VL1000 question

[jklak]

I got lots of great recommendations for moving head instruments in a previous thread. As a result of the recommendations I received I have pretty much decided to purchase some Vari-lite VL1000s. The question I have is about which version I ought to get. I had the VL1000TSD recommended. The "T" stands for Tungsten which I definitely want. The "S" stands for shutter which sounds good but I am still considering going with the "I" for iris option. The "D" stands for dimmer. This is where I am really uncertain about what to do. What is the advantage of a moving head instrument having an onboard dimmer? Does the power for the instrument come through the DMX line? Why would I want or not want to have a dimmer on these instruments? Am I not understanding what the "dimmer" does?

Thanks in advance for the help.

[sound_nerd]

Nah, the power for the unit comes through AC power. DMX is seperate....the advantage to having a dimmer on the instruments is to not take up an external dimmer with them. It is just a dimmer...if you have extra dimmers available in your beach then by all means go without that option on the fixture. It is worth mentioning that if it has an onboard dimmer you *can not* run it off an ordinary dimmer. It must recieve clean AC power if it has an onboard dimmer.

Hope that helps!

[SteveB]

The on-board dimmer is useful when you are not hanging at positions where existing dimmed circuits exist, or when you don't want (or in this case need to) run circuits from dimmers - I.E. a trade show ?, outdoor gig ?, where it may be cheaper to simply run dedicated, non switched/controlled power.
One HUGE advantage to this, is even when you connect a standard VL1000 (with no on-board dimmer) to a dimmed circuit to control lamp intensity, you still need local dedicated power for everything else on the fixture - motors, fans, etc... thus you end up running 2 circuits, 1 as dimmed, 1 as dedicated power to a fixture.
In my book, that makes the on-board dimmer very advantageous and worth any extra cost. The exception would be an existing distro system that currently has enough circuits that could be either relayed and/or dimmed. An ETC Sensor system comes to mind with that ability to pop in relay modules in place of dimmers.
SB

[Footer]

One other advantage, though its a very small one, is with the instruments that have the built in dimmer you have one less thing to patch. The only reason they have the non dim versions is so you can use your house dimmers and do not have to adjust the curve of the dimmer to match the curve of your house system. Get the dimmer version, you will be much happier with it. Is there a reason that you want the tungstem compared to the HMI?

[jklak]

Do I have this right? Without the onboard dimmer there is one cable coming out of the fixture for the lamp (dimmable circuit) and then a place to plug in an AC transformer for the other elements like gobo rotators, color changing, etc. (into a non-dim circuit). If I get the on-board dimmer then I need two non-dim circuits instead of one regular dimmer and one non-dim. Is that right?

[jklak]

We are an auditorium doing mostly theatre and I want color matching with my other fixtures.

[Footer]

Originally Posted by jklak

Do I have this right? Without the onboard dimmer there is one cable coming out of the fixture for the lamp (dimmable circuit) and then a place to plug in an AC transformer for the other elements like gobo rotators, color changing, etc. (into a non-dim circuit). If I get the on-board dimmer then I need two non-dim circuits instead of one regular dimmer and one non-dim. Is that right?

The VL1000 has built in rotators and all that good stuff, including CMY. With the outboard dimed version you have 3 cables, AC 115 non dim, AC 115 dimmed, and DMX, with the onboard dim version you have two cables, AC115 non dim, and DMX.

[JSFox]

For the dimmer version you have 1 DMX connection and 1 1200w AC connection. For the non-dim you have 1 DMX, 1 200w non-dim AC, and 1 1000w dim. Get the dimmer, it makes life much easier.

Also, I would strongly recommend getting the shutters for theatre, not iris.

[Pie4Weebl]

yeah the reason I found the dimmer to be a must is that we are using a seperate controller for the movers than the tradiotional fixtures, so we would be controlling all the attirbutes for it on one board and the intensity on the other which would be a mess.

[PhantomD]

My advice to you is: if you can afford the onboard dimmer then definitely purchase it because you will find it useful in later situations, and you won't have any limitations.

Very nice fixture - for what they are designed to do, that is.