OPTI16-4 CW/WW

SNL, I sent this post to some of our sales managers. I'll let you know what they say. Or they may post a reply themselves. but please note that a lot of our staff is busy at the NAMM show. so if you don't hear anything by Tuesday or Wednesday reply to this thread to get our attention. Thanks for your patience.
Sincerely,

Thanks for the reply. I kinda figured that you were busy at the show. Let us ALL know how it went for you. Thanks, SNL

Opti cw is officially discontinued
its the WW we are stocking a lot of.

Best regards,

Thanks for the update on the OPTI 16. I have four DP-415 dimmer/switch packs. I purchased some LED Dummies. I have the LED Dummies plugged into the DP-415 and some American DJ pin spots plugged into the LED Dummies. When in switch mode, no problem. When in dimmer mode the pin spots flicker while dimming. I am under the impression that the LED Dummies were made for TRIAC circuits (dimmer) for use with LED lights. Any ideas/suggestions?

My impression of the LED dummy is it simply let's you turn on and off LED fixtures safely with a dimmer. A giant, in series resistor (which is what the LED Dummy is) would help stop leak currents common with dimmers as well as help smooth out the dimmer curve better when the dimmer is full on (being first in the series, it takes the change in voltages first instead of the LED).

LED's dim by pulse-width modulation (PWM). PWM basically is the LEDs strobing faster then the human eye can see to dim. A dimmer would never be able to achieve this (since a dimmer operates on a 60 Hz cycle), even a strobe light wouldn't be able to achieve the same speeds we are talking about to dim an LED (fastest strobe I know of in an Atomic 3k which can do 25 Hz). This is also the reason why some LED fixtures flicker on camera, because the camera is operating at a lower frame rate which picks up on the strobing.

Basically, if you want to dim an LED, you need to buy fixtures that internally dim.

SNL,

Rule of thumb is never try to dim anything that has a transformer.
say a pinspot..uses a 12 or 24v lamp.. there for to work on a 120v wall circuit it needs a transformer to drop voltage from 120V to 12-24V.
Never try and dim this.

LED dummy was made for certain pin spot LED's and strobes.
When using Dimmer packs and you dim to zero, there is still a small amount of voltage that leaks.
its such a small voltage that in most product there is no effect. But with LED pinspots and strobes, that small voltage collects and builds up in the products transformers and results in an unwanted burst of light. then repeats this burst every 10-15 minutes. very annoying.
The only solution prior to LED dummy was a night light the small amount of energy it consumed was enough to stop that burst.
Now the LED dummy absorbs that trickle of current.
But it was not intended to dim anything with transformer.

hope this helps.

I ran into this YEARS ago and posted it on the AmericanDJ forum, because, well, at the time, that's all I had was ADJ gear, not that I'm complaining.

I had a strobe plujgged into a dimmer pack, and yes, at dimmer value of zero, there was trace voltage coming out, and it was causing this inexpensive ADJ to discharge, but a a rate of less than 10-15 minutes(try 5-7 minutes, if even that long, felt more like 3-5 minutes).

The nightlight solution worked fantastic, and I also came up with this solution on my own for the same reason, but I kept having idiots stealing my nightlight, and my clients apparently didn't give a crap about strobes, so the project died. I've since gotten better lights that do have strobe functionality, so I'm covered anyways.

Even though I'm moved past stuff, I think having a few of these LED Dummies might be a good tool to have available.

What I don't get is why aren't people using LED fixtures with DMX functionality? I'm not trying to discount the LED Dummy's purpose, but it seems for a little bit more money, the consumer could get a lot better fixture and then not even need an LED Dummy. I get the impression that something somewhere is being used in the wrong way and hence, someone's going to have a big repair bill soon if they don't change how they do things.

Do you need an LED Dummy for each Pin Spot...or will just one LED Dummy plugged into a DP-415 work for all 4 channels?

A LED Dummy is needed for each individual channel. So you would need four of them for one DP-415.
Sorry for the delay in response.
Welcome to the forums.
Sincerely,