How to wire Lutron 0-10 VDC dimmer

[GreyWyvern]

Looking at the instructions, found here, I know how to properly wire it in a normal situation, but this isn't normal. The dimmer I have is a Lutron NTSTV-DV. The LED driver control is in a separately powered box, so the power doesn't need to run though the dimmer. I know I need to connect the 0-10 VDC wires to the driver control, but what about the black wires on the dimmer? Do those need to be hooked up to power? Will this dimmer even work?

This is a project that I shouldn't really be involved in, but am doing, because, well, someone has to make things work. I was literally handed the dimmer and told, "This is what we'll use to dim *these* lights." That is as far as it had been thought through. This is actually one of two, but the other was a normal 120 VAC dimmer and was also for a unique situation, but I was able to come up with a pretty ingenious solution for that.

Thanks.

 

[tomthetechie]

Gotta love getting roped into weird jobs. I haven't dealt with a lot of Lutron equipment but in theory your logic is sound. All it should need is a 10v signal from your switch which, again in theory, should have the 10v supplied from the driver. The issue I could see coming up is if the "control" part in the switch converts power from the 120VAC to the 10v internally that would mean you would need to tie it into the load line for the driver or try a 10v power supply. I hope this was helpful.

 

[Mac Hosehead]

Too bad Lutron hasn't provided the circuit diagram for this dimmer. The only way I can see that this unit would get power to run its internal circuitry would be through the black AC wires. The dimmer panel controls the output level by pulling down the 10 volts provided by LED driver to a specific level. If it pulls it down to 0 volts then there should be no output from the LED driver. The question is: Do you need a completed circuit on the black wires? In other words, Do you need AC on one black wire and some sort of load on the other black wire. My guess is that you do need a dummy load but you could test that pretty easily.

-MH

 

[DavidNorth]

As long as the LED driver is a typical 0-10vdc control type unit, then this dimmer will work fine. Typical 0-10vdc drivers do indeed provide their own 10vdc power on the control wires. Other than reading specs, there are two easy ways to test this.

- Power up the driver and then place a DVM on the two control wires and you will see 10vdc.
- Power up the driver and then connect the two control wires together, typically grey and violet. Twisted together, the LEDs should drop to their minimum level.

So why is there is black feed wire and black load wire on the dimmer? When the dimmer is taken all the way down, a switch opens. This switch turns off the power to the driver causing the LEDs to go out when at zero. So at full, the fader sinks no current and the LEDs are at full. As the dimmer is turned down, more control current is sinked into the dimmer pot and the LEDs go dimmer. Then at the bottom, the LEDs jump from their minimum level to off using the power switch wiring. Make sense?

Typical wiring is to use the black wires for driver power and the control wires for dimmed levels.

David

 

[Mac Hosehead]

As the dimmer is turned down, more control current is sinked into the dimmer pot and the LEDs go dimmer.

Ah, yes. This is probably just a rheostat. That is why the min and max trims. I was assuming a little more sophistication. So, no black wires needed.

-MH

 

[GreyWyvern]

Thanks David! That is exactly what I needed! I'll give it a try.