Control/Dimming Applied Electronic Dimmers

Hello everyone!
I was wondering if anyone has had any experience with any Applied Electronic dimmers. Our company was considering buying some but as I have little personal experience with this brand, I was hoping for some feedback regarding quality, ease of use, road worthiness, and long term repair/maintenance costs. What are some of the good things about it and what are some of the issues that we should keep in mind?

We are looking specifically at the Omega touring rack with Bravo series dimmers but I'm curious about the overall track record of the brand.

Thanks in advance!

I chose Leprecon simply because they are more common thus, should be easier to repair or replace. Having said that, Applied Electronics makes good equipment. I inherited some old 24ch wall-mount racks and while I have never put them in to service, I have looked them over and the construction is very good.

Remember, this is the same Applied Electronics who makes trussing and lighting towers, so you're not exactly dealing with an unknown company. I would expect service to be pretty good. As for out-of-warranty or emergency repairs, you would probably be more likely to find a repair shop/rental house that has experience repairing Leprecon dimmers but in the end a dimmer is a dimmer.

I have had the same experiences as Les. Applied has been around a long time. I have several very old Applied dimmers that are well-built and use commonly available parts. No experience with their newer stuff though. I've had good but limited experience with Leprecon rack-mount dimmer packs and excellent experience sourcing repair parts thru their service department. Tough call. Depends on features you need and $$.

I cannot speak to the quality of Applied, but Leprecon is a solid choice. The MX and VX series solid, and if you manage to blow up some dimmers, the modules are cheap, because you do not have to replace The choke, like on an ETC.

Also the ULD-360 is about the best small dimmer pack out there, you can run 6- 575w fixtures at full with no issues. They are also SILENT.

MikeJ said:

I cannot speak to the quality of Applied, but Leprecon is a solid choice. The MX and VX series solid, and if you manage to blow up some dimmers, the modules are cheap, because you do not have to replace The choke, like on an ETC.

Click to expand...

Sorry for the thread hijack, but am curious as to what ETC product needs its choke replaced when the dimmer goes out and what creates that kind of failure. Choke replacement is typically rare.

Thanks,

David

When an etc sensor dimmer module dies, the power cubes are generally the culprit.

In 8 years of working with sensor racks, both touring an installed, I've only seen a handful of modules die.

I've got a 10 year old theatre and have probably 12 cubes that need replaced. Haven't had any fail recently but haven't had the budget to replace them yet.

You can get the power cubes replaced for about $100 a piece if you do the work yourself.

True but my rack isn't full so the priority has been getting it filled and then going back and fixing the others. In either case we haven't had the money.

I meant that the choke is built into the removable individual modules, Making it more expensive to keep spares on hand. Less technical people often replace the whole module, because replacing the cube is a little more involved for many people, or a replacement module is put in to get up an running quickly, and sometime later the module gets repaired, but this still requires having more money invested in spare modules. The upside to the design is that you can replace a dimmer with other modules; relay, constant power, etc. With the Leprecons, you cannot, just dimmers.

I'm sure you know all of this; I just wanted to clarify my last post.

Also if the price of the cube posted above is correct at ~$100, that is still quite a bit more expensive than replacing a Leprecon card.

DavidNorth said:

Sorry for the thread hijack, but am curious as to what ETC product needs its choke replaced when the dimmer goes out and what creates that kind of failure. Choke replacement is typically rare.

Thanks,

David

Click to expand...

I meant that the choke is built into the removable individual modules, Making it more expensive to keep spares on hand. Less technical people often replace the whole module, because replacing the cube is a little more involved for many people, or a replacement module is put in to get up an running quickly, and sometime later the module gets repaired, but this still requires having more money invested in spare modules. The upside to the design is that you can replace a dimmer with other modules; relay, constant power, etc. With the Leprecons, you cannot, just dimmers.

I'm sure you know all of this; I just wanted to clarify my last post.

Also if the price of the cube posted above is correct at ~$100, that is still quite a bit more expensive than replacing a Leprecon card.