Control/Dimming Dimmers for a church?

[silicsound]

Hi,
I looking to find a better replacement for the dimmers at a church that whose lighting system I am renovating.
Right now the system is nothing fancy, it's 4 chavuet shoebox dimmers in the basement. Which have started to fail only after a couple of years. There are 16 channels, each with a 750w load. it is also located in the main electrical room with 3 phase. I'm looking for something a little more professional, like a ETC smartpack. I have a budget of 1500$, but would willing to go up for something that is reliable.
I'm looking at used gear but cant find anything that fits the bill, any ideas?

 

[gafftaper]

Cheap and reliable are two words that don't go together when it comes to dimmers. One option is to just get Chauvet/Elation/AMDJ dimmer packs for $150-$250 and consider it a consumable product. If you get 3 or 4 years out of it, fantastic. When it breaks throw it out and buy an new one. ETC makes the best dimmers in the industry followed by Strand at a close second. But you are going to pay a lot more than $1500 for 16 channels. Used is a good approach, but it may be hard to find what you want and will still probably cost more than your budget. Check out Solarisnetwork.com and Gearsource.com for used equipment.

Finally, check out the Leprecon ULD shoebox dimmers. They are a nice mid-level quality/mid level priced product. They aren't ETC quality, but for $600-$700 each you get a really solid well built dimmer you can trust and will last much longer than the typical DJ shoeboxes.

If you have the console to control them, you might want to think about buying some LED's instead of dimmers. Keep a couple dimmers for incandescent front light but use colored LED's from the sides and top.

 

[n1ist]

A few issues comes to mind:
- Most shoebox dimmers are rated to 600W max per channel, and often less than 2400W max total. They don't have much headroom above that (and some barely can make their rating)
- If you are feeding permanent wiring to your fixtures, and that wiring has a male plug to plug into the dimmer, that wiring needs an OCPD (fuse or breaker) where it connects to the dimmer.
- You can't use extension cords for permanent fixtures

I have occasionally seen 8-channel dimmers (like the 2408CD) on eBay in the $500 range; these have provisions to bring the conduit straight into the unit. It may be easier to go with an older analog (0-10V) dimmer and an external DMX-analog box from Northlight if you are looking at the used route.

/mike

 

[microstar]

I second the NSI 2408CD (8x2400 watts). I've installed many of them and they are very permanent-install friendly and serviceable. Convection cooled so no fan to worry about. Have usually picked them up, sometimes brand new, for $400-500 on eBay. They are 120/240 single phase only but with your minimal loading, staggering two units on 3-phase should not be a problem. Since your dimmers are not distributed around the venue this would be a better solution IMO. Still a current Leviton/NSI product and will take either DMX, Microplex, or analog. You can easily have remote stations by adding the Microplex remote panels too.

 

[theatricalmatt]

For about $1500, you can afford a new ETC SmartPack 12 x 10A dimmer, and then continue to use your existing dimmers (power permitting) to bring you back up to 16 channels. Consider the other dimmers spares if another one fails, or if you really need additional channels. Then, in a year or so, when you have additional budget, you can purchase a second SmartPack.