Building your Own Dimmer?

MiniMan13

MiniMan13

Well-known member
Maybe this should be in the DIY section, but i wonderd if anyone had built there own dimmer - My teacher said that the parts are really expensive and spent more than 200 on hers'. Looking around parts at home depot shows they shouldnt be more than 20 bucks?
 
Building a dimmer with the cheaper components means that you are likely to wind up with a device that radiates horrible R/F noise when you adjust it, which can affect your microphones and recorded audio.

And, the color temperature of your light will shift as the intensity changes. Which may or may not be something that you want to accept in your footage.
 
If They make a horrible noise, then how come the ones built into your house's dont make any noise?
Is it because of more wattage?
 
Harbor Freight Router Speed Control = 1500w dimmer.

Almost ALL of us on the boards are using these... $10-12 (depending on sale price) and most of us bought 3 or more at a time. Do a search... we all got 'em.
 
MiniMan13 said:
If They make a horrible noise, then how come the ones built into your house's dont make any noise?
Is it because of more wattage?
Click to expand...

Correct the bulbs in your house aren't 500-1000 watts a bulb

If you go into home depot you will see that they have 1000 watt dimmers for your house but since you lights in your home will never get near that it doesn't cause a problem.

Also go with what MattinStl suggested All the cool kids are doing it :thumbsup:
 
Go with Harbor Freight. If you don't like this option, search. I'm sure you'll find something on the boards.
 
I made my own dimmer a few years ago, cost me about $20. The dimmers and outlets were under $10 at Home Depot, picked up a nice little plastic box for a buck in the clearance aisle at Wal Mart. The short heavy guage cord I bought to wire it all together cost around $8. I only played a little with it, before becoming thoroughly disgusted with my Lowel kit and selling it off. I really wish there had been a Harbor Freight around here when I built it.
 
Right. Just always make sure the amperage you are working with is something that the dimmer is rated to handle. The Harbor Freight method is a tried and true route, i'm sure it would work just fine for you.
 
My life would not be the same without Harbor Freight Router Speed Controllers.

This is my light undimmed. This is my light with a Harbor Freight Router Speed Controller.

You know, our situation in the war on terror would be much improved if all parties involved were using Harbor Freight Router Speed Controllers.

Our collective faith as a culture should be illuminated my lights hooked into Harbor Freight Router Speed Controllers.

Wow, I like the sounds of these.


Dan
 
I'm glad this came up again, I never noticed these before. Dang, and I was considering ordering a 1000w dimmer for almost $90! I found a Harbor Freight in my town, while I am there for the dimmers, is there anything else cool I should look at?
 
shawneous said:
I'm glad this came up again, I never noticed these before. Dang, and I was considering ordering a 1000w dimmer for almost $90! I found a Harbor Freight in my town, while I am there for the dimmers, is there anything else cool I should look at?
Click to expand...
Make sure to print off that page and take it with out. The instore price is over 25$ and they might not honor the web price without the printout. When I got mine, I got three at one time and they kept my printout.
 
Hey MiniMan13,

The Harbor Freight router speed control is good for 15 amps. This would indicate that it can handle 1500 watts with a little left over for a safety margin. I've plugged 1K lights into them with no problem.
 
MiniMan13 said:
If They make a horrible noise, then how come the ones built into your house's dont make any noise?
Is it because of more wattage?
Click to expand...


THey do make noise. Tune an AM radio to the low end of the dial and you can hear them work. If you use them at full they are usually quiet but then why use a dimmer at all? Also because they chop the wave, instead of lowering it, they can make the lamps themselves buzz. "Speed controllers" turn the output back into a sine wave so this isn't a problem. All that said depending on a bunch of factors you may not have a problem in a given shoot. But why take the chance when the speed controler is the same price and works better. Also many home dimmers are rated at 650 Watts, too low to be of much use for film lighting.
 
Noisy dimmers

Noisy dimmers

For those interested in wanting to know why inexpensive thyristor-based dimmers (triac or SCR) emit radio frequency noise, here's a useful site. In essence, when the thyristor abruptly shuts off the voltage in the middle of a sinusoidal duty cycle, harmonic distortion (RFI) results without good filtering to smooth out the resulting waveform. Back in the old days, Variacs did a good job (although quite heavy) but over time they have been replaced with phase controlled systems.

Warm Regards, Michael
 
MattinSTL said:
Harbor Freight Router Speed Control = 1500w dimmer.

Almost ALL of us on the boards are using these... $10-12 (depending on sale price) and most of us bought 3 or more at a time. Do a search... we all got 'em.
Click to expand...

anyone know where you can get these in canada, or one's similar. Their website does not ship to canada
 
Just picked up two of these.

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=43060

Looks like that Harbor Freight just dropped the price to $12.49! Print it out and bring it to your Harbor freight and they will honor the price.

Buzzing is VERY low even when turned down all the way. This is way less buzzing than the home made 10a 1000watt dimmers I built my self.

Cord is about 10 feet long, and THICK. Its heavier than the dimmer itself.

This has one of those tube fuses in it, so dont drop it or else you could break it.

Dimming is pretty solid, however there is a jump in power from 100% to about 95% when turning down, then it goes smooth.


The power dims to about 10%. I wouldn't personally go lower than 20% to keep the lights from pre-maturely blowing up, or having too much color temp change.

Can't beat the price. Get them.
 
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