The 350 is one of several of Don's light modules. This portion of a catalog describes the 350 and these related modules.

I believe there are no photos or information on the 350. It is interesting that it weighs 35 pounds so it sounds like it had a power transformer. Strobes in this timeframe were based on xenon flash tubes and many were not line isolated. MEMS wanted a 350 for the Electric Circus and I chose to design using a high power LED which provides similar performance with much simpler and low voltage circuitry.

There is very little written on the Electric Circus. Tony Martin was associated with the San Francisco Tape Music Center and the Electric Circus in New York. Interview with Tony Martin, Liquid Light Artist and Painter details some of his history there. It's worth the read.

My position at the Electric Circus came about from an invitation to come over and tell them what I was about. There wasn't a need for a big introduction. They already knew what I was able to do with projection equipment from the Fillmore West. Stan and Jerry went out to the Bay Area to look at the light show. I didn't meet them there, but they met my associate Bill Sward, somehow, and he said, "Oh, like an electric circus!" - he may be the origin of that name. 

The projection component was substantial. It wasn't derivative of what Andy Warhol had done previously, at the same location as the Electric Circus. It was new, based upon Mort's conception. The idea of a "circus" was something I liked - the notion of a circus.

The 350 description indicates the flash source could be controlled internally or remotely and was controlled by both CV and timing pulses. I first thought that rather than design new circuitry for an internal CV controlled LFO, I could just reuse a module design like the 140. Since using CV and timing pulses indicates interfacing to modules, I decided why not just use a module for all the control and simply build a trigger-input flash.

I designed a simple 12V circuit comprising a comparator with a threshold of 0.8V with over and under voltage protection so it could be driven by a LFO, envelope generator, or a 10V/ 15V pulse. That triggered a 555-based monostable timer to turn on a 10W high power LED. With the particular 10W LED I used I found a 15 mS on time worked well and could easily drive the rate up to around 30 Hz. It provided a nice strobe effect with a wide area light dispersion. The LED is very bright, so needs some type of diffuser to be able to view it safely. I didn't explore other 10W LEDs and the on-time pulse width can easily be adjusted.

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