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Having trouble with my non-Kelmar lighting system and considering changing it. Looked up Kelmar online and their site is rather sparse, with no apparent updates since 2019.
I have a 5 year old Lehigh system that has gone nuts and no one here or at the factory can figure out what is causing the problems. Lots of sunk cost in electricians and parts. The next step seems to be fly in a tech from the factory.
The problems have been going on since January. Every "cure" last a little while (hours to weeks) and then starts again. It appears to be related to our LED houselights, but that could be coincidental. The Christie ACT has also developed a strange relationship with the controls. So it may be time to cut our losses and start over.
Yeah...the Lehigh dimmers have some interesting electronics too them and they are often poorly documented as they customized on the fly for people. I would tend to agree that there is no point in forcing the issue any more and I'd definitely lose the Christie ACT (how did you end up with that?). The ACT was an ill conceived thing with a horrible interface. I'd say that its only real market would be for a chain. If you wanted to have an automation "your way" you could take the time to script it and then clone the crap out of it. Otherwise, it was either put in with virtually none of its benefits or I've seen them completely ignored. And they weren't cheap, either.
I'm an Eprad eCNA guy (the most reliable piece in any booth, from what I can tell...they are rock solid). I'm new to the current dimmers but they do have their own LED based dimmer however the catch is, you HAVE to use only their lamps (it is a DC output dimmer and only designed to work with their lamps). They have PAR38 and A19 lamps, at the moment. Naturally, there are other dimmers out there and other lamps however, I've found that the typical "dimmable LED" bulb to be a crap shoot...even if you find one that works, the next batch probably won't...so you are best to just get a system designed to dim to zero. There are 0-10V lighting system (and Kelmar does make their dimmers with a 0-10V output and an optional "kill" relay that can kill power when the dimmer has been in low for a set time...so if you want to avoid the flashing LED or 0-10 systems that don't really dim to zero). There are also theatrical lighting instruments but that would get very costly but it also can bring in the the likes of DMX for control.
For now, we are moving toward the Eprad LED system.
As we're paying for a new GDC SR-1000 this week, I don't think I'll be ordering a new lighting system soon, but I can shop around (we are also raising money for the marquee, so maybe I can skim some of that). Thanks for the advice.
We got the ACT when we converted to digital. We never had any automation, so I just got what our dealer/installer recommended. It has been fine for what we needed it for, but I never really learned to script it, due in part to the interface.
Yes, our house lights don't dim to zero, but that's kind of historically accurate in out theatre, which has fluorescent light fixtures circa 1941. At least I haven't had to change a florescent tube for the last 5 years.
KELMAR still in business as of February 2021. I bought a new LED HOUSE LIGHT DIMMER. I had a problem and called them. A real human spoke to me and solved my problem.
Back when I worked for Classic Cinemas we used lots of LeHigh dimmers and never had any problems with them.... but that was in the 1980's and way before LED light bulbs appeared. During film installations I always used Kelmar automations and dimmers, and later during digital conversions I always used Epred eCNA along with Kelmar dimmers. Never had any issues with either. Kelmar does make an LED Lamp module that allows their dimmer to accommodate more types of lamps, although I have never needed one. as the Cree bulbs, which are quite common, work great with them. Martin, Have you experimenting with different type of LED lamps yet? Not all LED lamps behave the same way on a given dimmer...
I put in a Lutron RadioRa2 system at our theatre 2 years ago and has been great since. The dimmers replace a regular light switch, then you can send commands to the "main base unit" which plugs in to your network with ethernet, and your show server can send commands.
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