Mirror Ball Help

[adude23]

Hi there i was wondering if anyone could tell me weather a mains powered mirror ball moter could be plugged into to a dimmer and be controlled via the desk also anyone know where to get cheap mirror balls/motors as i am looking around at the moment
cheers
~adude~

[Grog12]

If you set a profile on the dimmer as non-dim yes you can but its not good for the motor of the mirror ball. Most of us would suggest against it.

Try Spencers/Wal-Mart/Target

[DaveySimps]

I agree 100% with Grog. Most things that need constant power do not like to be on dimmers, even with a "non-dim" profile.

~Dave

[bobgaggle]

Since I'm a novice in lighting, is it possible to route the power around the dimmer entirely and essentially have a wall outlet that's controlled by the light board? The signal from the machine would just open or close a circuit. Or does the board control power only through the dimmer? does that make any sense or am I way off base?

[tweetersaway]

For mirror balls and stobes on stage, we build a really simple 3 switch box that just plugged into the wall and had 3 edison outs, one from each switch. we needed an operator in the wing for it, but it was a simple way to fix a pesky problem. I'm sure if you had the motivation, you could make the cord long enough so you could control it from the booth

Otherwise, you could always get a dmx controlled switch pack(the kind that dj's use).

[cutlunch]

Originally Posted by bobgaggle

Since I'm a novice in lighting, is it possible to route the power around the dimmer entirely and essentially have a wall outlet that's controlled by the light board? The signal from the machine would just open or close a circuit. Or does the board control power only through the dimmer? does that make any sense or am I way off base?

No you are making sense. These have a DMX512 decoder in them which turns a relay, controlling the output power, on and off. Chauvet makes some of their 4 chanell dimmers have this non-dim capability built-in eg Chauvet
Chauvet

Doug Fleenor design makes them eg Doug Fleenor Design - 1 Ch. Line Voltage

Lot's of people make them. Some people just make the boards with no cases so you build them into your own design.

[Grog12]

Originally Posted by bobgaggle

Since I'm a novice in lighting, is it possible to route the power around the dimmer entirely and essentially have a wall outlet that's controlled by the light board? The signal from the machine would just open or close a circuit. Or does the board control power only through the dimmer? does that make any sense or am I way off base?

If you're running ETC Sensors they have a non-dim switch and a constant power module for their racks.

[derekleffew]

Here's the least expensive DIY option we've found: Velleman K8072.

[len]

Also, American DJ makes a mirror ball motor that has dmx. Best part is that it also had a couple outlets built in so you could run a couple pin spots off it as well. American DJ Homepage

[David Ashton]

In a emergency just add a dummy load like a 100 watt+ lamp on the same dimmer and just run the dimmer up to full and it will work fine just do not run it at a lower level as synchronous motors don't like chopped waveforms.