Rebadged Soundtec dimmers

[Chris Beesley]

Member contacted off board - please PM me fols for specific questions.

[DavidLee]

HI Folks,

 

Can I set the situation straight - the rebadged dimmers come in from a UK importer who uses the same manufacturer as Showtec...

CPC Customer Services are clueless and finally admitted that they have no real idea about delivery. Two days ago they said 4th Feb with some conviction but now the Website indicates that these items are "No Longer Manufactured". Personally I don't believe that they ever were - the CPC photo only ever showed a US version.

 

David

[Chris Beesley]

The image shown in our catalogue was supplied to us by the UK importer and will have been taken from the initial testing sample they received. The manufacturer produces this product for a wide range of markets and does supply the product with IEC, US or Schuko outlets.

With regards to the delivery dates we have now discontinued the item until we can be sure of an accurate delivery date. Apologies to all who were waiting for the dimmers, I hope you can understand this situation has arisen from being let down by our source for the products.

 

Best Regards

 

Chris Beesley

Product manager

CPC Plc.

 

 

 

p.s. can we close this subject now?

[ianl]

With regards to the delivery dates we have now discontinued the item until we can be sure of an accurate delivery date...

 

well I got this today, only 7 months on from ordering mine:

 

Thank you for placing an order with us recently. Unfortunately, we are unable

to supply you with the item(s) listed below, and have had to delete them from

your order(s). Where there is a suitable Alternative we have listed this below.

Please accept our apologies for any inconvenience this may cause. If this does

not affect you directly, please forward to the user of this product(s).

 

When selecting a suitable alternative please note that:

* RoHS compliant products - some manufacturing processes may need reviewing.

** Non-RoHS compliant alternative products. These can only be used in

manufacture until July 2006, but can be used after this date for

maintenance and repair.

 

Original Product

Product Notification Reason NO LONGER MANUFACTURED

Reason For Change NOT RoHS COMPLIANT

Farnell InOne Order Code DP28550

Product Description DIMMER PACK, 4CH DMX

Manufacturer/Brand Name SOUNDLAB

Manufacturer Part No. G018VD

Purchase Order Number C1556

Date Ordered 30/08/2005

Qty Outstanding 1

Farnell InOne Order Ref. 6134-2976

 

There is no suitable alternative for this product.

 

We look forward to supporting you with your product requirements.

 

Nicola Horner

Administrator

Farnell InOne - global distributor of electronic, electrical and industrial

components

 

UK Sales Hotline Tel: +44 (0) 870 1200 200 Fax: +44 (0) 870 1200 201

Technical Support and Data Tel: +44 (0) 870 1200 202 Fax: +44 (0) 870 1200 203

www.farnellinone.co.uk

RoHS Technical Support Tel: +44 (0) 870 1072 006 www.farnellinone.co.uk/rohs

 

 

 

Farnell InOne is a division of Premier Farnell UK Limited.

Registered in England No. 860093.

Registered Office: 150 Armley Road, Leeds, LS12 2QQ.

 

 

so are they "discontinued the item until we can be sure of an accurate delivery date." or "NO LONGER MANUFACTURED" ?

[Chris Beesley]

As far as we are concerned the products are still manufactured but not to UK specifications at this point in time - the "NO LONGER MANUFACTURED" you see on the letters & website is taken directly from our back office system, the other option was to label them as NO LONGER STOCKED - but this often implies the products are available through other suppliers. At this moment the only products available are the Trancension/Showtec models at a higher price than the SoundLAB model.

 

Shortly after I responded to the thread CPC took the decision to discontinue the product from our range due to a further delay in the expected delivery date from the UK importer. We are now looking for alternative products at a similar price and quality. Releasing products for sale before we received stock is not normal CPC practice - the product mentioned in this thread was added to our catalogue nearly six months before anybody sees a paper copy, at this point we can only take the word of the UK importer that all products will be available come August when we launch the catalogue. As you will see if yo uhave access to the 2006 catalogue we launched around 14,000 new products and reduced over 4000 prices... this is a large amount of work for a small department in Preston, Lancs.

