Members Audiopile Posted November 13, 2013 Members Share Posted November 13, 2013 Does anyone here have any experience with electronic carillons? I've been volunteered to render assistance in getting an electronic carillon at one of our local churches some-how operational again. The carillon is not quite as old as I am, but close (approx. 50 years old).I've been reading up some... it seems that electronic carillons are relatively common, but electronic carillon technical expertise (or even any hands-on experience concerning maintenance & operation) seems to be less common. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members RoadRanger Posted November 13, 2013 Members Share Posted November 13, 2013 Audiopile wrote: Does anyone here have any experience with electronic carillons? I've been volunteered to render assistance in getting an electronic carillon at one of our local churches some-how operational again. The carillon is not quite as old as I am, but close (approx. 50 years old). I've been reading up some... it seems that electronic carillons are relatively common, but electronic carillon technical expertise (or even any hands-on experience concerning maintenance & operation) seems to be less common. Are you sure it isn't electro-mechanical? Those are pretty simple... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Audiopile Posted November 13, 2013 Author Members Share Posted November 13, 2013 RoadRanger wrote: Are you sure it isn't electro-mechanical? Those are pretty simple... No doubt it's electro-mechanical. The make & model is:Schulmerich Carillon Inc.Magnebell CarillonModel 25646MFG: approx. 1963This carillon is equipped with a reel-to-reel tape drive (7 1/4" I believe), and a fairly sophisticated mechanical timer assembly. I suspect the reel-to-reel is for playing music (regular recorded music) and/or possibly ques the bell ringing to ring out a melody ("Silent Night", "Jingle Bells", etc...). I suspect the mechanical timer assembly is for day-to-day ringing bells on the hour, 1/2 hour, etc... (so you don't have to attend to the reel-to-reel for simple hourly ringing of the bells.)I suspect this carillon is constructed with "electro-mechanical devices" in the relay rack which create bell emulating sounds, which are amplified and broadcast through the bell tower PA speakers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members agedhorse Posted November 14, 2013 Members Share Posted November 14, 2013 Jsg143, do you supply service and support docs for your older products? I see no mention of older products on your website. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members RoadRanger Posted November 14, 2013 Members Share Posted November 14, 2013 They're basically a rack of mic'd doorbells - I'm guessing AudioPhile hasn't actually looked it over close yet otherwise he'd have it working by now . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Bugzie Posted November 16, 2013 Members Share Posted November 16, 2013 When the one in a local city stopped working they ran into the same situation with cost of repair. I jokingly said that my keyboard would probably do a better job with the sounds and would be cheaper than fixing the old unit. The highschool music director asked me if I was serious and said he would find that hard to believe.A couple of months went by and I was doing a dance at his school and dragged my MOTIF along. He recorded a few tunes and tried them. They worked extremely well. Sounds like you are at the point where repairing the original may be more expensive than using some new tech.Whats the goal? The sounds or saving a dated machine? Funny thing was the old system had what must have been a early 70's McIntosh tube amp. No one could remember ever changing the tubes and it still worked. Andy, what did they use for speakers? They appear to be some big old stadium type horns. It's amazing how good they sound at 100 yards. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members agedhorse Posted November 16, 2013 Members Share Posted November 16, 2013 Often large re-entrant horns but they could be anything. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members fdew Posted November 16, 2013 Members Share Posted November 16, 2013 The system I got going again recently used 4 Universality Sound ID 40 A drivers on what looked like 24 in horns The system stopped working over 40 years ago but the speakers are fine.They sound quite good over the range of the bells. If I was doing a job like you are going to where the labor is free, I would walk in with a amp and a PC loaded with the software in the car. If you can fix it all, great, if you can fix the amp, then good, slide in the PC, go on line and activate the license, point the customer to the instructions for changing the bells and schedule to there liking, and you are a hero for very little labor. Frank Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members jsg143 Posted November 18, 2013 Members Share Posted November 18, 2013 We do provide support for our older instruments if parts are still available. We have instruments in the field that were installed 50+ years ago and that are still working. We need to get a service technican out to see the device to determine what we can do. Please contact us at our home office if we can be of use to you:http://www.schulmerichbells.com/contact/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members agedhorse Posted November 23, 2013 Members Share Posted November 23, 2013 Typical aged institutional memory Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members agedhorse Posted December 9, 2013 Members Share Posted December 9, 2013 I don't think the horse's name was Bobtail. Harness horses (especially certain breeds of drafts) have their tails bobbed and bells are put either on the harness, the crupper or braided into the base of the tail itself to make noise. It's slang to call such drafts bobtails, or bobbed tails. A single horse hitch would have had a bobtail pulling it. That's my best guess. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members RoadRanger Posted December 9, 2013 Members Share Posted December 9, 2013 agedhorse wrote: I don't think the horse's name was Bobtail. Harness horses (especially certain breeds of drafts) have their tails bobbed and bells are put either on the harness, the crupper or braided into the base of the tail itself to make noise. It's slang to call such drafts bobtails, or bobbed tails. A single horse hitch would have had a bobtail pulling it. That's my best guess. What, you mean I shouldn't believe everything I read on the Internet ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members agedhorse Posted December 9, 2013 Members Share Posted December 9, 2013 One of the acts in our show is a Clydesdale 4 up hitch, tails bobbed and with bells. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Miko Man Posted December 10, 2013 Members Share Posted December 10, 2013 Note for comparison purposes the lyrics from "Camptown Races" (Stephan Foster): "Bet my money on a bob-tailed nag,Somebody bet on the gray." Mark C. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members agedhorse Posted December 13, 2013 Members Share Posted December 13, 2013 Check coil lead resistance to the housing or ground. It's possible or likely that the coil is internally terminated to the metal structure. A coil must have a minimum of 2 leads and can be tapped for more. There are push-pull coils that have a center tap and are used for latching. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CMS Author Craig Vecchione Posted December 13, 2013 CMS Author Share Posted December 13, 2013 I think Mark's referring to a pickup, not a solenoid, coil, but the same applies...there needs to be a circuit, so either two leads, or a lead and the housing "grounds" to a common return to make the circuit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members agedhorse Posted December 13, 2013 Members Share Posted December 13, 2013 Yeah, I kind of jumped topics to generalities didn't I? Coils are coils, they convert electrical energy to magnetic field and the other way around. Magnetic field forces plus motion can do work and the other way around as well. Tapping coils can change the force ratios and directions of the forces. Pretty cool stuff but the math is complicated. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CMS Author Craig Vecchione Posted December 13, 2013 CMS Author Share Posted December 13, 2013 Indeed, very cool stuff. I just wanted to point out what Mark was talking about before things spun out of control! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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