We have two powerspot 575's and after being installed for a week have started blowing fuses one after another. I have them plugged into our house dimming system (ETC Sensor Dimmer's) but have the dimmers set to always on and have tried every way to turn them on and not blow a fuse.

They usually get about halfway through the self check when they turn on and then the fuse blows.

Any thoughts? Very frustating since they are flown 30 ft up and we have to get a lift out everytime it blows a fuse....

I am using the SD2 for the controller as well.

Welcome to the forums. Sorry your having trouble with these lights. give our service dept a call. the hours and times are listed on the main page of this forum. They should be able to help you out further.
Sincerely,

Hi Andrew,

Have you attempted to by pass the dimmer system.
Simply to check and see if you will get a different result.

You also mention that they were both working for 1 week, then started blowing the fuses.

Again try and plug them directly to power no dimmer and let me know the results.

I will try, however I am out of fuses at this point. (where can I get more?) I am positive the dimmers are supplying enough power however as they were running a 750 watt source 4. Also they were able to run our christmas eve program no problem (6 straight hours of running) and have since started the problem. I have heard the tranny can cause theses symptoms as well...

e-mail me an address I can mail them to you.
or go to your nearest electronic store.

look for an 8@ GMA style fuse. Maybe even radio shack.

John at elationlighting dot com

Ouch, red alert. Sorry I wasn't around tho read this earlier, working on stuff for the President right now. Anyway, YOU CAN NOT PLUG ANY MOVING LIGHT INTO A DIMMER, PERIOD.

I have explained the reasoning bhind this before on here. I will try and dig up the thread so you can read through it. Get those plugged into wall power as soon as you can, and don't ever run them again off a dimmer. Even though the dimmer is full on, it still butchers the power which in turn hurts the light. This is the reason the fuses are blowing. They are doing what they are there to do, protect the light.

Thanks Serra
I was able to talk with Andrew over the phone. We always recomend against installing intelligent lighting on dimmers however there are many customer who still believe it is ok.
I believe ETC makes power modules spefically for intels, but i'm not sure. I asked him to call ETC on that.

But, if you can find anything against installing on dimmers for our forum it would be awesome!

Thanks.

ETC does indeed make non-dim modules that are either constant on, or on/off only like a switch. The problem is the normal dimmers are very bad for movers and when he said on at full, that leads me to believe that dimmers in question aren't those types.

Will have to see if I can't dig up that thread.

Well I got them down and pugged into wall power, they still blew two fuses right off the bat but then have since stabilized out and I have turned them on several times without blowing the fuses... One has a pretty loud hum (much louder than the other one) once the lamp turns on. Guessing that is the transformer...

Correct. It is the transformer humming. I assume then that they are regular Power Spot 575s and not IEs? That is normal for magentic ballasts and shouldn't be cause for worry.

Here is the thread I was talking about before. Scroll down to the bottom and you will see me talking about dimmers and what makes them tick.

SerraAva - You said you shouldn't plug them into a dimmer pack but a switch. MOST dimmer pack can run in either dimmer or switch mode. so as long as it is in switch mode it should be fine.

I still wouldn't recommend doing that though, personally equipment like that I like to be plug into a power filter (well I don't have intelligent lights but thing like that) anything sensitive to voltage change use in a concert environment is best to plug in to a power filter.

Just because it has a switch mode doesn't mean that it bypasses the SCR and Choke in a dimmer. That is what causes the damage, and also acts as the switch. The sign wave is still effected even at 100% or on.

Technically though, a dimmer is never fully off. They all leak a volt or two.

As for a power filter for movers, not necessary. Most are electronic ballast now a days and can use any voltage from 90v-250v. Even magnetic ballasts can handle a slight range in power. If anything, you should power condition anything that is on the same circuit as a mover, same power leg in some cases. Lighting is very robust, its the video and audio guys that have the power issues . Roll this and ground hum that.

Ok, soo I pulled them down and plugged them. No problem. Re hung them and ran power from an outlet to them, powered on and ran the test fine, lamp attempted to come on....... Blown fuses. So it seems to be when the light is upside down is when it has issues. That eliminates the dimmer issue now.

More guesses?

That's a new one. Haven't heard of a light blowing fuses over being upside down. Maybe there is a loose connection somewhere in the light itself shorting something out and causing the fuses to break? When you set them down upright, it might have shifted the cause of the short and fixed the problem.