Inexpensive Dimmers

ozduc

ozduc

Well-known member
I came across a post over at the creative cow with a link to a dimmer. Well it's actually advertised as a Router speed controller. At $12.49 I had to try one out. It is rated at 15amps and 125 volts so it will handle up to 1875 watts. I plugged an Arri 1k into it and it gives a nice, linear dim down to about 20%. There was a very slight buzz that I had to put my ear up to the light to hear. I also tried it on a couple of table lamps at home and there was no buzz at all. For the price and capacity you cant go wrong with this one.

http://da.harborfreight.com/cpisearch/web/search.do?keyword=router+speed+control&Submit=Go
 
That's awsome. With those ratings, I think you deffinetly have enough headroom to use it on a 1k. Did it ever get hot or anything?
 
Yea, I find that the more powerful fixtures will hum with a cheap dimmer. The better one, made for larger lamps works great.
 
I think that post over at the Cow was mine. I have six of them and have been using them all week on a big set that I am shooting on. They work VERY well and are dirt cheap, what more can you ask for?

The Internet is amazing, I just discovered and ordered basically the components to make a Kino Flo Diva 400, a $1,200.00 lighting kit, for about $124.00. It won't be dimmable and it remains to be seen if it will be silent as the Kinos are but I like the idea of getting a similar result to the Kino at 1/10th the cost.

Love the cheap and effective tips on this board and others that I pick up. They are awesome.

Dan
 
puredrifting said:
The Internet is amazing, I just discovered and ordered basically the components to make a Kino Flo Diva 400, a $1,200.00 lighting kit, for about $124.00. It won't be dimmable and it remains to be seen if it will be silent as the Kinos are but I like the idea of getting a similar result to the Kino at 1/10th the cost.

Dan
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Do tell us what you bought and where?
 
HappyGobo said:
Awesome, there's a Harbor Freight store five minutes from my house. Gonna have to check that out.
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Make sure you print off the ad from the internet and take it with you. They want to keep that paper, but I bought 3 off the same printout (at once). In store price without the printout is 25$+.
 
Hi Ozduc:

http://www.ahsupply.com/36-55w.htm Just keep in mind that these are the raw components, you still have to wire them up yourself and figure out a mounting solution but I already have one in the works. When finished, these lights won't look as professional as the Kinos and won't be as easy to setup but I personally think that the Kinos are VERY overpriced for what they are and I have been looking at other ways to get their quality of light for a lot less.

I also have a homemade 104 watt 8 fluorescent tube fixture that I am working that I am using Jasco/GE lamps on. Unfortunately I cannot yet locate 21" daylight balanced tubes so it looks as if this fixture may be limited to indoor shoots.

Will post images and details on both fixtured as soon as I receive them and can assemble them and test them.

Dan
 
I've been making 1k dimmers for about $30 in materials, plus my time. Thanks for the thread, I just ordered 5 of them.
 
PDX_DVX said:
That's awsome. With those ratings, I think you deffinetly have enough headroom to use it on a 1k. Did it ever get hot or anything?
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After being on for about an hour the bottom metal cover plate got pretty warm but not enough to burn me.
I just ordered another 3 myself.
 
A 15 amp dimmer will work on most any incandescent light of 1500 watts or less. It won't work on flourescents or HMI lights. A fresnel is a type of fixture named for the coregated lens. There are incandescent, and HMI fresnels, but chances are you have incandescents, unless you paid a fortune for them, and they have a ballast. Then they are HMI's.
 
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