CharlieH Posted September 20, 2009 Share Posted September 20, 2009 This may be a stupid question, if so then I apologise! :blink: For the school play, we are getting in a mirror ball. I would like to have the motor for it DMX controlled, so I can control it from the back along with the other equipment I have. Can you get these, and where from?Thanks,Charlie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
revbobuk Posted September 20, 2009 Share Posted September 20, 2009 I think this thread should be helpful... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CharlieH Posted September 20, 2009 Author Share Posted September 20, 2009 Great thanks. I did search, but I couldn't find this one :blink: Charlie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TomHoward Posted September 21, 2009 Share Posted September 21, 2009 We just put an AC motor mirrorball rotator on a dimmer channel. You don't have any control over which way it rotates once but at least you can turn it on and off and vary the speed a little. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JimWebber Posted September 21, 2009 Share Posted September 21, 2009 It may be worth noting that the mirror ball rotator may need a dummy load on the same dimmer channel - Perhaps a spare flood for example... However if you can pair the motor with the light(s) illuminating the mirror ball, then you should be able to kill two birds with one stone! HTH Jim Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jivemaster Posted September 21, 2009 Share Posted September 21, 2009 A motor is a significantly inductive load and may kill dimmer channels. better dimmers will survive longer than low end ones. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LXbydesign Posted September 21, 2009 Share Posted September 21, 2009 Its perfectly viable to run a mirror ball motor on a dimmer channel - so long as you do have a load lamp on it as well. Running the mirror ball and the light/s shining on it on one channel is not good becasue - unless its a really slow fade - which is then bad for the motor - you will see the ball "startup" etc. Keep the motor and a load lamp on one channel, and the lightsource on another.! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
timsabre Posted September 21, 2009 Share Posted September 21, 2009 A motor is a significantly inductive load and may kill dimmer channels. better dimmers will survive longer than low end ones. I've experienced the reverse situation where the dimmer kills the motor (uneven positive/negative switching of the ac causing a DC offset).If you can set a dimmer to "switching" mode that's a good option. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TomHoward Posted September 21, 2009 Share Posted September 21, 2009 True, we do run a dummy load it it as well, it escaped my mind. If you were wary of running it on a dimmer channel, and you only wanted it on or off, it might be more cost effective to use one of the single channel DMX relay switches from Milford Instruments and a standard mirror ball motor than having a motor controlled by DMX directly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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