Summer, outdoor gig, direct sun, and electronics!

[Markay]

I thought about a fan as well. You can get USB powered small fans, so if the laptop is running on AC then that could be a low cost solution to moving air in the enclosure, prior to, and while you are performing. Plus IIRC you close you laptop screen on stage. Maybe leave it open to let more air on the case till you step on stage.

 

BTW does your bass stay in tune in this heat, or are you staring at your tuner for a few a seconds when you strap it on?

 

 

 

[EscapeRocks]

Just tossing my $1.50 into the ring...

 

I don't look at my laptop after I am setup. On the types of gigs describer here, I place my Macbook on a stand that has holes. I also have an oversized Thermallake laptop cooling pad.

 

I play standing on these gigs. I lower the laptop stand to it's lowest, and position it under the bottom keyboard to no direct sun hits it. I basically use my keys as sunblock.

 

I have two blower fans (LASCO). One that blows on me, and the other that blows up thru the laptop stand. This setup has gotten me thru years of summertime, outdoor Texas gigs (90 degrees F plus).

 

 

 

I also use loads of the highest spf sunblock and wear my Kangol hat.

 

 

 

 

[Stokely]

Argh, every time I see one of those Laskos I regret buying my canary yellow cheaper one Not only does canary yellow stand out like sore thumb, but it doesn't have a adjustability like that one.

 

I bring my fan to every gig, indoor or out, pretty rare I don't use it at least on low. Some clubs get pretty hot.

[Theo Verelst]

The point being that it depends on how much work you computer or portable computer is supposed to do. Rambling a few samples of a SSD probably isn't very CPU sensitive, OTOH runnning near full load heavy DSP on a machine can turn notebooks fundamentally hot. Some are limited to a little under 70 degrees Celsius (don't know without looking up or using a tool howmuch US Fahrenheits that is) some are to somewhat under 100 degrees (water's boiling point (!)), and hopefully, the CPU is the hottest heat factor, will slow down and let other hot parts (supply, motherboard logic, memory, etc) not reach boiling point.

 

If it's just a relatively high shade temperature, computer electronics that are idling will never get so hot on a normal design notebook. If (like I at times do) run a load on those I7s that actually burns some current, it might be that the nice 55 degrees C you get in normal room temperatures is upped by the same amount as the difference in environment temperature, so from 21 degrees to for instance 35 degrees, a difference of 14 degrees, where suddenly some CPUs will at 55 + 14 = 69 degrees C start to throttle and capacitors on the Mobo will start to shorten their life cycles.

 

The problem starts to become a lot worse when your notebook can just handle the compute load at average environment temperature, and its sits in the sun and hot air. It might need air conditioning to stay under the temperature before it throttles back, and in fact heat buildup without active cooling might be too much at any rate !

 

T.

[PianoMan51]

Reeze, I"m glad you brought this up. In the hundreds of gigs I"ve done with a laptop, outdoor heat is the only problem I couldn"t immediately fix.

 

And I"ve made my mistakes:

- accidentally pulling out a connector

- leaving WIFI on

- not rebooting before a performance

- not preloading patches in Mainstage

- etc.

 

When my MacBook overheated, it followed my MIDI controller, but with a fuzz-tone. This was fun for about ten minutes while I imagined 'what would Randy Bachman play?"

 

 

[AnotherScott]

Maybe something like this...?

 

10 foot umbrella

 

[video:youtube]https://youtu.be/ZWEbAfNAUKc

[Reezekeys]

I thought about a fan as well. You can get USB powered small fans, so if the laptop is running on AC then that could be a low cost solution to moving air in the enclosure, prior to, and while you are performing. Plus IIRC you close you laptop screen on stage. Maybe leave it open to let more air on the case till you step on stage.

