Dimmer Pack on a Dimmer

[Lynnchesque]

As promised,
This is the on stage control

IMG_7111

• Lynnchesque
• May 27, 2019

IMG_7110

• Lynnchesque
• May 27, 2019

Hard patch room

IMG_7109

• Lynnchesque
• May 27, 2019

IMG_7108

• Lynnchesque
• May 27, 2019

Stayed at stage level all day yesterday to hang the electrics, so no shots of the booth just yet...

As to my original post, I am very happy to have been wrong. 4 60amp Non-dims are working and available (It used to be 6!). I had the impression that that meant 4 circuits total, so designed power distribution with an ugly web of twofers.. and became very stressed when I noticed all of my adapters and cable were only rated to 20amps... Luckily, in the hard patch, 3 20a circuits can be assigned to each non-dim. So, plenty enough.

 

[RonHebbard]

As promised,
This is the on stage control

IMG_7111

• Lynnchesque
• May 27, 2019

IMG_7110

• Lynnchesque
• May 27, 2019

Hard patch room

IMG_7109

• Lynnchesque
• May 27, 2019

IMG_7108

• Lynnchesque
• May 27, 2019

Stayed at stage level all day yesterday to hang the electrics, so no shots of the booth just yet...

As to my original post, I am very happy to have been wrong. 4-60amp Non-dims are working and available (It used to be 6!). I had the impression that that meant 4 circuits total, so designed power distribution with an ugly web of twofers.. and became very stressed when I noticed all of my adapters and cable were only rated to 20amps... Luckily, in the hard patch, 3 20a circuits can be assigned to each non-dim. So, plenty enough.

@Lynnchesque; seven comments:
a; That's not so bad, at least you can power your refrigerator via a 20 amp circuit from a different 60 amp non-dim than your LED's and wigglers.
b; There's a manufacturer's name on the equipment; none of it appears home-built.
c; A well maintained slide patch CAN be more flexible than the majority of telco-style pin patches.
d; I believe I spotted grounded stage-pins rather than the older, ungrounded, two-pins.
e; Your acronym IMG could've easily been OMG.
f; Know when you're being teased.
g; Thanks for your photo's.
Toodleoo!
Ron Hebbard

 

[JimP0771]

Not sure what type of dimmers you are trying to plug in to one another. But if it is an dimmer pack that takes DMX 512 and a XLR cable most of those can be daisy chained with XLR cables that creates more dimmers. What I mean if you buy a 4 channel dimmer pack today hang that from a lighting pole and plug in 4 edison stage lights and than plug in a light board to that you should see those lights show up on channels 1-4 on the board. After that if you need more lights you can then get another dimmer pack and take an XLR cable and daisy chain that one to the other one usually the dimmer packs have input and outputs to allow you to do that. Once you do that the next set of 4 lights you plug in to the second dimmer pack would show up on channels 5-8 on the board and so on till you run out of channels on your board. Now I may be wrong but that is the way I have done lighting when I have had multiple dimmer packs.

 

[RonHebbard]

Need a preset board, do ya? I'm surprised nobody figured this one out yet--been standard for years.

@JonCarter and @JimP0771 A standard back in the days of touring resistance piano boards in the 1950's 'n '60's and even earlier when dimmers on Broadway were still DC. Growl, growl. Grrr, grrr.
I'll crawl back in my cave now.
Toodleoo!
Ron Hebbard

 

[Ben Stiegler]

Not sure what type of dimmers you are trying to plug in to one another. But if it is an dimmer pack that takes DMX 512 and a XLR cable most of those can be daisy chained with XLR cables that creates more dimmers. What I mean if you buy a 4 channel dimmer pack today hang that from a lighting pole and plug in 4 edison stage lights and than plug in a light board to that you should see those lights show up on channels 1-4 on the board. After that if you need more lights you can then get another dimmer pack and take an XLR cable and daisy chain that one to the other one usually the dimmer packs have input and outputs to allow you to do that. Once you do that the next set of 4 lights you plug in to the second dimmer pack would show up on channels 5-8 on the board and so on till you run out of channels on your board. Now I may be wrong but that is the way I have done lighting when I have had multiple dimmer packs.

EXCEPT:
1) nothing "shows up" on the next sequential DMX channels unless you address the dimmer packs properly. By default, they usually all ship addressed as chans 1-4. Which is great if you are doing symmetric front washes or areas, but not for specials, etc.
2) please never say "XLR cables". People can get confused. Audio mic cables with XLR connectors are a different impedance and capacitance than DMX cable. If you like spontaneous lighting effects, use mic cable for medium to long DMX runs and see what you get. The fact that many fixtures and lighting consoles happen to use 3 pin XLR connectors doesnt mean that any piece of cable soldered between 2 XLRs will properly carry DMX. I used to think I knew better than this ... but eventually experience taught me to follow the standard.

end-o-sermon!