Chillinet

[chris_r]

Hiya,

Our church is possibly upgrading our lighting system and we're hoping to put in Rack 6's and control via chillinet wall panels and hire in a DMX desk when the event calls for it.

 

How can all this be connected?

Am I correct in thinking that we can have two chilli 10 button wall controllers into two dimmers (all daisychaned) to control all lighting from preset scenes?

 

So the circuit will go like:

Chillinet controller 1 -> Chillinet controller 2 -> Dimmer 1 -> Dimmer 2

 

Is this correct?

 

Thanks,

Chris

[Paul]

Yes this is correct, you just daisy-chain it all together with standard CAT5 cable, and make sure you have a 120R resistor to terminate each end of the cable (one of these is supplied with each Chillinet control panel).

 

You'll need some RJ11 connectors to connect into the Chillinet ports on the Rack6 dimmers (RJ11 is the 4-way version of an RJ12). Easiest thing would be to buy some short ready-crimped RJ11-RJ11 cables with these connectors already on (e.g. RS 303-1287), cut them in half and join to the CAT5 with terminal blocks.

 

Bear in mind that Rack6 dimmers cannot be configured into areas like other Chilli dimmers, and that they don't support sequences. But if all you're after is preset scenes in a single area, it will work fine.

[chris_r]

Cool, Thanks for the clarification Paul!

[Pritch]

I figure I may as well hijack this thread seeing as it's here.

 

I'm looking at a system using DMX and chillinet also, using one ChilliPro dimmer for the hardwired houselights in our venue, and a load of Install 6 dimmers for stage lighting, with a control panel and a master controller tying it all off.

 

The vast majority of the time, the Install 6 dimmers will be powered off at the mains and only powered up when there's actually a production on. The rest of the time, we'd still like to use the ChilliPro to run houselights.

 

Now, if there are a load of dimmers powered off on the network, will Chillinet still work?

 

It's not really a huge deal if it doesn't as we'll just leave the Install 6 packs out of the Chillinet network, but I figure it would be nice to have them integrated if we can, seeing as it'll cost peanuts to do.

[Paul]

The only potential issue you might have here is that one Chillinet dimmer may not be able to supply enough power on the +12V to run a Master Controller and a Chillinet panel. If this does prove a problem, it can be easily overcome by adding your own +12V DC power adaptor anywhere on the network to boost the power available.

[Pritch]

Thanks, Paul. Is there anything in specific we need to be looking at if we do end up with a 12V power supply chucked in there? I can't imagine the controllers draw a massive amount of power, so something like a 300mA brick power supply?

[Paul]

A 300mA brick power supply would be fine. The output voltage actually isn't that critical, anywhere between 9V and 15V DC will work (it's regulated down to 5V inside the devices).

[Pritch]

Again, thank you very much for your help, Paul