ELV10 Dimmers & Magnetic Low Voltage Transformers

hello

the elv10 Electronic Low Voltage module is designed to be used with electronic loads,  you do not want to put a magnetic load onto a ELV module.  it would be advised to use a d20.  Remember there is a minimum load necessary for a d20 to fire correctly.  This might cause the need to add a ghost load.

thanks

Steve

The language is a little confusing.  Steve is right that you do not want to use a magnetic transformer with an ELV10 module, but it's not clear that's what's being described.  It could be an electronic transformer that is designed to work with dimmers like a standard D20.  Can you post the manufacturer and model number for the driver that will be used? 

Even if you're using the right module type, there's no guarantee that it will dim the way you want it to.  There is a wide range in the quality of LED products available, and many of them have very limited dimming performance.  If you let us know the details on the driver, we can check to see if it's something we've encountered before.  If not, we would be happy to test a sample if you can get one to us.

It's also important to note that while certain LED fixtures will work with "most commercially available ELV-type dimmers", this doesn't mean all.  The really frustrating part of this whole movement is that people use words that are imprecise.  Manufacturers use the phrase "0-10V dimming, standard. 100%-10% full-range continuous dimming" but my question is, what happens between 10% and 0%?  To me, this is not full-range dimming.  The drop off or bump up at the end or beginning of a dimming curve can be annoying to a theatrical audience.  However, electrical contractors read "full-range" and think that they can put the LED's on a D20 with out thinking of the consequences.

A technician at Color Kinetics told me that a D20 module will thrash an LED and that they would be "reluctant" to warrant a fixture that had been connected to a D20 module.  Even if was in switch mode.  (No way to verify that it was ALWAYS in switch mode.)  He also said that the CK fixtures visibly "fluttered" in the dimming curve around 20% when connected to an ELV10 and that it was somewhat evident throughout the dimming curve.  He said that they have used a Lutron Phase-adaptive Power Module (P-APM) between the dimmers and the fixtures and that fixed the problem in their lab.  Lutron won't confirm this to me.

It would be great if a manufacturer could make an LED fixture that could handle variable voltage dimming.  However, until then, I'll try to stick with DMX controlled LED fixtures so that I can get a truly full dimming curve.