# Installing a Leviton Dimmer Console



## churchinstall (Jan 1, 2010)

I have recently been asked to install a Leviton 7500 Dimmer console in a church. What is the problem? Well I have never installed one before. I work mostly on video shoots as a grip and electric. I have used dimmer boards before, but only those that were already installed in a studio. What I am looking for, hopefully, is someone to give me a step by step diagram (or tell me where to find one) or walk me through this the best they can.
So let me give out as many details as I possibly can. This is a large church that has mostly par cans set up in the ceiling. The lower part of the church has about 9 par cans in a row that have been run to a circuit box and set up on 9 regular household switches. The console is to be set up in the upstairs balcony in the back of the church some 60 or more feet away from the lights in the front of the church. In front of the balcony there are 3 sets of 3 parcans that are already connected to 3 or 4 channel dimmer packs at each grouping. These lights are coming out of a different circuit box in the upstairs of the church and also being controlled by another 9 separate house hold switches. There are also 6 more parcans somewhere above the console attached to the same box and on household switches. 
I know that they all need to be properly set up to dimmer packs and run to the console, but how is this done? There should be enough of these 4 channel dimmer packs in the basement to cover all the lights. What cabling do I need to go from dimmer pack to dimmer pack and then to the console? What additional cabling do I need before I need to start figuring out how to control this thing?

Thank you in advance for any help


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## Les (Jan 1, 2010)

First, make sure your dimmer packs are DMX. If anything other than that, things will get a little complicated.

Assuming they are DMX, what you need is DMX cable that will run from your console to your first dimmer pack. Then you will need more DMX cable to run from dimmer pack to dimmer pack in a daisy chain setup. 

Check the pin configuration on your dimmer packs. They could be 5-pin (industry standard), but they are likely to be 3 pin. this means you will need an adapter cable because your console is most likely going to be 5-pin. If you need the adapter, I would connect it directly to the console and use the 3-pin for everything downstream.

I am having a hard time understanding the household switches. How do they control the dimmer packs? Do they somehow control each individual dimmer? Also, are you sure they are dimmers? The only way a switch would be able to control a dimmer pack is just on/off, and even then they aren't going to control any lights without being fed a DMX signal.

Some helpful information would be the model of your dimmer packs, and even a wiring diagram to determine what role those switches play in your system, and if their existence is something that we may need to be concerned about in the future.


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## SHARYNF (Jan 1, 2010)

BEFORE YOU PLUG IN ANYTHING CHECK WHAT DIMMERS YOU HAVE.
The 7500 series supports both MPX and DMX and has 3 pin MPX connectors and 5 Pin Dmx connectors. It is POSSIBLE that your dimmers are also NSI/LEVITON and are MPX, in which case you would NOT convert to 5 pin DMX and simply use 3 pin MPX. The DDS family of the older NSI dimmers could be converted over to DMX, usually this involved changing the xlr connectors to 5 pin, but some folks just added the chip and still used the 3 pin connectors, others chose to ADD 5 pin dmx and have both types of connectors

One way to check is to power up the dimmer pack with NO console connection and measure pin 1 and 2 and see if you get a 12 volt (sometimes 15 volt) reading, if so then you have MPX dimmers and you do NOT want to connect them to any console or device that is DMX or else you run the risk of causing damage to the device.

Sharyn


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## churchinstall (Jan 2, 2010)

Thank you guys for the response, this should help out a lot. I may need to ask more questions coming up, because I have learned so much since I was briefly able to visit the church and see what they have going on there. 
I know the dimmer console is a 3-pin configuration, but I do not know if the dimmer packs are DMX or MPX or what. If they do not match and one is 3-pin and one is 5-pin just getting an adapter should work, right?
I know it may have been a little confusing with the household switch thing. What the deal is, is that all the lights, some 24 or so par cans, are turned on just by household switches wired into 2 different circuit boxes, one upstairs and one downstairs. 2 or 3 sets of the lights upstairs have dimmer packs installed next to them. They may not be hooked to those packs anymore and were just put on house hold switches. I think the story might be that they used to have a dimmer system in there that stopped working and they just switched everything back to household switches that don't dim. They have a bunch of dimmer packs downstairs that I guess were hooked up to the old system. So I guess I have to install the rest of the dimmer packs and maybe take them off the other switches. I have not really got into the walls to see how everything is run.


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## SHARYNF (Jan 2, 2010)

If the console only has 3 pin then it is most likely MPX But most of the 7500 either had DMX (had the 5 pin installed) or could have the option installed, SO you would need to check and make sure the 5 pin is not there and if so order the DMX kit IF your Dimmer packs are in fact DMX. 

Sharyn


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## churchinstall (Jan 2, 2010)

It does have both, I re-looked at my notes. So I should run 5-pin DMX all the way around, is that correct?


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## Les (Jan 2, 2010)

churchinstall said:


> It does have both, I re-looked at my notes. So I should run 5-pin DMX all the way around, is that correct?



You are correct sir, unless all your dimmers and console also speak MPX, in which case there wouldn't be a problem in using that protocol. I would use the DMX though - much more popular and versatile (especially if you ever end up adding more dimmers and find that they are DMX only).


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## SHARYNF (Jan 3, 2010)

as I said before it is ESSENTIAL to make sure the packs are DMX. IF for some reason they are MPX then you can use that, but Putting a MPX dimmer into a DMX input is a problem based on the voltage that is present ALL THE TIME and in most cases will damage the DMX controller OR other dmx Dimmer packs in the lstring


Sharyn


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