A DJ's Guide to DMX Lighting

[chips]

Hi,

I went down to maplins tonight and explained they looked the same.Like you say they are the same just they call them another name.All sorted out now.Thanks for the reply

[Paul James Promotions]

You can sometimes get away with using mic cable, but only with a small number of lights. Mic cable has the wrong resistance for DMX, causing flickering and communication problems on larger systems.

Jamie

[DMX Will]

You can sometimes get away with using mic cable, but only with a small number of lights. Mic cable has the wrong resistance for DMX, causing flickering and communication problems on larger systems.

Jamie

Also, DMX Cables are sheilded which helps the data sent to reach each fixture without becoming corrupted or broken.

[marcol]

Good morning. Can anyone help me out there. After reading the reviews on the forum, I brought the Chauvet 55 DMX. Great unit I must agree, but here is my problem. I run x2 Imove moving heads, x2 Led Pin Spots, x1 Actors Mate Magic Box 2 laser, x1 EVL K-Scope - all of them work perfectly with the DMX. My other lights are the complete Mad (Abstract) range - Spins, Moonfloers and LED Panels etc. These units are wired 2 Pin "Hot". All the other lights are standard 3 pin "Hot". Now the DMX has a switch on the back that reverses the signal and yes then the Mad lights work, but naturally the others don't. Somewhere I read that you can get a phase reversing adapator or XLR cable - and this will work???? I cannot find anywhere that sells such a cable and no company that has heard of such a thing. I have tried reversing the cables from pin 2 to pin3 three and pin 3 to pin 2 (on the unit) but then the unit has no DMX signal.

Has anyway experienced this - I simply need a way to get the Mad lights (pin 2 Hot) to work with the other lights (Pin 3 HOT)......Help please!!!

[Paul James Promotions]

Hi,

You can make up a 'swap cable' with a small piece of cable, 1 x XLR plug and 1 x XLR socket, and simply swapping the 2 and 3 pins on one side only of the cable.

Then, to wire up your rig, connect from the controller to the lights that currently work from your controller, daisy chain them together. Then, use your new swap cable to connect from the last in that chain to the first light that is wired as the different polarity, then daisy chain those together.

Hope this helps,

Jamie

[marcol]

Thanks for that jamie, so am I right in sayin that if I had a DMX cable I would simply unsolder the wires from 2 and 3 pin and swap them over, or do I push the pins out of the plug and swop them back through the alternate holes (assuming a male lead) would this not be the same as swopping the cbales inside the light as I tried this and it failed?

Many Thanks

[Paul James Promotions]

Could you explain more about how you have altered the wiring inside the light?

You would need to alter the wiring on both the input and output connections on the first unit in the second part of the DMX chain in order for all the reversed lights to work.

[marcol]

Thanks jamie, what I did was unsolder the wire to pin 2 and 3 on both the in and out sockets of the light, swop them so 2 wire became attached to 3 pin and vice versa and resolder etc. Then I connected the unit directly to the DMX and terminated the output. But there was no DMX signal at all..

This is how the set up is at the moment

DMX = Led Pin spot (x2 to same address), KScope to address 17, Moving Heads (x2 to same address) address 33, Laser address 49, then the mad (abstract lights) address 65, terminate at the last light.

the only way i have got this to work with all the lights is to run the mad lights through the original "Mad Controller" as the controller also has an in and out for DMX, but it's erratic and I dont want the Mad controller as part of the set up.

Thanks for showing an interset in this, it really is driving me Mad.

[Paul James Promotions]

You would need to reverse the pins on the input, not the output. Re-wire the light back to it's original state, make up the swap cable that I mentioned, then wire up your rig as you stated in your last post, and all should turn out well

[marcol]

Jamie, A big thank you. I got the electrical shop next door to swap the wires on pin 2 and 3 on the female end of the XLR cable, plugged that into the last dasiy chain part of the batch of lights and the other end in the first abstract light, terminating at the last abstract light and bingo it did the job. I can rest at last and now program the light show.

Thanks again....