James Posted October 6, 2005 Share Posted October 6, 2005 Stuart. 4 fuses are so cheep I'm suprised they haven't been replaced yet. As for the other faults 1 channel of a dimmer rack cannot fail a PAT test. It can be marked as broken but that isn't the same thing. If one fault was dangerous and the rack is portable then the whole rack fails. The "normal" cause of failure of a single channel is a blown triac. These are not hard for an experienced engineer to replace and are readily available. There are a large number of people out there that service dimmers and are specialist in servicing dimmers. If I was looking at 4 new equivelent dimmers I would be looking at about £2000 excluding instalation. I would not expect to pay more than £200 for a couple of triacs to be replaced. James *Disclaimer - I can't make an acurate diagnosis of the fault affecting your dimmers without a lot more information. I am trying to sugest that repair in your situation might be more economical than replacement Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PoppaDom Posted October 6, 2005 Share Posted October 6, 2005 4 blown fuses and two chanells marked with do not use failed pat testing How can 2 channels have failed PAT testing?? I am confused?!?Either the Dimmer fails the PAT test (although if its hard wired why does it need one?, open to interpretation I know) or it doesn't! 2 Channels cannot fail a PAT test as the unit operates as one, a single unit. You may have a channel that stops working due to mechanical/electrical failure but not a PAT failure. If it did the unit would have to be taken out of service! This situation sounds to me as though your school needs to get a qualified compotent person to examine the units and service them, some one such as Stage Electrics or another such company. (Not just a qualified electrician!) This sounds a little out of your league, as patronising as this may appear. Time to get someone involved who can sort them out! My 2p Poppadom Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stuartglen Posted October 6, 2005 Author Share Posted October 6, 2005 I was told agin by the previous head of the tech team theat the fuses for the act 6 were specialist and therefore hard to find and also one of the fuseholders is broken. Could the pat testing have blown the fuses/triacs? If so would the pat company have to pay for the repair? Do you know of anyone in the worcester area who services dimmers and if it is done on site or wether the dimmers would have to be removed? could the act 6 dimmers take 2 1000w parcans on the same channel? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
James Posted October 7, 2005 Share Posted October 7, 2005 I was told agin by the previous head of the tech team theat the fuses for the act 6 were specialist and therefore hard to find and also one of the fuseholders is broken. Could the pat testing have blown the fuses/triacs? If so would the pat company have to pay for the repair? Replacement fuses are no more specialist than a replacement lamp for a parcan. You would not be likley to find one in Woolworths. If you are at school your Physics/Electronics department should have accounts with someone like RS or Farnell anyway and if you get realy stuck WL/SE etc should be able to stick some in the post for you if you can't find any anywhere else (Just remember to buy some spares) If the insert of the fuse holder is broken then it is an easy fix. If it is the recepticle then you need someone experienced. Should be an easy job if you are getting the other dimmers looked at. Do you know of anyone in the worcester area who services dimmers and if it is done on site or wether the dimmers would have to be removed? The first name I think of is the White Light Service team I would normaly unplug the dimmers and send them to london. could the act 6 dimmers take 2 1000w parcans on the same channel? Normaly Yes Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mush Posted October 7, 2005 Share Posted October 7, 2005 Multidims are great wee things for some applications BUT IEC outlet presume your current dimmers are on 5A or 15 A sockets. 5 Amp per channel maximum rating, 2 1Kw Pars is about 8.5Amps. Construction quality is neccesarily quite a bit better on a dimmer several times the price. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Posted October 7, 2005 Share Posted October 7, 2005 Multidims are great wee things for some applications BUT...Construction quality is neccesarily quite a bit better on a dimmer several times the price.I agree. I've just bought a couple of Multidims for a very specific job. For the money there are very good value but they won't really stand up to much abuse. Mine will spend their life bolted into small carry cases to protect them. The ACT6s are good solid dimmers - get them repaired and you'll get years more use out of them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paulears Posted October 7, 2005 Share Posted October 7, 2005 £200 for a couple of triacs? Any school technician will either be able to repair, or find someone who can - otherwise, why are they employed? As for the PAT issue. Maybe somebody spotted the broken fuse carrier with exposed terminals, and stuck the fail sticker on simply because the danger is obvious. Along the lines of failed a visual inspection. Fair enough, and installed dimmer isn't a portable appliance, but common sense says this was a sensible decision. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JimWebber Posted October 7, 2005 Share Posted October 7, 2005 ...Could the pat testing have blown the fuses/triacs? If so would the pat company have to pay for the repair?... Yes. Triacs and all semi-conductor devices can be easily destroyed by the high voltages used in insulation and flash tests. I know the IEE used to advise shorting out dimmer switches and the like before carrying out an insulation test. Does the 16th ed. say the same? "Would the PAT company have to pay?" - Possibly if you can prove that they caused it, and that they were negligent. "Prove" unfortunately is the magic word. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andrew C Posted October 7, 2005 Share Posted October 7, 2005 "Would the PAT company have to pay?" - Possibly if you can prove that they caused it, and that they were negligent."Prove" unfortunately is the magic word.A "competant PAT tester, would not flash anything he did not know was not going to be destroyed by it! Flash testing is normally reserved for production line / type approval testing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
James Posted October 7, 2005 Share Posted October 7, 2005 £200 for a couple of triacs? I didn't say that two triacs would cost £200 I said I wouldn't expect to pay any more than £200 for it to be fitted Of course if they have anyone at the school with enough competance to safely repair the faulty dimmers then that will save them the repair costs. The point I wanted to make was that a commercial repair could be significantly cheeper than the cost of replacement. The point I neglected to make was the simple component cost would also be significantly cheeper than a commercial repair job. James Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Technical Dept. Posted October 7, 2005 Share Posted October 7, 2005 hello, I read most of the post, but skimed the last little bit, I know the feeling, if your at school, its almost impossible to get things working. supposedly you are not allowed to mess with the working of dimmers and power on safety rules so even changing a fuse becomes a chore. I know I had that problem when I was at school. Does anyone have the paper work as to why they failed, if so its easy to get a price for them to be fixed. Have a look at who did your pat test, was it a domestic company, the caretaker or someone that knows what they are doing with theatre kit. I havent come accross these dimmers before, but I suspect there would be an upgrade kit of some sort for them, especially if they aren't too old, that would take them from analogue to DMX. if not I would recoment Zero88's beta pack 2, but also email people like AC, whitelight and Stage Electrics to see if they have deals, what they recomend, and the best value for money dimmer they do. In the process you might be able to ask one of them to do I site visit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stuartglen Posted October 7, 2005 Author Share Posted October 7, 2005 would it be cheaper to upgrade the dimmers to DMX or get a demux? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robloxley Posted October 7, 2005 Share Posted October 7, 2005 Buy a demux, e.g. the Strand one (or one of the cheap clones); AFAIK the original ACT6s can't be upgraded to DMX as a standard mod (DMX wasn't really around, and Strand were into D54 anyway). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stuartglen Posted October 7, 2005 Author Share Posted October 7, 2005 got a link to a site which sells the strand demux? Is there any difference between the strand demux and the boxtec me 72?http://botex.com/4/me72.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Technical Dept. Posted October 7, 2005 Share Posted October 7, 2005 http://www.stage-electrics.co.uk http://www.aclighting.com/prices/pdf_prices/Zero88.pdf are probably two of the best known, but possibly not the cheapest. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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