LED fixture fade up/down

We have semi-recently acquired an Ion at work along with some "Iluminarc - Ilumipod 48 IP" LED fixtures.

We have noticed that when linked to a sub master these fixtures tend to look very steppy when ramping up the intensity. When running them in a cued scenario the fade up/down times occasionally show signs of this as well, however with the nature of the shows we do, we tend to just run off of the subs.

None of our other fixtures seem to show signs of this, but we have now made the switch to mostly using these LEDs for everything we do.

It's not a problem that is preventing us from doing shows or anything, but it comes across as uglier every time I experience it doing this. I was just wondering if this is something someone has encountered before and whether there is a quick'n'dirty fix for it? I've just grabbed the latest firmware update and I was going to try that when I'm in there tomorrow!

0 jbenghiat over 15 years ago

The steppiness is inherent to the drivers in LED fixtures. Manufactures for the theatrical market (ETC-Selador, Prism Projection, etc) have put a lot of R&D into making their fixtures fade smoothly. The Ilumipod is an architectural fixture, so I'm guessing they did not see the need to optimize them for smooth fades.

I imagine running the fixture on a handle just accentuates the steppiness of your hand. There's no burning filament that's heating or cooling to smooth out your fade. If your fixture doesn't have the circuitry and firmware to emulate a filament, you're really going to see your imperfections.

-Josh
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