Using sub-masters as relays for power to intelligent light fixtures

What you want to do is adjust the Curve of the Channels that control the moving light power - the sub master is really not important.

Go into Patch - choose the appropriate channels, choose the attributes tile.  Select "Curve" and choose curve 905 - Full at 1%

Now those channels will be at full for any value over 1% and off at 0%.

From there - whether you control them as a submaster or Park them on is kind of just personal preference.

Don't forget that turning your sub in to a "relay" won't turn a dimmer into a true relay.

You can cause damage to your fixture/dimmer by plugging it in to a scr based dimmer.

Thank you very much! Super quick reply. Worked like a charm!

Currently looking at my dimmer rack and seeing if I can swap for an unused relay and do it correctly.

Thank you!

The other thing you could do is set your sub to be Shielded. This means the channels controlled by the sub cannot be altered using the keypad, so say by accident you did 1 Thru 1000 Out, you wouldn't power your movers down.

Dan

You should never use a console "full-at-1%" curve as your 'switched' mode.

There are very significant differences between setting a "full-at-1%" curve on your console and setting the dimmer itself to switched!

The most obvious is that Sensor dimmers have a voltage regulation feature, so when the supply voltage is higher than 'nominal' they dim the output to bring the output down to 'nominal'. (Thus extending your lamp life)
If you set your console to full-at-1%, the dimmer still does this because you haven't told it not to!

The way to disable this and get the closest an SCR dimmer can get to true relay is to set the dimmer circuit to the "Switched" mode, as that way the dimmer knows that you never want to dim the load and can make the appropriate internal adjustments to firing the circuit.

As Marcus said, before doing this, you should always check with the manufacturer of the device as to whether it can be powered through a dimmer in Switched mode.
While many can be powered this way, in some cases this can damage the device and/or the dimmer.

If you can, setting a dimmer module to the switched relay mode would be best.

I also use subs to provide power to some of my intelligent fixtures.  My fixtures are all plugged into non-dims and are patched with the "Non-dim at 50" profile.

I set the non-dim channels to 100% in my subs and then shield the sub, so that nothing else will touch those channels.  The other thing I do is set the bump button upfade and downfade times to 0 and the dwell mode to "hold" so that it acts as a toggle switch.  That way, all I have to do to power on/off my movers is click the sub bump button.  It even blinks steadily once activated.  I've been doing it like this for a year and have never had a problem with this setup.  A quick glace at my "power subs" and I can see their status.  Blinking light = on, static light = off.

That's just my way of doing it, but there are other options, as others have suggested, depending on your preference.  Hope it works out for you.  :)

Drdehnana said:

If you can, setting a dimmer module to the switched relay mode would be best.

No, it wouldn't.  

See Richards post above as to the reasons why.

SB

Steve Bailey said:

If you can, setting a dimmer module to the switched relay mode would be best.