Advice on dimmers

[DaveBennett]

Hi,

 

Looking to buy some rackmount dimmers for running pars and in the future some profiles and fresnels.

 

Ive had a look around and came across this..

 

http://www.thomann.de/gb/stairville_ddx620i_dimmer.htm

 

Whats kind of baffling me is that its 6 channel, but if you go onto 3D view it appears to only have 4 holes for the cables.

 

Can anyone clear this up for me?

 

Also, can you power that from a 13a socket or would it need to be 32a etc?

 

And can any one else recomend any fairly cheap but resonable dimmers.

 

Many thanks,

 

Dave

[david.elsbury]

Sorry to hijack thread, but we have a (faulty)un branded version of this at my church. Where do I go to get a circuit diagram for it? Also if any users have had any bad experiences with this dimmer please PM me, would like to discuss.

 

In answer to your questions, Dave, 4 holes is most likely one for input and then each other hole takes 2 cables for output. Yes you could wire this one to single phase operation from a 13a socket, but remember that that will dictate your total loading- 3,000w (3kW) - so practically useless for 1kW PAR64's.

[Trunker]

Would rack mout this dimmer take the back off it (the casing with the holes I mean) and have either 15a patch pannel on back, or socapex outlets, so no-one can touch live parts.

 

You can power these of 13a, but you are really restrciting the power you can use (3000w). I would put at least a 32amp SP connector on it so you can have 1200w of power from each channel if needed.

 

Just my 2p

 

 

Edited for clarity

[boatman]

Also note from the product description on the Thomann website that this is a three-phase dimmer pack. There is obviously a good deal of wiring information printed on the top of the case, but you would need to do some modification for single phase operation.

[KevinE]

Just check with these cheaper dimmers about the ease or difficulty of chaging triacs..something you'll almost certainly have to do at some point in their life! Alot of the Stairville stuff is re-badged Botex equipment and they can be particularly awkward.

 

Some of them are so awful to change, you have to unwire them and take them back to the workshop.

[Ben]

Take a look at the Lightprocessor range and also the Zero 88 gear, may be a little bit more money but worth it in the long term in my opinion.

[kaareolai]

Also note from the product description on the Thomann website that this is a three-phase dimmer pack. There is obviously a good deal of wiring information printed on the top of the case, but you would need to do some modification for single phase operation.

 

Well, not much modification, I believe.

I presume it is wired for TN-C or TN-S 400V. If you want to use it on single phase, just feed 230V between N (neutral) and L1+L2+L3 _combined_.

 

 

On the other hand, when a short time ago I opened a Chinese-factored dimmer (not from Thomann!), I observed that the N-wire was fed from the triac/thyristor-board to the first of the sockets on the rack backside, and then in serial from this first one. Serious much current through that somewhat 1.5 sqmm wire I believe...

 

Here in Norway we still have lots of IT 380V 3-phase, that demands some serious thoughts when converting a dimmer from the standard European TN-system. Especially with this chinese solution above. I then need to split up the trigger and triac-boards both on input and output into three isolated modules.

 

 

Regards Kaare Olai.

[DaveBennett]

Cheers guys.

 

I think when I get some I may just go for Betapacks and pay the extra for the quallity.

 

If anyone can recomend anything quite good around £200 then please drop us a line.

 

Dave