tokm Posted July 12, 2006 Share Posted July 12, 2006 (posted on Zero88 forum a while ago, no reply yet, thought id try on here. Searched BR & the fat frog manual to no avail!) Hi all. Like the description says, I'm looking to somehow use non-dims on a fat frog. Is there a way to set a channel's dim curve to non dim, or is there a profile in existance for one? Must be a way surely! Every other desk I know can do it in some shape or form. BTW, the racks I'm using are betapack ones, so can't set a channel to non dim on the rack end.. unless theres a magic function Ive not discovered on my beta's! Thanks for any help. Tom Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mumbles Posted July 12, 2006 Share Posted July 12, 2006 I was up early this morning and am currently frazzled so bear with me, but I normally write a personality like a shutter open/closed file, with all values below 128 as off and all vaues above 128 as on, so the desk sends a signal as 0% or 100%, and then also turn off the preheat. Depending on how many fixtures as opposed to dimmers you're using, this should work, but if you don't have any fixtures left available, then I on't know how to in the fat frog. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tokm Posted July 12, 2006 Author Share Posted July 12, 2006 I was up early this morning and am currently frazzled so bear with me, but I normally write a personality like a shutter open/closed file, with all values below 128 as off and all vaues above 128 as on, so the desk sends a signal as 0% or 100%, and then also turn off the preheat. Depending on how many fixtures as opposed to dimmers you're using, this should work, but if you don't have any fixtures left available, then I on't know how to in the fat frog. Thanks 'mumbles'. Hmm, now I wonder how I could do that... Had a look round the fixture type editor, couldn't see a way to do what your saying.. Thought it might be in the special option thing, but wasn't anywhere to be found hehe. Maybe its my tiredness and im missing something obvious. Dam, I wish I could be using a avo on this gig! So much less hassle. Tom Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mumbles Posted July 12, 2006 Share Posted July 12, 2006 Sorry, whenI first read your post I assumed you were looking for an option within the desk. Try reading this post or this, as I think how to do it for the frog range is in there. Hope this helps. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Posted July 13, 2006 Share Posted July 13, 2006 Is there a way to set a channel's dim curve to non dim, or is there a profile in existance for one?No, not on the Frog range of desks. As has also been discussed here before, running non-dims on dimmer packs might not be the best idea either. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shez Posted July 13, 2006 Share Posted July 13, 2006 Last time I had to do something like that, I gave up on persuading the Frog to do it and locked the channels at 100% on the chili dimmers. Mileage may vary with other dimmers of course. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flyingwysiwyg Posted July 13, 2006 Share Posted July 13, 2006 Tokm, As Brian so rightly says, you should not really be running non - dims on your Betapacks! It won't do the dimmers or the fixture any good at all. If the dimmers are specifically designed to work in a switch / non dim mode then that's a different story. You should be really using a switchpack of some description, in which case you won't need to muck about with the desk. Most switchpacks use one dimmer per channel and fader above 50% on the desk = ON, fader below 50% = OFF. F - Wyg Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jivemaster Posted July 13, 2006 Share Posted July 13, 2006 Milford Instruments (milinst.com) do a DMX-switch module, one channel or eight, with relay outs, Needs casing though. (part no 1-558 ). Use one to pull a rated contactor down for hard power devices. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eric Posted July 14, 2006 Share Posted July 14, 2006 As Brian said it's not a good idea to run no dim loads through a dimmer even if it is set to switch beacsue you still go through the triac circuit. But you can get the Fat Frog to do it but not using dimmer channels. You would have to use the fixture section.The are a couple in the library that say switch or relay which you could assign.What you then do is program either two submasters or two of the pallets that. One is the output at full to turn it on, the other is the output at zero to turn it off. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tokm Posted July 17, 2006 Author Share Posted July 17, 2006 As Brian said it's not a good idea to run no dim loads through a dimmer even if it is set to switch beacsue you still go through the triac circuit. But you can get the Fat Frog to do it but not using dimmer channels. You would have to use the fixture section.The are a couple in the library that say switch or relay which you could assign.What you then do is program either two submasters or two of the pallets that. One is the output at full to turn it on, the other is the output at zero to turn it off. Hi guys. Just to clear something up. I wasn't running fixtures off the beta's. Was some non DMX strobe's and a couple UV tubes.. Ive done it before with no problems. Might not be the 'done' thing he he, but I can't see how it could be dangerous in any way & like I said Ive done similar before with no problems. Sorry, should have said at the beginning what I was planning to run off these non-dim channels. Would never want to run my baby macs on anything other than proper non-dim racks! Just wanted to see if there was a fixture profile in existance as my usual desk, that can do non-dim channels. Couldn't be taken on this trip. Hope ive put any issues/worries to rest. Tom Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jivemaster Posted July 17, 2006 Share Posted July 17, 2006 Dimmers, configured from triacs or back to back thyristors do not switch ON at the Zero volt point they switch on after that, so the waveform out of a dimmer is always truncated. That's why dimmers often say range 0 - 99% in the tech spec. This can cause harmonics in inductive loads. Some dimmers will not handle inductive loads -a mirrorball motor (10watts) - can kill dimmer channels rated at 10 amps if they will not accept the highly inductive load. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paulears Posted July 17, 2006 Share Posted July 17, 2006 Some dimmers will not handle inductive loads -a mirrorball motor (10watts) - can kill dimmer channels rated at 10 amps if they will not accept the highly inductive load.If your marvellous, brand new swanky dimmers can't handle a mirror ball without going to dimmer heaven, then I'll lend you one of my 1976 STM racks, they don't have that problem. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
david.elsbury Posted July 17, 2006 Share Posted July 17, 2006 Not wise to run strobes thru a dimmer, parked or not, non-dim or not.Often either the strobe trys to draw far more current than the dimmer [triac] wants to supply, due to peak instantaneous loading, or the strobe flickers slightly anyway, due to the fact that the triac is doing funny things to the sine wave that is the mains. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tokm Posted July 18, 2006 Author Share Posted July 18, 2006 Not wise to run strobes thru a dimmer, parked or not, non-dim or not.Often either the strobe trys to draw far more current than the dimmer [triac] wants to supply, due to peak instantaneous loading, or the strobe flickers slightly anyway, due to the fact that the triac is doing funny things to the sine wave that is the mains. Like I said, ok the general rule is use non dim racks for switching, but honestly, running some cheapish 1500w strobes from an old analogue betapack I got for £100, Im not too bothered, would anyone else here be if in the same circumstances? If it was potentially unsafe. i.e. rack or strobe could blow up, course, I wouldn't be doing it! And just to add my 2cents to Paul & jivemasters comments, Ive run mirror ball motors off dimmer channels before, never had a problem with inductive loads on channels. Only time I did run into problems like that was when there wasn't enough draw on the channel, so had to add a dead load to it! Think this topics going a bit :** laughs out loud **:, maybe its just me. Tom Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.