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[Stephen Swaffer]

I am a licensed electrician-but my church contracted a building (I didn't bid as I have a different day job right now.)  Unfortunately, the master that designed the building installed 8 amp rated 0-10 volt dimmers on 13 amp zones in the gym-obviously they didn't last long.  Ultimately our goal was to convert and allow the dimming to be incorporated into a DMX system for events.  Given I need to replace a dimmer and really hate how much garbage they stuffed into the box  the time to make it like we want is now.  I know Northlight made interfaces-they are no longer around so what is the best way?  I will likely convert the existing box to switches, there is a path to get dimmer lines to a utility room just need the DMX interface.

[Dave Garoutte]

I am a licensed electrician-but my church contracted a building (I didn't bid as I have a different day job right now.)  Unfortunately, the master that designed the building installed 8 amp rated 0-10 volt dimmers on 13 amp zones in the gym-obviously they didn't last long.  Ultimately our goal was to convert and allow the dimming to be incorporated into a DMX system for events.  Given I need to replace a dimmer and really hate how much garbage they stuffed into the box  the time to make it like we want is now.  I know Northlight made interfaces-they are no longer around so what is the best way?  I will likely convert the existing box to switches, there is a path to get dimmer lines to a utility room just need the DMX interface.

I don't think there is anything compatible between an analog (dimmers) and digital (DMX).  They make DMX dimmer packs that will control incandescents, but not the  other way around. You'll need power at the fixtures, and a DMX cable to daisy chain control.

[Brian Jojade]

Are you looking for JUST DMX control, or local control PLUS the ability for DMX control?  The latter is a more complex scenario.

[Craig Hauber]

I am a licensed electrician-but my church contracted a building (I didn't bid as I have a different day job right now.)  Unfortunately, the master that designed the building installed 8 amp rated 0-10 volt dimmers on 13 amp zones in the gym-obviously they didn't last long.  Ultimately our goal was to convert and allow the dimming to be incorporated into a DMX system for events.  Given I need to replace a dimmer and really hate how much garbage they stuffed into the box  the time to make it like we want is now.  I know Northlight made interfaces-they are no longer around so what is the best way?  I will likely convert the existing box to switches, there is a path to get dimmer lines to a utility room just need the DMX interface.

The Doug Fleenor stuff is the best for this.  A little pricier than what you see kicking around on Ebay/amazon but much more enterprise-grade and well supported.
https://www.dfd.com/12anl.html
Although check with the manufacturer of your architectural dimming panel, they may have a DMX add-on module available as well as some have capability already on the control board but with headers just labelled to whatever proprietary name they call it.

[Erik Jerde]

If I’m understanding you right it sounds like you need to replace dimmers and that’s also an opportunity to replace the user controls.

In that case use whatever dimmer will fit your form factor and interface with DMX.  If you have to stick with a 0-10v control then the fleenor stuff is the way to go.

I admittedly have very little experience with 0-10v architectural products.  The one project I was on where this was used the dimmer was actually part of each fixture.  The wall control was powered by mains but the control to fixture run was a special MC cable that had mains conductors and a pair of LV conductors for the dimming control.

[Milt Hathaway]

For odd DMX to whatever conversions, these folks will have a way to do it: https://response-box.com/gear/shop/

[Tim Weaver]

Another Vote for DFD/Doug Fleenor.

I have a room that just got remodeled and I have a dmx board (Chamsys QuickQ Rack) controlling the stage lights already. It was easy to add the DMX12ANL to the system to control the dimming of the led can lights.

The downside that I didn’t know beforehand is that most modern LED can lights will not turn completely off with 0 volts on the sense line. They go down to about 10 percent brightness and stop.

The old controller (demo’d in the remodel) must have also cut power at the 0V level. I need to fond some dmx controllable relay solution if I want to turn these lights completely off.

[Jonathan Kok]

I'm not quite understanding what you're describing. Modern 0-10V dimming doesn't have a normal dimmer, but rather the fixtures are fed a constant voltage, and have a dimmer built into them that is controlled by the 0-10V line. The dimmer will dim, but NOT turn OFF the fixture; you need to cut the voltage to turn them off. This means that any 0-10V to DMX adapter box will NOT allow you to turn OFF the fixtures.

The solution we use is to spec ETC Foundry devices. If possible, we spec the Mini Panels which allow for up to 8 zones per Mini Panel. These require separate line voltage inputs for each zone (or you can have a single line voltage input power multiple zones using jumpers), as it is NOT a breaker panel that will take one high amperage input and split it out to each zone. They also have the smaller Zone Controllers that we use in retrofits where a panel can't be installed. Also has useful things like Fire Panel override inputs.

The Fleenor (and others; Pathway offers one as well) 0-10V adapters are useful for integrating into older rack or wall mount dimmers that had 0-10V control inputs rather than DMX; not so useful for modern 0-10V dimmable fixtures. So if you've got an actual 0-10V DIMMER and not DIMMABLE FIXTURES, then maybe that is the correct solution.

EDIT: Lightronics also makes a DMX-controlled 0-10V panel.

[Jonathan Kok]

Another Vote for DFD/Doug Fleenor.

I have a room that just got remodeled and I have a dmx board (Chamsys QuickQ Rack) controlling the stage lights already. It was easy to add the DMX12ANL to the system to control the dimming of the led can lights.

The downside that I didn’t know beforehand is that most modern LED can lights will not turn completely off with 0 volts on the sense line. They go down to about 10 percent brightness and stop.

The old controller (demo’d in the remodel) must have also cut power at the 0V level. I need to fond some dmx controllable relay solution if I want to turn these lights completely off.

ETC Foundry.
https://www.etcconnect.com/Foundry/
Lightronics:
https://www.lightronics.com/architectural_ballast_drivers_ab0602d.html

[Stephen Swaffer]

I guess I wasn't clear.  What I have is 0-10V dimmable fixtures-the "dimmers" that were installed actually incorporated a switch plus a 0-10V output for dimming.

The DFD comes closest what I am thinking.  I will likely replace the dimmers with simple switches since if the 0-10V is disconnected it puts lights at full brightness-and will allow normal use of the switches most of the time-simply adding in the dmx dimming when dimming is desirable.  The only question I need to get the answer to is if the DFD stuff can drive eight 0-10 volt sinking loads in parallel-and the fixture manufacturer can't tell me what that load is-guess its experiment time.  So much easier when the design is done correctly before the build.

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