Control/Dimming Low Amp dimmers

[carcharhinus]

I am on a show right now where we inherited half a dozen of these american dj 4 channel packs. I wasn't sure if they would work or not but they have really helped us save channels on our soco drops. Has anyone found a similar system that they love, maybe even one that utilizes more channels with a comparable price range?

Here's the link to show what I'm talking about.
http://www.americandj.com/ProductDe...inId=2&Category=Lighting Products|Controllers

 

[Footer]

Thats your basic DJ dimmer. You can buy them for under a hundred bucks just about anywhere. Consider them disposable.

 

[carcharhinus]

Thats your basic DJ dimmer. You can buy them for under a hundred bucks just about anywhere. Consider them disposable.

Yeah we've already gone through one of them so I know they are not going to be part of my rental package and the price is not news to me and it's perfect because production tends to not throw a fit when its under $100. But the question is still the same. Does anyone have something else they would recommend?

 

[JD]

Just keep them under 600 watts and no more that 1800 total for the pack and they will probably last awhile.

 

[danhr]

Ditto what JD says. We have 24 Amdj units in our space, most bought used, some of which have been in continuous use for 2 years (we have something on one of our stages every weekend) and have no problems provided you stay under the limits and treat them kindly.

 

[Scenemaster60]

You gotta watch out a little with these in terms of quality. In my experience there is med-low quality and crap quality when it comes to these. The Leviton D4DMX and similar packs fit into the first category. They have relatively smooth dimming curves, employ a very modest toroidal choke and perform reasonably well for a while if not overloaded. These days I'm finding that these seem to be retailing for around $200-$225 regardless of brand.

In the second category would be those packs that are not really even DJ quality in my opinion. I came across one recently that had been acquired for less the $100 and it lacked toroidal chokes completely and the dimming curve was very odd. By the time I had the fader at 20% the lights appeared to be at about 50%.

The next step up from these would be the Lightronics packs which still use triacs, but have a much more rugged build overall.

After that you get into the true SCR packs like the Leprecon ULD-360 and Leviton/NSI DDS packs.

 

[carcharhinus]

this was a great help. Thank you

 

[JD]

Somewhere in one of the old threads, I took a picture of the guts of a couple. About 6 years ago I bought a couple of the Elation packs (~$140) and one "Optima" pack (~$85). The build quality was night and day. I did upgrade all the triacs to 25 amp. Despite the cheapness of the "Optima" pack, all three are still working. I really hadn't expected the cheap pack to last the summer. The Elation packs had a good build. Of course, what I'm used to was the old, old dimmers, where you would find a pair of back-to-back 65 amp SCRs in a 2.4Kw module. By comparison, everything these days looks cheap. Funny thing is how well the modern stuff works!

 

[carcharhinus]

Thats a good idea doing an upgrade on the pack. Thank you