dimMA module, 4 x 3kVA, 280µs

With the new and innovative digital dimming system dimMA, the well-known reliability of the MA touring dimmers is now also available for permanent installations. The new MA installation dimming system uses 19" rack cabinets that are made by the renowned manufacturer Rittal and have a foot print of only 0.36m² so that they can be packed tightly. All connections and outgoing lines are located on the inside of the cabinet. A swivel frame which operates similar to a huge front door provides easy and convenient access from the front and makes unnecessary any additional load terminals or patch fields. Power feed and outgoing cables can either be routed from the top or the bottom of the cabinet.

Rugged cabinet construction
The swivel-frame cabinet with its 18 plug-in slots (a maximum of 72 x 3,000VA) can be fitted with modules of 4 x 3,000VA, 2 x 5,700VA or 1 x 11,500VA loads. Each rack can be populated with modules of different types.
All modules are available with different rise times for their specific needs. All modules of the same power rating will fit into the slot, and therewith all modules in the same power rating are exchangeable without any additional installations. Many options can be chosen to create a dimming installation on customers request and to fullfill the needs of the installation.
For feeding (TN-S net), there is an integrated three-phase bus-bar system with a load capacity of 400A per phase. Upon request, the cabinets can be equipped with special components such as main circuit-breakers, additional parallel output terminals and RCD per channel.

Dimmer modules
The plug-in modules for the dimMA digital dimming system are available with load ratings of 4 x 3,000VA, 2 x 5,700VA or 1 x 11,500VA. The dimmer modules are available with rise times from 280μs up to 400μs depending on the load rating. This allows us to offer the optimal solution for every kind of application while also taking economic aspects into consideration. Each dimmer module features a separate single-PCB computer with power supply and communicates with the Network Dimmer Processor of the cabinet via a CAN-bus interface. Dimmer modules of the same rating may be freely exchanged; any assigned settings such as dimmer number, dimming curve, non-dimming operation, and special and/or panic functions remain linked to the plug-in slot and apply to any new module inserted. Each module is cooled with a temperature-controlled fan, activated only if the module is actually in use. This reduces drastically the amount of noise produced by the dimming system because only those components are cooled that need it. Via the NDP, each dimmer circuit provides the lighting control system with detailed information about current and voltage, the status of the load connected, and about any faults occurring.

Module racks – known as dimmer crates
All dimmer modules are designed as plug-ins, separated by phase, and mounted in 19" crates with separate feeds for three modules at a time. Each crate (when fully fitted, a maximum of six crates per cabinet is possible) are equipped with a combined mains fuse and switch and a residual current device (RCD) as standard. The RCDs per rack are configured in a way that they are all shut off when tripped, if multicore is used.
Replacing dimmer modules during operation or switching off individual groups of dimmers is therefore possible and permitted without shutting off the entire cabinet.