Arri 650, 1000 - what power is needed?
 

I may have found a source for some used ARRI 650, 150, or even 1000 lights. The question is, do I need a special power generator or power converter box to power these lights? The same source with the lights has a Norman 24/24 lighting box. Is this lighting box needed to power the ARRI lights? The plugs on the norman look very specific (kind of like XLR but with a lot more pins) but they seem to match the plugs (the pictures don't give enough info) on the ARRIs.

Depends on what Arri's they are. If they are the "standard" open faced instruments, they ship with "standard" 3 pin AC unless modified along the way.

If the plugs have been changed you could always rewire the cord back to Edison if you want use them with out the box. You should probably ask the source how they are wired or show us a picture so we can see what you are concerned about

I've requested some more pictures. What I do have is the following pics.

One of the Arri's looks like it has the Eddison 115V 3 prong plug, so I may be in luck (since I don't want to have to buy or fiddle with power adapters). The Norman looks like it has the adapter to use 115 or 230. Is the 230V plug what the norman power supply provides?

Jason,

I don't know about the Norman, but those are typical Arri 650s.

If they're lamped to the shipped standard, they draw around 650 watts per unit. (hence the numeric designation!) Used on a standard 110 volt household circuit, you can roughly calculate the power needed to run them by dividing the watttage by the voltage. In fact, it's mathematically easier (and provides a small extra margin of safety) to just use 100 volts as the draw. So you divide the 650 by 100 and you get 6.5 amps draw. So on a household 20 amp circuit you could THEORETICALLY hang 3 of these before the circuit overheats too far and pops. In practice, running that much load on a household circuit WILL heat the wiring. It also relies on the wiring being totally up to spec. You'd be drawing DAMN close to the 20 amp rating of the circuit. If you're dealing with a 15 amp circuit - you're GOING to pop breakers. If someone in the house is an idiot and put in over-rated fuses - or god forbid, replaced the fuses with pennys or something equally insane, remember to have enough craft services to feed the fire department.

Add the total draw of all lamps and cameras and sound recorders, etc. on the circuit in watts, divide by 100 volts (or 110 if you want to be more precise) and you'll get a rough idea of the power draw in amps you're putting on that circuit.

Also important to understand that running an extension cord to a different outlet DOES NOT necessarily mean you're seeing a new circuit. It's common, for example, for all the outlets in multiple bedrooms to hang off the same circuit. The only way to be sure is to look at the physical breaker (Check it's Amperage rating while you're there!) then snap it off and figure out which outlets are now dead and therefore ganged to it.

This kind of stuff is why as shoots grow, it's pretty important to either school yourself in electrical codes and practices or, MUCH BETTER YET - hire someone with qualified electrical knowledge to make sure you get this stuff right.

"I don't really have much electrical training" is NOT what you want to report to the fire inspector after the fact.

Good luck.

Heh, hence why I have a stack of electrical wiring manuals, a 100 foot spool of 10-2 wire, and two 30 amp circuit breakers on order. I'm re-wiring my garage (soon to be studio) the right way with a new set of dedicated outlets for the high amperage lighting and another dedicated circuit for the computers (using a specialized twist lock plug for my Baytech remote power control module) and yet a third high amp circuit (probably just a dedicated 20 amp) for the new AC unit to cool all of this.

Just a comment - it isn't unusual in kitchens to wire each outlet in a two outlet box on a different circit breaker because kitchens are usually where people plug a lot of stuff like toasters and toaster ovens in at once. I've seen quite a few cases where all the upper outlets were on one circuit and all the lowers on another.

Not guaranteed, but often the case, so worth checking it out as a way of balancing the load across multiple circuits.

Is the Norman perchance an HMI? That plug looks a bit like the instrument end plug of a Mole Richardson HMI that I've used a TON of times for live hits during news casts. In which case it would be a locking plug that goes into the electronic ballast.

A google search turns up the Norman LH2400 as a flash unit with a 250w modeling light. Pretty much only usable for photography where you want a flash.

Norman | LH2400 Lamphead | 810623 | B&H Photo Video

You'll have to have the power supply that goes along with it to use it as a flash though.

Ok that makes sense about the Norman. That explains why it looked more like a flash unit than a constant light unit.

Thanks for all the yelp ya'll. Turns out I'm being hired by the sell to help inventory and ID all the units as part of the auction. I just have to resist the urge to spend all my earnings from the consulting gig on bidding on the auction items!