From: cullen@ac.dal.ca
Newsgroups: rec.audio.pro
Subject: Sample Distros
Date: 7 Jan 93 20:51:41 -0400
Organization: Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada

I've had a few responses of interest, so here goes.
Oh, yeah, people have asked for descriptions of either
small or large distribution systems, so I'm describing
my conception of small, 40-60A 2 leg service, and big
100A 3 phase service.

Note I am not a member of IBEW and carry no professional
electrical certification therefore I am not an Electrician,
and accept no liability for this advice.

You CAN burn your house down, or someone else's, so be careful!

This is assumed to be for use in USA/Canada

Big distro (small to medium sized arenas)
Assumed:
	2 circuits FOH, 2 Circuits Monitors, 8 on stage
	12 FOH Power, 6 monitor power
Parts (all parts rated 110/208V three phase, all cable 600V SWO jacketed)

Panel

1-  100A three phase breaker/switch
1-  100A 3 ph loadcenter room for 30 circuits(Breaker Box)
30- Single Pole 20A breakers
5-  Camlock type single pin panel males (Gn, Wh, Bl, Rd, Bl)
15- Female panel 20A 4 pin twist-lock recepticles
Hookup wire for interior of box #4, #12
Note: If you do outdoor gigs, it would be a really good idea to use GFI
(Ground Fault Interruptor) breakers for safety reasons.

Cabling

15- Female Camlock type inline connectors, 3 each colour (see above)
10- Male Camlock type inline connectors, 2 each colour
330M #00 welding cable (1000 ft)
66M 8/4 SWO
300M 10/4 SWO
17 male, 17 female 20A 4 pin twist-lock inline connectors

Drop Boxes (6 or 8 required)

Each needs:
	one box with room for 2 std wall mount parallel blade 
	recepticles
	2 recepticles
	1 male, 1 female twistlock 4 pin inline connector
	1 foot 12/4 SWO

Each rack in the kit needs a panel mount 4 pin twist male and 2 parallel
blade fem recepticles, and boxes for the recepticles.

Construction
Punch holes in the panel and mount the 15 twistlocks in the sides.
Mount the camlocks in holes in what would be the top if the panel
were mounted in the wall.

Wire the 2 hots of the four pin twists to two different busses of 
the panel. MAKE ABSOLUTELY SURE that they are indeed different busses.

Tails
Cut five 10 ft lengths of the welding cable and mount one female camlock
on one end of each, using all five colours. Strip the other end.

Feeder
Cut the remainder of the welding cable into ten equal lengths.
They should be approximately 100 feet each. put a male and female 
on each length, matching colours.

Other cables
The 8/4 is destined to be the front of house cable and therefore 
should not be cut. Cut the 10/4 into 6x25, 6x50, and 4x100 lengths (feet).
put the four pin connectors on the ends of the cables.

Drop boxes
Put a pigtail on each side of the box with twist on the ends so that 
you can link the boxes without using extra 25 foot cables. Wire each 
recepticle to one hot. Note that that gives you 40A in one drop box.

Racks
put no more than two amps on each circuit, so total four amps per
rack. For drive and processing racks, try to balance the loads between
the two circuits. Don't forget to allow for the console power supply.
For example, a Yamaha PM3000 power supply draws 8A.

================================================================================

Small Distro (small clubs, ect)
For this type of system, you're going to need 8 or 10 circuits
instead of the 30 mentioned above.
Assumed:
	1 circuit FOH, 4 circuits FOH power, 2 Circuits monitor 
	power, 2 circuits stage power, one spare.
	Also, assumed that monitors are single amp racks or 
	small biamp rigs.

All parts rated 110/220V single phase, all cable 600V SWO.

10- circuit loadcenter, 70-80 amp busses, with bult in main breaker.
6- 15A breakers
4- 20A breakers
1-  Joy multipin panel mount male.
2-  20A 4 pin twistlock panel females
6-  15A 3 pin twistlock panel mounts
100 feet of 6/4 SWO
2-  Joy female inline
1-  Joy male inline
100 feet of 12/4 SWO
2 male 2 female inline 20A 4 pin twist
100 ft 12/3 SWO
300 ft 14/3 SWO
9 male 9 female inline 15A 3 pin twist

Mount connectors in panel as above. Balance so that 2 20A and 3 15A are
on each bus. Put the joy male at the top.
Put a male and female Joy on the 6/4 and use it as a feeder, with the 
other female to bare ends. (cut the 6/4 in half)

Amp racks would be much the same, with 4 pin twist. Use the three pin
for small racks. Drive racks are three pin.

FOH gets the 100 ft of 12/3 

14/3 is divided into 4x25 feet, and 4x50 feet

12/4 gets used as 2 lengths of 50 feet.

Drop boxes for this distro are quads with a pigtail on each end, but the
difference is that there is only one 15A circuit in the box.
You can also make joy to stove adaptors, ect. to use where necessary.

Notes:
	SWO is a type of rubber jacket that has weather and oil resistance
	Twist-Lock is a Hubble trademark
	Camlock is a Camlock trademark
	Joy is a trademark, of who I have no idea. It's rubber and has 4
	pins, ground being largest.
	Crouse-Hinds makes a Camlock type substitute that's cheaper

These two distros are pretty standard for there respective sizes locally, 
although locals insist that #4 is good enough for 100A services. It is,
except that if you use 500 feet of it, you only get 95V at the other end.

Any questions, feel free to mail or post.
						Mur
						Cullen@ac.dal.ca
						Cullen@ug.cs.dal.ca