 

I apologise for any problems this may have caused and can only hope you do not hold this as a grudge against CPC.

 

Best regards,

 

Chris Beesley

Product Manager

CPC Plc.

[dbuckley]

This is probably in the "grandmonther to sick eggs" category, but have CPC considered going straight to the source and getting these with CPC logos screenprinted on?

[Chris Beesley]

HI,

 

We have considered this - but I have been advised the present the problem with supply is getting the manufacturer to produce UK spec products. As and when we have an update I will update the guys on here with the relevant information.

 

Best Regards,

 

Chris Beesley

Product Manager

CPC Plc.

[london sound]

Well I ordered Multi-dims from Thomann on Monday and they arrived today (Wed), so they are available. At a reasonable price.

 

Thomann

 

 

Ian

[mogcamper]

Well I ordered Multi-dims from Thomann on Monday and they arrived today (Wed), so they are available. At a reasonable price.

 

Thomann

 

 

Ian

 

 

I did just the same!

 

Andrew

[peternewman]

So has anyone actually used the Soundlab G018VA dimmers? Since the Soundlab Multidim clones became unavailable, these are the cheapest dimmers listed on CPC, so I was just wondering if anyone owns any, and if so what you think of them? Are the flanges on the edges strong enough to stick a pair of hook clamps in as suggested, and hang them from the rig? Is there a suitable safety bond point? As those slots don't look too strong.

 

Or is the general consensus that the Showtec Multidims, from Thomann are the best bet?

 

TIA

 

PN

[Brian]

So has anyone actually used the...

I had one to play with. Construction is usual 'built to a price' quality. Metal is a bit thin and will bend if not looked after. The holes will take a couple of hook clamps but that does leave your IECs pointing downwards so they are more likely to fall out.

 

The Showtec unit has the same build quality but does allow DMX address setting on the LED display. The versions I have also allow outputs to be set to switch. I bought mine on ebay for £69.95 each from seller 'diamonddave2005' though he doesn't have any listed at the moment.

[david.elsbury]

The holes will take a couple of hook clamps but that does leave your IECs pointing downwards so they are more likely to fall out.

This can be 'fixed' by using hot-melt glue to secure the IEC's into the socket, and can be removed fairly easily (put a strip around the outside of the connector)

 

David

[powersolve]

So has anyone actually used the ...

 

I got one of these last year off Ebay - notable features are:-

 

1. The (3-pin) DMX input plug has the +ve and -ve lines reversed when compared to other 3-pin devices (such as the MultiDim). This is quickly rectified by re-soldering a couple of resistors inside.

 

2. The dimmer curve is - erm - interesting. (I've only used the DMX input so I have no idea about its performance on 0-10v). I get essentially no output for DMX levels lass than 100 (40% of full), then a more-or-less linear response from 100 to 230 (90%), then full-on for anything above 230. When fading up slowly in tandem with other dimmers this shows up as a very noticeable delay on the Soundlab response.

 

3. The unit holds its output for about 3 secs on loss of DMX - after which all channels go off.

 

4. It has an irritatingly bright "DMX receive" flashing red LED.

 

5. It's actually reasonably quiet - not too much buzz/hum.

 

Hope this helps,

 

Steve.

[timmiddleton]

1. The (3-pin) DMX input plug has the +ve and -ve lines reversed when compared to other 3-pin devices (such as the MultiDim). This is quickly rectified by re-soldering a couple of resistors inside.

 

...or pulling the entire connector out, reversing it and pushing it back in (as it wasnt glued in anyway!)

 

mine has worked fine since so can't complain!

 

Tim

[peternewman]

Thanks for the responses guys, some interesting reading, especially powersolve's comments about dimmer curves. I guess the next question is has anyone used both, and if so is it worth paying the extra money (£9 + P&P) for the Showtec ones? My current thinking is it probably is, given the double IEC's and I guess some other features.

 

Also out of interest does anyone know what the highest address is that the Soundlab will go up to? Or even better if someone has a copy of the manual in electronic format? I didn't have any luck finding a manual on their site.

 

TIA

 

PN