The fact that the OP is talking about 208 volts makes me think he is dealing with a 'Wild
Leg' situation. IE a three
phase power where one the hot to
neutral is 120 volts for two of the legs, and 208 volts for the third
leg. This type of feed is sometimes used for motors. You can use the two 120 volt legs for dimmers, but using the 208V
leg is asking for trouble.
Virtually all theatrical dimmers take the input
voltage and reduce that
voltage on output. IE if you have 120 volts available at the
dimmer, at 100% you will get (almost) 120 volts out ( there is a
bit lost due to inefficiencies). So connecting up a 208 Volt
power supply to the
dimmer can blow out any 120 volt lamps you connect to it when you run the
dimmer up.
Things you can do to fix this:
1 - don't use the 208 volt
leg. ( best solution)
2 - You might be able to get a
transformer to convert 208 volts to 120 ( if you could find a couple of auto-transformre dimmers ( sometimes called a
variac) that were rated for 20 amps - you could use those to reduce the
voltage from 208 to 120 ( untill someone comes along and truns the
variac up - causing all you lamps to blow)
3 -
purchase a
transformer to convert 208 to 110 or 120. You will need one for each input
line. Granger has some for around $900 each.
As to the
dimmer pack. It makes sense to me for a manufacturer to provide a small
dimmer pack like this that would operate on either 120 or 240 volts ( the market is bigger than just the US). A small
dimmer pack like this, designed to be for the lower end market where you can just
plug the
unit in typically has two cords so it has enough
power to drive all 6 dimmers ( IE three per
circuit).
Looking at the
manual, the input
power cords is a type that will handle 20 amp 120 or 240
power. The
manual says that both input lines need to be on "The same electrical
phase" This seems extremely problematic to me. How to you know what
phase two separate 20 amp circuits are on? I also don't understand how you can use a
Nema 5-15
outlet for 120 volts.
There is the ability to limit the output of a
dimmer by setting a 'max
level' I have no idea if that is proportional ( IE if you set the max to 50% and set the
fader to 50% would you get 50% output or 25% output).
I expect that some sales guy realized that 'Oh - the two sets of
power circuits are independent so the user could have different
voltage on the two cords. Lets put that as an advantage. I believe that using it in this way is probably "dumber than dirt".
( I do not know any more about the
dimmer pack than a quick read on the web )