Fluorescent design... what do YOU want and how much would you pay?

Matt Gettemeier · April 20th, 2005, 04:25 PM

Two more ballasts shipped out today for mods... two more shipped in for testing... one metal fabricator dissappoints and I'm meeting with another tomorrow.

Sorry for the lack of fast progress... I'm trying to get this done... but they gotta' be nice.

If Chris Hurd is up for it I was thinking of sending him a sample that he could play with for a couple weeks... and I'll pay to ship it both ways... that way everyone would get an unbiased "review"... including me.

David Bird · April 22nd, 2005, 09:48 AM

Matt,
I too am from the great state of MO...'cept I live in the part of the state referred to as the "Swamp", ie, southeast Missouri (Sikeston). If you're having trouble finding a good metal guy, there are a number of those folks down here that do good work at a good price...
If you're interested drop me an email at dbird at gdavidbird dot com
David Bird

Tung Bui · April 26th, 2005, 05:34 PM

If you could do a 240v model I would be interested too. There's a small community of dv film makers here in Australia and everything cost so much more than what you guys can get in the U.S. because our dollar is lower and we pay customs and because we are small.

Tre Stylez · April 26th, 2005, 07:42 PM

I dont mean to hijak this thread but i have also been looking for cheap 240v fixtures and i actually think i may of found a cheap supplier. I need to test etc but i will make a seperate post with my results.

Joshua Starnes · April 27th, 2005, 10:49 AM

I would definitely be interested.

I've looked at these as a low cost alternative to similar KinoFlo's, but they don't come anywhere near the price or freatures you're talking about.

Aaron Koolen · April 27th, 2005, 04:02 PM

Looking at the link Josh posted (Where has the link gone) this is what one of the comments about them are (At the bottom of the page). Quite amusing!

Quote:

When I opened the box I was so disappointed. This fixture actually looks like it is put together by a dyslexic third grader with no hands and Parkinson’s disease.
What a piece of junk. I put a few Kino tubes in and turned it on……….WHAT A BEAUTIFUL LIGHT!!! The color temperature is right on the money..the light is ROCK SOLID absolutely NO flicker….and the ballast has NO hum whatsoever. These guys at ADUCKEE have a wonderful light. It truly looks like crap but very nice light output..it functions as good as some of my lights many times the cost of this one. Keep it up guys!

John Handler

Aaron

Joshua Starnes · April 27th, 2005, 04:28 PM

It's still there. it's the word THESE

I was being cutsey and now it's not automatically highlighted, but if you run your arrow over it, it's clickable.

Matt Gettemeier · April 27th, 2005, 06:10 PM

Thanks for keeping this thread bumped for me guys. I hope to have more then a few interested people [on this forum] using my lights by mid-summer... maybe by the end of May!

The design and engineering on this seems like it would be so simple, but it's been more then a few headaches for me. Some of the components were a bitch to track down... and then after I find something close I've had to investigate mods... and some of this is more high-tech then I thought it would be... read: dimming.

The gist is I'm fully commited to this. I've got factory quantities of stuff coming every week. (Some parts have 250 piece minimums!) So it's pretty much all or nothing now... and once I get all the parts and raw materials (and a few new tools) in my garage I would have had the option of a motorcycle instead ($)... but I'm thinking long term on this. The simple fact of video is that everybody NEEDS lights and 85% of the people who'll read this don't have any...

I checked out the aduckee lights that Josh posted. I've seen those before... some of their numbers don't add up, but I'm sure that they are functional if setup properly. I'd love to hear that they're selling those like hotcakes...

So far there's been a lot of progress this week... hopefully it keeps up 'cause I can't wait to use the lights myself... and I think you guys will be surprised at the finished product.

Aaron Koolen · April 28th, 2005, 04:15 AM

Well, sounds like you're going hard out on this one Matt - good stuff. Now you can let the audio fetish calm down a little ;)

Aaron

April 28th, 2005, 04:15 AM	#24
Aaron Koolen Trustee Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: Auckland, New Zealand Posts: 1,727	Well, sounds like you're going hard out on this one Matt - good stuff. Now you can let the audio fetish calm down a little ;) Aaron __________________ My Website Meat Free Media

April 20th, 2005, 04:25 PM	#16
Matt Gettemeier Major Player Join Date: May 2003 Location: St. Louis, Missouri Posts: 936	Two more ballasts shipped out today for mods... two more shipped in for testing... one metal fabricator dissappoints and I'm meeting with another tomorrow. Sorry for the lack of fast progress... I'm trying to get this done... but they gotta' be nice. If Chris Hurd is up for it I was thinking of sending him a sample that he could play with for a couple weeks... and I'll pay to ship it both ways... that way everyone would get an unbiased "review"... including me.

April 22nd, 2005, 09:48 AM	#17
David Bird Regular Crew Join Date: Nov 2003 Location: Sikeston, Missouri, USA Posts: 118	Matt, I too am from the great state of MO...'cept I live in the part of the state referred to as the "Swamp", ie, southeast Missouri (Sikeston). If you're having trouble finding a good metal guy, there are a number of those folks down here that do good work at a good price... If you're interested drop me an email at dbird at gdavidbird dot com David Bird

April 26th, 2005, 05:34 PM	#18
Tung Bui Regular Crew Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: Sydney, Australia Posts: 101	If you could do a 240v model I would be interested too. There's a small community of dv film makers here in Australia and everything cost so much more than what you guys can get in the U.S. because our dollar is lower and we pay customs and because we are small.

April 26th, 2005, 07:42 PM	#19
Tre Stylez New Boot Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: NSW, AUSTRALIA Posts: 18	I dont mean to hijak this thread but i have also been looking for cheap 240v fixtures and i actually think i may of found a cheap supplier. I need to test etc but i will make a seperate post with my results.

April 27th, 2005, 10:49 AM	#20
Joshua Starnes Major Player Join Date: Jun 2004 Location: Houston, TX Posts: 356	I would definitely be interested. I've looked at these as a low cost alternative to similar KinoFlo's, but they don't come anywhere near the price or freatures you're talking about.

April 27th, 2005, 04:28 PM	#22
Joshua Starnes Major Player Join Date: Jun 2004 Location: Houston, TX Posts: 356	It's still there. it's the word THESE I was being cutsey and now it's not automatically highlighted, but if you run your arrow over it, it's clickable.

April 27th, 2005, 06:10 PM	#23
Matt Gettemeier Major Player Join Date: May 2003 Location: St. Louis, Missouri Posts: 936	Thanks for keeping this thread bumped for me guys. I hope to have more then a few interested people [on this forum] using my lights by mid-summer... maybe by the end of May! The design and engineering on this seems like it would be so simple, but it's been more then a few headaches for me. Some of the components were a bitch to track down... and then after I find something close I've had to investigate mods... and some of this is more high-tech then I thought it would be... read: dimming. The gist is I'm fully commited to this. I've got factory quantities of stuff coming every week. (Some parts have 250 piece minimums!) So it's pretty much all or nothing now... and once I get all the parts and raw materials (and a few new tools) in my garage I would have had the option of a motorcycle instead ($)... but I'm thinking long term on this. The simple fact of video is that everybody NEEDS lights and 85% of the people who'll read this don't have any... I checked out the aduckee lights that Josh posted. I've seen those before... some of their numbers don't add up, but I'm sure that they are functional if setup properly. I'd love to hear that they're selling those like hotcakes... So far there's been a lot of progress this week... hopefully it keeps up 'cause I can't wait to use the lights myself... and I think you guys will be surprised at the finished product.