Wireless Dimmer for a table lamp

[DrV]

Re-lamping and sticking a battery on the end is all fine and good but I am wondering if anyone has any experience with getting a wireless DMX dimmer unit to go in between a battery and the lamp?"

 

 

 

 

 

 

How do you propose to dim a battery (Direct Current) powered lamp? No normal dimmer will do this.

City Theatrical D2 and D4 seem to manage it perfectly well, although this would be an expensive way to do it. Mind you they do RDM so you can, I believe, monitor the battery too.

Dave

 

Hardly normal dimmers,though, are they?

 

Well, it depends on how you define "normal". Certainly these are not phase controlled dimmers as used on most A.C. sources, but pulse width modulation is pretty much the accepted way of dimming a lamp on a D.C. source. If you check post #1 you'll see that this is what the OP was seeking. Although the City Theatrical units are pretty much a Rolls Royce solution you'll find that the less sophisticated RC4 units which were suggested by someone else also use PWM. In the interests of full disclosure, I occasionally do repairs for CTI so I am more familiar with their products than RC4.

 

Dave

[soundscu]

I think the RC4 option is the best. Sean also seems like a nice guy so with potential regular business its always a good thing.

 

 

 

Cheers chaps

 

 

Hello all, This is the aforementioned Sean from RC4 Wireless.

 

First thanks to those that saw the demo at PLASA and those that had good things to say about our wireless dimmers and me personally. Its great to see unprompted support for what we do.

 

As has been pointed out this is exactly what RC4 does and has been doing for over 20 years. Our RC4 Magic system is a "plug and play" addition to any DMX system. Our DMX2dim and DMX4dim handle from 6-24volts, not just 12, although 12v is the most common application. Each dimmer handles up to 50w at 15A. For more power our DMX4dim500 will go up to 30v and 30A continuos or 45A peak.

 

The setup for your table lamps would be one DMXio Transciever to broadcast your DMX universe and one DMX2dim for each table. Pair that with the appropriate battery to handle the amperage draw over the length of performance and you have a wirelessly controlled system of table lamps. All you need to do is get a 12v bulb for your lamp and you can use the existing wiring.

 

Regarding the CT D2 and D4, and I am not going to go on a long rant about a competitor, to get the RDM capability you have to have a fully RDM capable control surface, and the higher end NEO transmitter or PC software. I don't have much knowledge about them in the field as they just came out. While I was still a full time props person RC4 was the only option for these applications so its what I know.

 

The other big difference is that every one of the RC4 Magic systems has a set of unique ID's specific to each customer. This ensures that no matter where you go you can be sure there will be no interference from other RC4 systems.

 

For battery monitoring, you can do that through our PC software without RDM. If RDM is needed I would recommend our LumenDimM4 coupled with a Lumen Radio Transmitter and their Supernova software, 2013 PLASA Innovation Award Winner. We have been producing dimmers for their systems for a number of years and they seem to be leading the charge in wireless RDM control.

 

We also make dimmers for Wireless Solutions transmitters if you happen to be using that system.

 

Enough plugging by me and certainly ask those that say they have used our products for their opinion versus the guy who sells it. That being said I am happy to answer any questions for you. I spent 8 years as a Props Master actually using this stuff before joining RC4 so I have real world experience that I am happy to share.

 

Thanks!