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Author Topic: New to DMX  (Read 7317 times)

shalben

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New to DMX
« on: September 19, 2009, 09:00:15 PM »
The school I teach at has just upgraded to a Leviton 48/96 light board and Leviton I96 dimmer rack after using an OLD EC dimmer rack and interface to a Strand 300 Series board. There is no DMX run anywhere in the auditorium. My question is this:
Can we plug DMX equipment into the dimmers using them as a normal outlet (ie, full on/off) and then dimming via DMX. My principal is VERY!!!! interested in LED border units to replace the old ones we currently have.
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DMX512

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Re: New to DMX
« Reply #1 on: September 19, 2009, 10:57:19 PM »
LED fixtures (or movers) should never be plugged into a standard dimmer outlet, but pluged directly into "proper" power, often called "hard" power.  Even at full output a dimmer channel is still chopping the waveform slightly, and if you accidently dim to the power to the fixture then bad things can happen to the fixture.

LED fixtures take a hard power feed, and a DMX512 feed, and you control the fixture using DMX512 control directly.  There are no dimmers involved, which saves your dimmers for fixtures that are supposed to be dimmed.

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