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[Nick Lofy]

I was curious on  how unsafe/safe it would be to power a dimmer pack directly from another dimmer pack, I realize the risk of blowing fuses and circuit but what the possible hardware damage look like?

[Scott Holtzman]

I was curious on  how unsafe/safe it would be to power a dimmer pack directly from another dimmer pack, I realize the risk of blowing fuses and circuit but what the possible hardware damage look like?

If you had a relay pack in that channel it would be OK as long as the downstream dimmer pack was less current than the channel is rated for.

You certainly could not use a dimmer to power a dimmer and expect the upstream dimmer to act as a master for the downstream.

[Tim McCulloch]

I was curious on  how unsafe/safe it would be to power a dimmer pack directly from another dimmer pack, I realize the risk of blowing fuses and circuit but what the possible hardware damage look like?

The property damage could be significant - electrical fires tend to burn hot and until the electricity fails or is turned off and other combustibles are consumed or extinguished.  Your lack of "projection" as to the hazard concerns me.

This belongs in the lighting forum; I will ask a moderator to move it.

[Mark Cadwallader]

Scott raises an important thing to be aware of:  some dimmers not only function as a stepless range of pass-through current (the traditional use of dimmers), while others have a "dim/non-dim" feature that acts as a switch (relay) for "off"'or "on".

Using a dimmer set to "dim/non-dim" is different than using a true relay. A true relay is typically designed with a low draw control signal, as opposed to using the full strength current.

What is your intended application?  That will help us understand the how and why of your underlying question.

[Erik Jerde]

Scott raises an important thing to be aware of:  some dimmers not only function as a stepless range of pass-through current (the traditional use of dimmers), while others have a "dim/non-dim" feature that acts as a switch (relay) for "off"'or "on".

Using a dimmer set to "dim/non-dim" is different than using a true relay. A true relay is typically designed with a low draw control signal, as opposed to using the full strength current.

What is your intended application?  That will help us understand the how and why of your underlying question.

Mark makes a very good point about dimmers here.  You usually don't want to plug a non-dimable load into a dimmer unless it can be truly switched to a relay control.  Even dimmers set to only work at 0/100 can damage equipment.  I've seen tours come through clubs and plug their movers into dimmers when they didn't pay attention to instructions.  Most of the time they got lucky, occasionally the smoke came out though (and not from the hazer).

[John L Nobile]

Mark makes a very good point about dimmers here.  You usually don't want to plug a non-dimable load into a dimmer unless it can be truly switched to a relay control.  Even dimmers set to only work at 0/100 can damage equipment.  I've seen tours come through clubs and plug their movers into dimmers when they didn't pay attention to instructions.  Most of the time they got lucky, occasionally the smoke came out though (and not from the hazer).

What was that saying that anything electrical operated improperly enough becomes a smoke machine? Something like that.

[David Allred]

I was curious on  how unsafe/safe it would be to power a dimmer pack directly from another dimmer pack, I realize the risk of blowing fuses and circuit but what the possible hardware damage look like?

Not sure why this would even be preferable over plugging 2 dimmers into a 99 cent power splitter.  What ARE you trying to do?

[ProSoundWeb Community]