Spastic_Squint
Member
Had an interesting problem come up today and I am hoping someone can explain it to me. I am an electrician at a community theatre and some of our followspots are Source 4s on a stick. These are powered with our sensor dimmers, but also have a household wall dimmer so the operators turn their own spots on and off.
Normally, we just park the channel and call it a day; but on this show the LD really wants to vary the intensity of one of the spots and control the fade outs. The problem is when the channel is at a very low level (between 07 and 01), the light suddenly snaps to full intensity. If we remove the dimming switch and plug directly into the circuit it dims the same as any other fixture. I made sure an intensity curve wasn't applied to the channel, tried dimming switches from different manufacturers, different circuits, different dimming modules, and different lights; all with the same result.
So my question is why does this happen and is there a way of getting around it that still gives the spot operator and the LD the level of control they want?
Normally, we just park the channel and call it a day; but on this show the LD really wants to vary the intensity of one of the spots and control the fade outs. The problem is when the channel is at a very low level (between 07 and 01), the light suddenly snaps to full intensity. If we remove the dimming switch and plug directly into the circuit it dims the same as any other fixture. I made sure an intensity curve wasn't applied to the channel, tried dimming switches from different manufacturers, different circuits, different dimming modules, and different lights; all with the same result.
So my question is why does this happen and is there a way of getting around it that still gives the spot operator and the LD the level of control they want?