Control/Dimming Worst Dimmers You've Worked With

[jglodeklights]

Those things scare me...

Agreed. On an MPX version I lost two of the 8 dimmers in a space because the fuse blew, and completely melded itself to the pack. The plastic holder for it was of such bad quality that the holder broke due the melding, rendering it unfixable except with soldering in a part I couldn't receive for a few weeks. BLECH. MPX to boot. At least I could have borrowed a pack from my theater were it DMX.

 

[Lotos]

I would have to say NSI D6000 Dimmer packs ..... Blaaa. Buzz when you dim them and have these stupid fuses that get stuck inside when they pop.

In my experience, it's only Channel 1 that does this... 2 thru 4 blow, and replace with ease...

 

[STEVETERRY]

The Patchman was quite good. And for a very short time, between the original Strand-Century Light Palette and the ETC Obsession I, the Prestige 1000/2000/3000s were the best consoles in the industry.

Hmm, I guess I disagree. The Prestige Series stole about a year and a half of my life that I can never recover, trying to get it to work in rental at PA. Based on that root- canal, my observations:

1. The Prestige software totally failed to accurately copy the Light Palette functionality that it was intended to target. Key items like multi-part cues were total train wrecks.

2. The hardware was fairly unreliable, due to the interconnect hacks that were required to stuff a standard motherboard and LARGE video card into a low profile enclosure.

3. The Prestige Consoles were virtually unserviceable due to the density of boards stuffed into the low profile enclosure. A full backup 3000 took hours to disassemble and reassemble.

After a year and a half of agony, we packed up our entire inventory of Prestige consoles and shipped them back to the factory. This disaster console functionally ended the long relationship between Production Arts and Colortran. And, we broke our shovel with a lot of top New York designers and installation sites who tried to use it. It took a while to recover, and the ETC Expression took over the slot vacated by Prestige in our rental inventory.

ST

 

[chausman]

ETC Expression took over the slot vacated by Prestige in our rental inventory.

ST

And you were all happy after that!

 

[misterm]

I've always wanted a Lighting Helper Monkey? know where i can pick one up?

I've got about ten or so I'm not using. Wanna buy one? Wait a minute.........ok, scratch that, the principle just let me know that my students are NOT for sale.............How about a trade? (seriously, my tech kids call themselves the tech monkeys. there's even art work.)

 

[derekleffew]

... the principle just let me know that my students are NOT for sale...

The principal principle, or the assistant principal?

 

[Sony]

Really old, very poorly maintained TTI Racks...

These things were a death trap...missing protective covers, mixed and matched, poorly wired and falling apart. I am so happy they are gone and dead now, been sent to the scrap yard along with the rest of the old school. Now, it's all ETC Sensor+ which is oh so much better

 

[mstaylor]

Poorly maintained TTI dimmers were bad but were very servicable when kept in good repair. Anything by Electro-Control was junk, boards, dimmers and those **** raceways. The paraelipsepheres were OK except they weighed a ton and the patch panels were decent. The problem is they last forever and are some still in service.

 

[gafftapegreenia]

Well, in high school the bane of my existence were our 6 channel ROSCO dimmer sticks. I blame that on design of the product.

The WORST I've used, that I don't blame on design, but rather age and maintenance, are the 35 year old KlieglPac 9's here at college and the 6-pack Century and Luxtrol autotransformer dimmer's I used at the summer theatre camp I once worked at.

 

[zmb]

Overly enthusiastic people replacing fuses in some EDI SCRimmer Stiks has bugged me by breaking the fuse holder off the circuit board that got repaired after years of wondering "Why isn't it working?" Did get one fixed that would go on and off with a $1 part, the CB community, and my dad.

 

[derekleffew]

...are the 35 year old KlieglPac 9's here at college ...

Kliegpac 9's=BOXES OF LEAD!!! How can nine 1 oz. triac s weigh sooo much?


(Kliegpac9: 9x2.4kW, 19"x10"x30", 88 lbs.; CD80: 12x2.4kW, 8.5"x20"x23", 65 lbs.; WTF?)

But, one has to admit, like Electro Controls' products, they last!

 

[n1ist]

Right now, our house lights are on 6 Leviton slide dimmers; the stage lights on an old Frank Adams breaker panel .

I have picked up a Leprecon pack for the house circuits (6 chandeliers of 1280W each...) and will be switching at least some of the PAR38s over to LED PARs soon.
/mike

 

[gafftapegreenia]

I'm sure glad we never move the Klieglpac 9's. I bet some of our triac's have gone bad, as a few channels don't dim anymore, one pops to full at just 30% on the fader, and another is dead.

Also, ours are 3.6K per channel, which is actually their best feature.

As for Electro Controls, I've been told the story of how our EC slider patch was refusing to die until one day, during an actual show, construction nearby on campus caused our entire power supply to suddenly be cut. It was either this, or the rush of being reconnected that finally fried the **** thing. The one in the campus TV studio is still going strong.

 

[mstaylor]

I have three EC systems still going strong and one Kleigl system.