ryancousins
Member
Our space is transitioning bit by bit to LED and I have a few questions:
1. Some of the fixtures are conventional source4s with source4wrd retro units attached. I know these are designed to safely be dimmer dimmed but the quality is awful unless maybe you have more than one fixture on one circuit to pull enough load but then you lose discrete control. But if you switch a source4wrd to DMX dim, is it still safe if it got plugged into a dimmer module, or does switching it to DMX mode make it susceptible to damage like any other LED fixture? Not sure how the internal circuitry handles that switch between modes.
2. We don't have enough sensor3 thrupower modules to handle everything so we'll be using some relay modules and probably some dimmer modules set to "switched" or "always on". In my mind, setting a dimmer to "always on" is easiest because you don't have to worry about having a dedicated power on channel that you have to remember to bring up on the board or create a startup macro for. Obviously if someone were to switch the module back to dimmable with an LED fixture plugged in, we could be in trouble, but I'm not worried about that happening. But is it more ideal overall to use a relay so the lights aren't sucking energy 24/7 if the system isn't being used? I don't assume it's a big deal since its probably almost no energy and besides ETC markets thru-power as the best choice for LEDs and those always stay powered on 24/7 in CC mode.
3. Can the Sensor3 R20 relay modules be switched to "always-on" just like the D20 dimmer modules?
4. According to ETC's website, "Always-On" mode bypasses voltage regulation just the same as "switched" mode. Just wanted to confirm this is the case because I've seen chatter on here that makes me wonder. Is it okay if it still goes through the SCR as long as regulation is off? Does "always-on" still go through the SCR?
Thanks!
1. Some of the fixtures are conventional source4s with source4wrd retro units attached. I know these are designed to safely be dimmer dimmed but the quality is awful unless maybe you have more than one fixture on one circuit to pull enough load but then you lose discrete control. But if you switch a source4wrd to DMX dim, is it still safe if it got plugged into a dimmer module, or does switching it to DMX mode make it susceptible to damage like any other LED fixture? Not sure how the internal circuitry handles that switch between modes.
2. We don't have enough sensor3 thrupower modules to handle everything so we'll be using some relay modules and probably some dimmer modules set to "switched" or "always on". In my mind, setting a dimmer to "always on" is easiest because you don't have to worry about having a dedicated power on channel that you have to remember to bring up on the board or create a startup macro for. Obviously if someone were to switch the module back to dimmable with an LED fixture plugged in, we could be in trouble, but I'm not worried about that happening. But is it more ideal overall to use a relay so the lights aren't sucking energy 24/7 if the system isn't being used? I don't assume it's a big deal since its probably almost no energy and besides ETC markets thru-power as the best choice for LEDs and those always stay powered on 24/7 in CC mode.
3. Can the Sensor3 R20 relay modules be switched to "always-on" just like the D20 dimmer modules?
4. According to ETC's website, "Always-On" mode bypasses voltage regulation just the same as "switched" mode. Just wanted to confirm this is the case because I've seen chatter on here that makes me wonder. Is it okay if it still goes through the SCR as long as regulation is off? Does "always-on" still go through the SCR?
Thanks!