So more recently I have become the resident lighting person at more school. I have been working with electics for 4 years. I am currently trying to get my board to approve money to improve the systems. I have found a need to add possible just one or two portable dimmer packs each with 4 dimmers. For in our aud there are some odd places you need dimmers. All I have currently is 4 edition outlets and one of the bigger twist lock looking things. I am unsure if these are all on one breaker or not. I have seen some of the box looking dimmers that you just hang from rails which would work well. I am think that most likely we will be plugging fresnels or source 4 seniors or juniors into these and possibly running all the channels at once, which I don't know is possible. Anyway suggestions on these sort of box like dimmers would be great! And possibly the technical mname for them would be nice as well!
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Control/Dimming Portable dimmer packs
- Thread starterSamb
- Start date
Most would call them "shoebox dimmers", but marketing might class them with "distributed dimming."
Applying full load to all the channels at once depends on the dimmer. Some allow this, others specify 600W max per channel but then give you a 5-15 for power input, limiting you to 1800W max for the whole pack. With these, if your source fours are lamped at 575W, you can only put 3 on one pack. I've seen dimmers that have a 1200W max per channel and use a removable power cord (5-15P to C13).
To legitimately load the pack fully, the manufacturer has to ship it with a 5-20 plug on the cord. You can't add one in the field, as the rest of the pack is only rated for 15 amps.
Applying full load to all the channels at once depends on the dimmer. Some allow this, others specify 600W max per channel but then give you a 5-15 for power input, limiting you to 1800W max for the whole pack. With these, if your source fours are lamped at 575W, you can only put 3 on one pack. I've seen dimmers that have a 1200W max per channel and use a removable power cord (5-15P to C13).
To legitimately load the pack fully, the manufacturer has to ship it with a 5-20 plug on the cord. You can't add one in the field, as the rest of the pack is only rated for 15 amps.
Amishplumber
Active Member
Hi there,
IMHO Shoebox dimmers are a bit of a catch 22. They seem so appealing since they're very cheap, but therefore are also made cheaply and aren't all that reliable. Makes it a bit tricky to pick one out.
A friend of mine owns a veritable army of NSI D4DMX units. I think he's up to 18 at this point! I loved them until earlier this year when 2 of them lost a channel and they're all less than 4 years old! Of course the plus side was they can be bought for less that $200 each.
I've rented Lex Anacondas before and have had many others give glowing reviews of them, but they cost around $1000 each. They're built like tanks though. I would recommend those if you have the money.
I've also worked with some leprecon ULD-360s briefly and found them to be pretty nice. A quick google search found prices of $600-$800 for those.
As far as power issues go, many 4 channel packs are listed as 1200w/channel and 2400w/pack. Problem is they almost always ship with plugs listed for only 15 amps since not every edison receptacle kicking around can take a 5-20 plug. Will it still work with 2400w hooked up to it? Yes. Is that a good idea? No. The plug was not designed to take that much juice and may fail.
Aside: Headcrab - Why is replacing the plug not an acceptable solution if the pack itself is rated for 20amps total load?
To get around this problem some packs have 2 seperate edison 5-15 leads that you should plug into 2 separate circuits. Both Leprecon and Lex have packs that have two leads and then are 6 channel packs rated at 600w/ channel and 3600w/ pack.
Hope that wasn't too rambly, just trying to dump all the info I have in my brain that would be useful to you. Feel free to ask more questions, I work with distributed dimming all the time.
IMHO Shoebox dimmers are a bit of a catch 22. They seem so appealing since they're very cheap, but therefore are also made cheaply and aren't all that reliable. Makes it a bit tricky to pick one out.
A friend of mine owns a veritable army of NSI D4DMX units. I think he's up to 18 at this point! I loved them until earlier this year when 2 of them lost a channel and they're all less than 4 years old! Of course the plus side was they can be bought for less that $200 each.
I've rented Lex Anacondas before and have had many others give glowing reviews of them, but they cost around $1000 each. They're built like tanks though. I would recommend those if you have the money.
I've also worked with some leprecon ULD-360s briefly and found them to be pretty nice. A quick google search found prices of $600-$800 for those.
As far as power issues go, many 4 channel packs are listed as 1200w/channel and 2400w/pack. Problem is they almost always ship with plugs listed for only 15 amps since not every edison receptacle kicking around can take a 5-20 plug. Will it still work with 2400w hooked up to it? Yes. Is that a good idea? No. The plug was not designed to take that much juice and may fail.
Aside: Headcrab - Why is replacing the plug not an acceptable solution if the pack itself is rated for 20amps total load?
To get around this problem some packs have 2 seperate edison 5-15 leads that you should plug into 2 separate circuits. Both Leprecon and Lex have packs that have two leads and then are 6 channel packs rated at 600w/ channel and 3600w/ pack.
Hope that wasn't too rambly, just trying to dump all the info I have in my brain that would be useful to you. Feel free to ask more questions, I work with distributed dimming all the time.
I wasn't talking about packs that are rated for 20A total load, but rather those 4-ch packs with 5A channels and 15A input connectors. These seem like they should be able to deliver 2400W of power, but can't due to the derated input. One should not replace the plug on these packs with a 5-20.
If a manufacturer released a pack with a 20A input rating but used 5-15 or C13 connectors, I'd start asking questions.
If a manufacturer released a pack with a 20A input rating but used 5-15 or C13 connectors, I'd start asking questions.
Amishplumber
Active Member
I wasn't talking about packs that are rated for 20A total load, but rather those 4-ch packs with 5A channels and 15A input connectors. These seem like they should be able to deliver 2400W of power, but can't due to the derated input. One should not replace the plug on these packs with a 5-20.
If a manufacturer released a pack with a 20A input rating but used 5-15 or C13 connectors, I'd start asking questions.
Yeah the D4DMX's are specifically rated at 10a/channel and 20a/pack. Its definitely weird. I always figured NSI thought their more consumer DJ type customers would be put off by a Nema 5-20 and anyone who really needed the full 20 amps would just replace the connector. The real question is if the input cord is 12 guage. I'll have drag one out and look sometime.
The Leprecon packs are rock solid and very, very reliable.
Leprecon® | Products - Dimmers - ULD340/360, 4 & 6 ch 1800/3600Watt dimmer pack
Leprecon® | Products - Dimmers - ULD340/360, 4 & 6 ch 1800/3600Watt dimmer pack
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