Control/Dimming ETC S4 mini dimming with D20

[FagesSous]

Hi Folks,

I recently purchased some ETC Source4 mini LED for the teater I working with. I am trying to control them with ETC Sensor 3 / D20 racks. ETc website gives recommandation about D20 settings to achieve a smooth dimming curve. However I have a latenty when I am fading down to zero my fixtures, the lowest level is not smooth at all when fading up. I would be interested to know if someone has advices, similar experiences, settings of the rack to share, ... At this state, it is not acceptable for theater show.

Thans for your support!

 

[jglodeklights]

The S4 Mini is meant for line voltage dimming, but it is has certain limitations including the low end dimming level. They are recommended to dim to min with Sensor3 D20's of 27% and that's with a minimum of 5 fixtures on the circuit. Please see this technical bulletin.

This is at 120V. 230V voltage solutions are listed as having the same minimum with other modules than the D20.

 

[FagesSous]

Thanks !

Unfornutanely I did not see the minimum of 5 fixtures on the circuit when I read the bulletin. What's going to make my life difficult ... and almost impossible to use this fixture for theater light design.

Is there other setting possible to reduce the dimto min value ?

 

[FagesSous]

Do you know if there is a way the reduce the number of fixture to one if I change my dimmer rack from D20 to another type?

 

[derekleffew]

I suspect adding an incandescent ghost load parallel with the LED to the circuit will improve dimming performance. Unfortunately, the only way to determine how big the ghost load needs to be is trial and
error. I'd start at 100w.

 

[JimmyM]

You may be able to use a ELV module with more sucess. This would allow Reverse Phase dimming. This is called out in the previously mentioned support article.