LED florrie tube substitutes

[gareth]

I hear what you're saying - but that's the only way to do it. The VIP-90s have one neutral terminal and two lives (hot and dimmed), so commoning the neutrals somewhere along the line is how it has to be. Yes, I thought of the widowmaker element - but given that everything's up in the theatre's grid, where no-one but the electricians are going to be connecting/disconnecting it, we figured that a robust method statement and the restricted access should just about cover it. Naturally, I made sure that both feeds were on the same phase.

[Brian]

For anyone finding this topic later on, one solution to the shared Neutrals problem would be to run the non-dimmed heater supply via a 240-240 isolation transformer allowing you to safely link the 'neutral' of the secondary to the Neutral of the dimmed feed.

[Tomo]

These VIP-90 ballasts are what the Sensor "Fluorescent" module is for - two lives and one neutral on the same RCD.

 

I'm also not keen on the way you've got it connected, although there aren't many alternatives given an installed dimmer system.

 

I'd prefer fitting a two-channel distributed dimmer to the VIP-90 (or four-channel to two of them) using 'captive' cables.

Then treat the whole pack as "Hot power plus DMX".

[gareth]

I'm also not keen on the way you've got it connected

It's not what I'd have chosen in a perfect world, but the risk is controlled to a level which we consider acceptable.

 

I'd prefer fitting a two-channel distributed dimmer to the VIP-90 (or four-channel to two of them) using 'captive' cables.

Then treat the whole pack as "Hot power plus DMX".

It would be great to be able to do that, but we don't live in an ideal world and our available resources prohibit such an extravagant approach. We evaluated the risk and are of the opinion that the controls we have in place are adequate given our particular situation.