powering LED Par64's from a dimmer output

[JMackenzie]

Hi,

I recently bought four Par 64 LED Parcans and a Skytec192 DMX controller, as an experiment , to add to my conventional incandesant system. The lights were cheap, so I was not expecting much light intensity. I have been really impressed by the colour mixes I can achieve, and the controlable fades and changes. I have never had LED lamps before, so there was a bit of a learning curve in getting my head round DMX address's etc.

The controller is fine for simple chases, fixed colour changes or sound to light, and at the moment are only illuminating a matt white wall at the back of the stage. The controller does not have a master level fader.

I was wondering what would happen if I powered all these lamps from one channel of my 24 channel Action desk.

Would I be able to fade them all by driving them with the dimmer, or would they just go off at a particular voltage?

I would also like to know if anyone is using a four colour LED, as I believe it gives you better White and better Yellow.

Are the more expensive , say £200 , 36 watt LED's considerably better than My £50 Lamps?

Being new to this technology in theatre use, I am fascinated to find out other people's experience.

All information gratefully received.

[smalljoshua]

Don't even try to connect the LED par cans to a dimmer, it will damage something and wont work how you want it to.

 

If you want to change the overall brightness, get a desk which can handle a virtual dimmer for the RGB channels.

 

Josh

[adamharman]

As Josh said, you can't power them from a dimmer.

 

But it should be possible to control them from the action desk. I've never seen one, but I just googled it and it appears to have a D54 output. You can get convertors from D54 (the old strand multiplex signal) to DMX (the modern equivalent which your PARs will accept), which would enable you to do what you want. They come up on ebay from time to time, or usedlighting.co.uk will probably be able to help you