I think we have to seperate manufacturers specific products from physics. Contrary to what was posted earlier, I can guarantee that with a reasonable load on a
dimmer [ie one or more LED fixtures, MLs or tungsten], the
power out of a
SCR or
triac based
dimmer driven to full on is not a sinewave. Between the
power device, and most notably the
choke, there are some leading and trailing modifications to the waveform. More importantly, a switching
power supply can creat some waveform havoc when combined with a
choke....this is even worse when the
Power Factor is not 1.
The safest thing to do for LEDs and MLs by far is to provide a
relay or constant
power circuit. Can you use a
dimmer set to full? Depends on the device and your willingness to have it misbehave or fail. Some VLs will fail as will
LED fixtures from a few manufacturers. Based on a multi-year test in the Technical Service lab, I can tell you that a
Selador Vivid will not fail on
power dimmed up and down, however, I do not recommend doing that.
There are a couple of reasons that
LED and ML manufacturers say not to use a
dimmer. First is some of them will fail and the other reason, well, they don't know what your specific
dimmer system is capable of doing.
Also, even though this has been covered many times, setting a
dimmer profile on a
channel to full in patch does NOT mean that the
dimmer will not still be regulating. You must make this change in the control module for the
dimmer rack. This is universal among all manufacturers. If you have a rack that does not regulate or has a low
voltage feed below the regulation
point, you might get away with this, but then you are still gambling. Don't do it.
One other thing to remind people on again, please do not go into your
dimmer rack and modify your
dimmer modules to provide constant
power. You are taking on a liability and
safety risk. Chokes are there to provide both a rise time and a
SCCR rating. Don't do it.
Listen, I grew up in
theatre and I know that the mindset is to always find a low-cost solution to every problem. We are praised for our engineering technique on the fly. But if you want to run your $1000
LED fixtures or $4000 ML on a
dimmer, the first failure will then pay for lots of
relay modules that you could have already been using. use the right tool for the right job. You know, these lights are only going to become more prevalent and your
power and data
system needs to grow to meet that demand.
Thanks for listening,
David