Setting Up Your Canto Followspot

Hi! Shawn Harmon with Canto USA here today. Here to talk to you about setting up your Canto followspot. The first thing we're going to need is the stand. Stands are not rocket science. You're just gonna loosen this bottom screw, you're gonna spread the legs out, and put the screw back tight. You're gonna want to set the followspot up so that as you're operating it there's not a leg in your way. So, kind of think ahead a little bit on that. I'm gonna raise the mast up just a little bit, which you can do to get over any windows or anything. So, feel free to adjust the height of this in any way you need to. I also like to put this little safety ring in when I'm done just to make sure that if I loosen one of these accidentally that the fixture doesn't just drop. The second thing I'm going to need to do is go back to that white boom and pull out the spigot that I did not throw away. We're going to take the screw off the top, or the nut off the top rather, I'll take the washer. I'm gonna put this in until that little divot is still on top and then I'm gonna screw this side pin in. Now some people think that this screw here is for pan, it is not, this is merely to hold this pin in, okay. Then leaving the felt tab on the screw I'm going to come get the fixture and I'm gonna go to that middle hole with my unit. Then I'm gonna replace the washer and the nyloc bolt, nut, I'm gonna replace the washer and the nyloc nut. Then I'm gonna use my crescent wrench to put the nut on. So, now that I've put the nut on I want to make sure that it's snug so that the fixture doesn't rock back and forth but it's not so tight that it won't pan left and right. We want to be able to pan left and right, if it's too tight it won't do it, if it's too loose the fixture may rock like that. So, you're gonna have to find that happy medium for whoever that operator is. The next step is to take the cable and put it on the ground. Then we're going to take our Phillips screwdriver loosen these three screws on the front of the unit. We're gonna take our boomerang and on one side you'll notice there are holes with slots. Those holes are gonna line up with our screws and then it's going to slide right down. To secure the boomerang so it doesn't fall off during performances or any other times we're gonna take our long shaft screwdriver, we're gonna tighten those screws down with the boomerang in place. On this one I'll have to push the gel frames up to get to that screw. Next I want to put the lamp in this unit. This unit is a FastFit. So, for that type unit there is a flat head, we remove this cover, remove the lamp, we remove the lamp from the packaging careful not to touch the glass, and if you'll notice these tabs are different sizes. There's a thin one and a fat one and if we look inside the unit there's a thin slot and a fat slot. We want to line those up, then give it a turn, and lock it into place. If you don't get it locked into place, it may or may not arc, it may or may not strike, you may or may not have it work. So, you have to make sure that you get it in tight. This does not spin it just clicks into place. You should look very similar to that. Then we want to replace this plate. If you'll notice these are captured screws so that you don't lose them and these are only quarter turn. The next item we should put in is our iris. It's going to come in this protective bag. Now if you'll notice there's two screws, one on this side and one on this side, for securing it into the fixture. Once again we're going to go back to our Phillips screwdriver. I'll loosen these up and remove them. Then if we look in the top of the unit, the fins, there's a flat side. The flat side goes toward the lamp, these arms go toward the front of the unit or go toward the talent. These will go in like that. Then we're going to notice on the side that those screw holes pretty much line up, we can jiggle it into place. We want to be sure to hold onto this screw so it doesn't fall off as we put that back into the iris. You do this side we're gonna rotate the unit and do this side. Now remember this iris is for sizing not for dowsing, or this is the one that you would use to operate during the show. Okay! Now that we have the iris in, we have the fixture generally like we want it. You want to make sure that it's good and balanced. We're gonna take a look at this screw over here. We want to make sure that this handle is adjustable so it doesn't just stay in one place and lock. So, let's say for instance if it's really loose here and you go to here, you're like I need it to be tighter, well that's no problem. You just pull out on that or push down on that. You can readjust and make it tighter okay. Now that we're at this point we're going to add our ballasts last. This is the ballast. The ballast has a place to plug the fixture in, it also has a cord that you would then plug into the wall, the on/off switch, and the fuse. The ballast has to stay in this orientation on the floor. It cannot stand on its end due to this fan, that fan must be unobstructed. Sometimes people like to sit it like this, please don't do that, it must stay horizontal. Okay! To plug in the fixture into this connector that you've probably never seen before, it's really easy, we're just going to take this square connector and then cable up it just plugs right in there. Then there's a retaining clip here, you pull that in till it locks and you can feel that and hear that lock. If it doesn't lock you don't have something in incorrectly. Now we're going to plug it into the wall. Okay! The next thing we got to talk about is how to turn the fixture on and you need to know what's happening on the ballast first. To turn the fixture on you're going to turn the on button on the ballast to the on position. When you do that you're gonna see red LED lights inside. Then those LEDs are going to turn green and then they're gonna turn turquoise. So, the green and the blue LED turn on. Once the green and the blue, making a turquoise or cyan color come on, then you're able to turn the fixture on. So, we're gonna do that. We're going to actuate this to the on position, we're gonna see red, we're gonna hear fans on the power supply. and the fixture turn on. We went red – green – turquoise. Now we're ready to turn the fixture on. Okay now that we've got our ballast in the turquoise on the inside it's really easy we just turned the fixture to the on position. Now, if you turn it on and there's no light coming out at first, that's okay, the lamps gotta turn on and heat up. If you still don't have any light coming out it's probably because your dowser is in the off position, in the out position. So, we're gonna actuate that to the 100% position now you'll have light coming out the front of the fixture. Then you'll also be able to see your iris and operation. Another troubleshooting thing that you may want to know is that the ballast once it goes to turquoise it will timeout after a while. So, to overcome that you can actually do this in reverse order so that you can turn the fixture on and then turn the ballast on. The inrush current will make the lamp strike. Thank you for watching this video! If you have any questions about anything that we've covered please feel free to reach out to a Canto dealer or to us directly. Thank you very much have a great day!