S4 Rev as followspot?

The main problem I see is that once the belts to the motors are disconnected the unit becomes very unmanageable. In other words, the balance becomes a bit odd and your ‘operator’ would really need to hold the unit in position with no sort of tension. (Think of a very small followspot with all the tension/locks removed.)

The next thing you might think of is to keep the belts attached to the motors and just disconnect the control line to the motor. This would give you tension in the pan and tilt movement. The problem is that there is a feedback from the motor to the MCC (Master Control Card) and I do not know how the unit will react without this as I have never had a reason to try it.

Are you crazy for wanting to try this? No. You work in theatre and have a need for something different so anything safe that you try is not crazy…its resourceful.

The ‘I work at ETC disclaimer’: A S4 Revelation contains 120V and moving components. It is designed, tested and UL approved to safely work in its ‘supplied’ condition. So any modifications by an end-user, unless directed by ETC Technical Services for the purpose of field repair, would void the warranty and the UL approval.

Sincerely,

Mike

You're not crazy, but I want to ask: what features of the Revolution do you feel you need that cannot be accomplished in another, less expensive manner? To me, this seems like a waste of a perfectly good moving light.  City Theatrical makes many accessories to assist a standard SourceFour be used as a followspot.  One can still control intensity from the console.  Shutters would be difficult to control remotely on a followspot.  An iris is more useful, but is probably just as good (if not better) controlled by the operator.  If required, a DMX iris, scroller, and even gobo changer could be added to a standard SourceFour.

Having said all of the above, my favorite "semi-automated followspot" was always a Cyberlight with the mirror removed.

mmeskill said:

The next thing you might think of is to keep the belts attached to the motors and just disconnect the control line to the motor. This would give you tension in the pan and tilt movement. The problem is that there is a feedback from the motor to the MCC (Master Control Card) and I do not know how the unit will react without this as I have never had a reason to try it.

 

 The rest of the fixture wil continue to function with the motors disconnected.  The Revolution is clever enough to use whatever bits are working and ignore the parts that aren't.  The error light will come on, of course, but it would do that with just the belts disconnected as well.  The power up sequence will also take longer than usual, since it won't be able to calibrate pan and tilt properly.  It will get there eventually though.  You'll definitely want a handle.  The back part of the fixture gets extremely hot during use, and there's not really a good place to hold on.

I'm a big fan of the conventional Source Four with accessories to turn it into a followspot.  If you get everything set up properly, it can be a very passable alternative to a real spot.  It's also a lot more compact and easy to operate (not to mention significantly cheaper).

i dont understand why you would do this if you want a dmx controled folowspot the cheep option would be to get your hands on a cyberlite (500$u.s) and put it on a spotlite yolk it fits perfectly. dmx control of color, shutter, and rotating gobos also it is a 1200w light source.

Thanks all for your replies.

The pan and tilt motors have been disconnected (not the belts), and I am going to test them once my Vista gets here on Friday.

Why do I want to do this?
A musical is going into a thrust theatre and I don't want the look of typical followpots like in our proscenium. I love the look of just using a S4 as a followspot, lamped up to 750, with a handle, iris, and color boomerang. We own the fixtures, so it doesn't cost me anything like buying a Cyberlight would. And to boot, one of the Revs is having a problem holding it's tilt position (but that's another issue I'm working on). I would only use them as re-programmable specials, so I might as well have an operator do the following rather than spending the time in programming.

–Kirk