The Avolites Discussion Forum

We are using Titan One and are slowly switching our instruments to LEDs. All of the outlets that power the current lamps are wired to the dimmer bank which then goes to our lighting pipeline and then out to the dongle/computer. We have had great success in running a show with this current setup. Now that we have a few LEDs, I'm wondering if there is a way through the software to tell a certain outlet to have constant power and yet still be able to control the LED. I know that I can "freeze" a fixture/outlet to have 100% intensity, but then won't that make the LED plugged in there to be on constantly no matter what I tell it to do within Titan?

I understand that if I can't use our existing setup then I will have to get new outlets installed to have constant power in order to safely run the LED fixtures. I'm just trying to find out if there is a way to utilize our existing outlets.

I'm self-taught here in regards to lighting, so I apologize for the "noob-ness". I appreciate any advice.

There are a number of ways of achieving this but freezing should do the job here. You would be freezing the dimmer channels that control the power but the fixture would be controlled direcly by DMX with a different address so there is no problem in that sense.

However, I would be very careful about running fixtures on dimmer channels like this. It may work ok but, even if you can guarantee the level never moves from 100%, there is still a chance you could damage the dimmers and/or the fixtures.

Sometimes dimmers have the option to change channels to a 'switch' mode for this purpose. Unless they have this I would not risk it.

It shouldn't be too difficult to change the outlets to constant power, particularly as the LED's are likely to have a relatively low load. Essentially all that is required is to disconnect the cables from the output of the dimmers and find a way to plug directly into fixed power. For example if they are currently on a multi-pin type connector you can probably get some sort of adapter to convert this back to separate plugs or, if they are already on individual plugs then all that's needed is something to convert the plug to one that is compatible with permanent outlets.

Obviously this should ideally be done by a qualified electrician but it should be very easy.

Thank you so much for your quick response. I'll pass this on to my electrician - eventually we'll need to go all constant power anyway, so this was kind of what I thought we'd have to do. Thanks for the tips on how to get the existing outlets converted.