Radia & Fluorescents

amxhobbyist
amxhobbyist Junior Member
in AMX Hardware
Hi folks,

Has anyone successfully used Radia lighting control units with fluorescent dimming ballasts, such as the Lutron Hi-lume (http://www.lutron.com/ballast/hilume.asp) ballasts?

I have an application where I am embedding lighting into a glass & wood cavity and am concerned about heat. Due to the size, my initial response was to use mini-halogens, which work exceptionally well with Radia units. However, the heat and light output are both a concern, so dimmable fluorescents came to mind.

They supposedly work with any dimmers, so one would imagine a Radia unit could control them. Of course Lutron only recommends they be used with their dimmers. :) If anyone has any experience or ideas in this area, I'd love to hear them. (and yes, I know triacs can't be used to control standard fluorescent loads).

Thank you!
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  • ericmedley
    ericmedley Senior Member - 3709 Posts
    amxhobbyist wrote:
    Hi folks,

    Has anyone successfully used Radia lighting control units with fluorescent dimming ballasts, such as the Lutron Hi-lume (http://www.lutron.com/ballast/hilume.asp) ballasts?

    I have an application where I am embedding lighting into a glass & wood cavity and am concerned about heat. Due to the size, my initial response was to use mini-halogens, which work exceptionally well with Radia units. However, the heat and light output are both a concern, so dimmable fluorescents came to mind.

    They supposedly work with any dimmers, so one would imagine a Radia unit could control them. Of course Lutron only recommends they be used with their dimmers. :) If anyone has any experience or ideas in this area, I'd love to hear them. (and yes, I know triacs can't be used to control standard fluorescent loads).

    Thank you!

    I've done it and it works fine. I really like the Radia product.

    One minor small point, however. The Lutron stuff seems to be able to go really low dim before you get that floruescent dimmer flickering going on. With the Radia, it doesn't seem to be able to go as low. I'm not really sure why this is since it's the ballast that's technically doing the dimming.

    We're talking a few percent of 'off'. Not even worth mentioning.

    Make sure you get the proper module with Radia master. Make sure you match up the ballast with the AMX part exactly. You'll be very happy.
    Cheers,
    ejm
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  • amxhobbyist
    amxhobbyist Junior Member
    Hi Eric,

    Thank you for your reply.
    Make sure you get the proper module with Radia master. Make sure you match up the ballast with the AMX part exactly.

    Can you give me any guidance on this? I'd planned to use an RDD-DM4 I already have; is this OK? I'm also unsure how to select the correct ballast, as Lutron tells me they don't support any dimmers other than their own.

    My assumption was that any dimming ballast that can use standard dimmers would work fine with the DM4. Is this not the case?

    Thanks again!
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  • amxhobbyist
    amxhobbyist Junior Member
    OK, I've been digging around, and the Radia docs (http://www.amx.com/techdocs/0432592.pdf) have helped me. Looks like I either need AMX lighting modules (RDM-HFDB, RDM-MDM), OR I can use my existing RDD-DM4 if I buy the proper Lutron interface (GRX-FDBI, HP2, etc).

    Anyone know which route would be the best way to go, or is this 50/50 in terms of general performance?
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