24v Lamps on Sensor Dimmers

Sensor+ regulates the output which can be set to a maximum of 24V, but using a 5 to 1 linear transformer is still suggested to be used on the output of a D20 dimmer. By using the transformer, you will have full resolution of 120-0V output on the primary side of the transformer and 24-0V on the secondary side of the transformer.

In case you would like to play with the settings and attempt direct control of the 24V lamps from Sensor+, adjust max scale voltage to 24V. Minimum scale voltage will be set to 6V. (Source 4 begins to glow at 6V) The scale voltage adjustments are separate from your control threshold, so you will have full fader adjustment at your console.

In either case, be sure to check you’re the voltage with a true RMS meter directly at the lamps with all the lamps attached so you can account for line and choke losses. Sensor+ performs choke corrections assuming 750W load, but that also can be adjusted if necessary.

As always feel to ask if you have further questions.  We are happy to assist in any way possible.

Thanks,

Jake Dunnum

Dimming Product Manager

Electronic Theatre Controls, Inc. 

jdunnum:

Sensor+ performs choke corrections assuming 750W load, but that also can be adjusted if necessary.

Jake, sorry to derail this thread but I had a question regarding the choke corrections. What happens if your load is something other than 750w (575w for instance), will the Sensor+'s choke correction cause any damage to the lamp? to the D20? How does the choke correction work for dimmer doubling with lamp voltages at 77v?

Thanks in advance! 

jdunnum:

Sensor+ performs choke corrections assuming 750W load, but that also can be adjusted if necessary.

Jake, sorry to derail this thread but I had a question regarding the choke corrections. What happens if your load is something other than 750w (575w for instance), will the Sensor+'s choke correction cause any damage to the lamp? to the D20? How does the choke correction work for dimmer doubling with lamp voltages at 77v?

Thanks in advance! 

I am terribly sorry to say that I missed your reply on this thread.  I thought I was set for email notification and was not. 

No damage can be caused to the dimmer as a result of adjusting "scale load" for appropriate choke correction.  The purpose of the feature is to make sure that both lightly loaded and heavily loaded circuits maintain a consistant output when dimmed together. Consistancy across multiple dimmed circuits can be very important in TV lighting where variation of light output across the lighting set and shifts in color temperature are picked up by video.

The only potential for damage to a lamp is if incoming voltage to your dimming rack is higher than the rating of the lamp and the appropriate adjustments to the maximum voltage are not performed.  A 115V lamp on the output of a dimmer rack that has been fed with 125V has a potential to fail before its rated end of life.  For this reason, our Sensor Dimming line defaults to regulating to a maximum output of 115V.

In the application of a 77V dimmer doubled circuit, we specify 77V because the dimmer doubler splits the 115V AC waveform so that the positive half of the voltage goes to output A and the negative to output B.  As long as the rack is never set to allow max voltage above 115, the lamp will automatically be protected against overvoltage.

The reason I mention curve correction as it pertains to 24V ACL lights is because very small changes to voltage produce a very large difference in light output.  Therefore adjusting Scale load gives a fine tuning method for more exact balancing across circuits.