I thought about one of those USB fans too. Both my USB ports are in use â I know I could use a hub to connect a fan, however I wonder if those things move enough air to make a diff. Also, a hub adds another "layer of tech" and although the risk factor may be low, my thinking with computers & gigs is to keep things as straightforward & simple as possible. Something like this might work better, there's usually a quad box on stage to plug stuff into:

 

 

I think this thread has been great for showing different approaches to dealing with overheating. Being on the road, I'm not gonna carry a big fan or blocks of dry ice, but I now have the insight to ask our tour manager to inquire about fans and reflective coverings when we do an outdoor show in warm weather with no shade. Thanks to everyone for sharing their experiences & knowledge!

 

BTW does your bass stay in tune in this heat, or are you staring at your tuner for a few a seconds when you strap it on?

Yea it does stay in tune. Our tech guy doesn't do any of my keyboard & laptop setup, but he does take care of getting my bass rig going & tuning the instrument right before we take the stage.

 

 

[Reezekeys]

Ha ha, I just re-read my very first post here where I called the Levitt Pavilion a "shed gig" -- that's exactly what it wasn't! A shed has a covered stage and covered seating area, with a lawn that extends beyond the roof. I've done quite a few actual shed gigs and direct sun on the stage has never been an issue. The Levitt is completely open-air.

 

I won't start a thread about the time we drove 10 hours from NYC to Toledo Ohio to play a municipal gig on the river, on an uncovered stage. It started raining just as we were going to start. Gig cancelled, we went back to our hotel and the next day got back in our minivans and drove 10 hours home.

[J. Dan]

Sometimes the covered ones aren't any better. Often the roof is highest in front of the stage and slants down to the back. Never fails that you're facing west for an afternoon gig and the sun is right in your face hitting everything all the way to the back of the stage. I think those are intended more to provide some shelter from a light rain. I say light rain, because I've also been rained on and the wind blows the rain right in.

[Dr Mike Metlay]

Man, this thread brings back some memories.

 

I ran an electronic music festival at Arcosanti, the artist colony in the Arizona desert partway between Phoenix and Flagstaff, for a decade. Because of the way we ran the festival, gear was loaded in FIVE DAYS before downbeat, with rehearsals and songwriting sessions taking place on stage all day and into the evening until then, and we had to take that into account when protecting stuff from the elements.

 

For the first five years of the festival, the amphitheater had a huge tent covering the audience and the stage, with a bit of a gap between it and the concrete band shell; we did have to cover stuff to prevent rain damage, but the sun wasn't a huge problem. Then we arrived for Year Six to find the tent gone. It had been shredded in a winter windstorm, and the Arcosanti folks couldn't afford to replace it... so we had five days of rehearsal in the blazing heat, with barely any sun protection, thermal failures on everything from laptops and SCSI chassis to most of our keyboards... and the amphitheater was so hot that the bleachers were full of dozens of scorpions happily sunning themselves.

 

Good times. Good times.

 

[J. Dan]

I thought the scorpions were from Germany.

[Dr Mike Metlay]

[rimshot]

[Doc Tonewheel]

One of my worst gigs was playing outside in direct sun in Georgia in June. I borrowed my friend's Prophet 5 (it was 1983). Nothing I did would keep that thing in tune, and mean it would be WAY off.

[The Real MC]

One of my worst gigs was playing outside in direct sun in Georgia in June. I borrowed my friend's Prophet 5 (it was 1983). Nothing I did would keep that thing in tune, and mean it would be WAY off.

 

Not surprised, those P-5 were poor design in heat dissipation. No fan, no air vents, completely closed case, power supply at max capacity generating a lot of heat. That meant a LOT of heat internal to the thing, with nowhere to dissipate as it just kept accumulating. And the case is colored black, which absorbed the sunlight and radiated heat everywhere including inside.

[Reezekeys]

... and those oscillators were "digitally controlled" analog chips, so no surprise that tuning was affected by heat. I remember hearing that with a Minimoog you needed to turn it on a while before you were going to use it - to allow the insides to warm up to a stable temperature. Then you tuned it and hoped it would stay in tune!