Hand Dimmers

J

jsstring

Member
Can anyone point me in the right direction for information on building 1k and 2k hand dimmers? I'm looking for any kind of help available (parts, tutorials, etc)
 
Before going through that effort, look at the Harbor Freight Tools dimmers; they support 1.5k and cost $9.99. Search for "router speed control".
 
The 1500w dimmer went down in price... it's $9.99. I ordered some last week but haven't seen them yet. (uh... sorry, now I see Barry posted that)

If you build by hand, you're going to need to deal with a lot of heat. If you needed to engineer a 2k solution, I'd look to rebuild a 2k dimmer unit from a company like strand. I've never done it, but I bet it's possible. And you could probably build a prototype for $50 with used parts.
 
I used mine on set for the first time on Tuesday. Wonderful, no complaints, and they didn't even get very hot.
 
Not to hijack...but when I attach my lights (cheap Smith Victor tungsten) the lights begin to hum very loudly when dimmed on the harbor freights. Is this common?
 
jnatalie said:
Not to hijack...but when I attach my lights (cheap Smith Victor tungsten) the lights begin to hum very loudly when dimmed on the harbor freights. Is this common?
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some lights, when dimmed, hum. For example pars hum loudly when dimmed, at least thats what happens to me, on different dimmers.
 
jnatalie said:
Not to hijack...but when I attach my lights (cheap Smith Victor tungsten) the lights begin to hum very loudly when dimmed on the harbor freights. Is this common?
Click to expand...

I used some smith victors at my old job and we had a DIY dimmer on them. Hummed light crazy when we dimmed them.
 
Wow, those look pretty cool - and cheap!

I hope Harbor Freight doesn't find out the Pro Video community are using these or they'll soon be $125 each.
 
Brad Neal said:
Wow, those look pretty cool - and cheap!

I hope Harbor Freight doesn't find out the Pro Video community are using these or they'll soon be $125 each.
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Gotta say yeah to that one. I checked the local cam/light store and they want $150 for a home-built dimmer. I would pay it if I could, since they're great people and I'd love to support their business as much as I could, I just can't afford that.
 
That kind of dimmer clips the tops and bottoms of the sine waves, so there is naturally some added noise. Some fixtures handle it better than others. It's no different than most residential dimmers, but they all can cause RFI issues.

I was running Altman 360q's on mine, no noise issues.
 
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