would only run it on a few songs and only when it was realy called for, like in let it snow and white christmas. the only thing I have that would be close is some fog machines and I have to play with the sequences to work it out in better places.

[lightingboy82]

what is the brand and model of the snow machine? I work in the lighting industry and deal with these often.

[caretaker]

Since your snow machine just uses a pump to suck your "snow fluid" out of a reservoir you can always uses a bigger reservoir.  I did this for my fog machine and just used a gallon jug instead of the quart sized reservoir on the fog machine.

[dmorey]

Snow machines are by Rohs. Says ALSM 1200 on side. They are DMX. They're fairly big, commercial ones. Can't seem to find a pic online that looks just like it. Purchased them a few years ago when Animated Lighting had a big sale and stopped carrying them.
They already hold rather large resevoirs -- maybe holds a gallon.

Not the right one, but the style is pretty much like this:
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[rm357]

Duh, maybe I need to learn how to read again. Skimmed right past the DMX like it was a brand name...

[dr. jones]

I have the same machines, I ran two last year for one song. They ran for approx 30-45 seconds per song. I used them every third time the song played as to keep the driveway from getting slippery. I used a little over 3 gallons per machine last year (dec 1st- jan 1st)
use the DMX to turn them on/off and then set your volume by the remote( the remote will need to stay plugged in for volume control) unfortunately, the dmx value is only a non-dim function (on/off)and does not control volume

These machine are not really"commercial" they are generally for DJ's and decorators - for commercial machines - snow masters You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login