Our website is made possible by displaying online advertisements to our visitors.
Please consider supporting us by disabling your ad blocker.
Page 1 of 16 12311 ... LastLast
Results 1 to 10 of 151

Thread: Wireless DMX retro fit of my fixtures!

  1. #1
    bmdj's Avatar
    Join Date
    Sep 2012
    Location
    rotherham
    Age
    48
    Posts
    96

    Default Wireless DMX retro fit of my fixtures!

    Hi All!
    I love building and hacking stuff, I built my first twin deck when I was 13, using some old BSR turntables and a realistic mixer from Tandy, anyway ..............

    I've just been working on retro fitting some of my fixtures and my Daslight DVC3 controller to give them wireless DMX capability. I have seen the modules that are commercially available but wanted my current kit to be wireless. I have two Brightlight/Stairville/Chauvet Indigio 150 moving heads which don't get the use they deserve as I hate having to run the dmx cables. Anyway looking on ebay I found some OEM modules from a nice man in China, basically not cased, just the PCB, that got me thinking I could retro fit my own kit. The modules are about £20 each but they act as both a transmitter or receiver, they auto detect.

    Once wirelessly retro-fitted the fixtures then become a DMX hub that I can wire out to other fixtures nearby from the rear XLRs! So far I have not had any issue with these and all connect seamlessly. One think I have found is that some ADJ fixtures seem to send out their own dmx signal for master/slaving units together; this can confuse the modules, as they pick up on the signal outputted from the master fixture, then think they are the transmitter, the trick here is to turn the transmitter on first then, using one of my external wireless DMX modules (last photo), plug this into the fixture after it has established a wireless link to the transmitter; it will then set itself up as a receiver.




    Ok blog over, here are some pics


    First this is the OEM dmx module about 20mm x 60mm, it has wires for +5v DC, Ground, Data+, Data- and an antenna cable.
    Name:  dmxmodule.jpg
Views: 4406
Size:  84.7 KB


    Ok next was to open the base of my moving head fiind a space and 5v from one of the boards, then attach it to the DMX of the fixture. There was space just behind the display; the display PCB was supplied with 5v and had the dmx from the rear XLR's, so tapped off from them with some careful soldering. Also I didnt want to drill my fixture, and there was some vents where the LED and channel select button could just poke through. The DMX Pcb was secured with sticky tie wrap pads.
    Name:  inside head.jpg
Views: 3587
Size:  42.1 KB


    This is the bottom of the fixture showing the LED and Channel buttons from the DMX PCB, poking through the vent.
    Name:  head bottom.jpg
Views: 3177
Size:  62.6 KB

    As I said I didnt want to dril the fixture but the antenna had to come out somwhere so a small hole was drilled inside the handle recess on the bottom of the fixture, so the antenna was both hidden and protected
    Name:  antenna.jpg
Views: 2877
Size:  16.4 KB


    I use a Daslight DVC3 controller which can be used with a PC or standalone, so wanted that to be wireless capable as well. Luckily these units are very versatile and have break out solder points on the PCB already, so retro fitting this was easy!
    Name:  daslight .jpg
Views: 3715
Size:  62.1 KB


    Ok so what about other fixtures, well I briefly had a look inside one of my LEDJ 7Q5 LED Par/Uplighters and its abit too tight so I've opted, for now, to use this external module I built to wirelessly enable fixture I don't want too hack.
    Name:  boxed module.jpg
Views: 3050
Size:  59.5 KB



    First proper outing is this friday, but I have used these modules before, which gave me the confidence to retro fit them into my fixtures. With regards to compatibility or commerical units, I don't know as Ive not got any, or tested any, but would be interesting to see if they worked with the ADJ wireless DMX units
    Last edited by bmdj; 24-02-2014 at 12:19 AM.

  2. #2

    Join Date
    Jan 2009
    Location
    Bristol
    Age
    45
    Posts
    3,487

    Default

    Very interesting, thanks for sharing - I'm just considering doing this myself. My only possible criticism is that it might not be a good idea to block the vents in the moving heads? You can get sticky backed "Stand offs" for PCB's which would solve this problem though (they'd just replace your sticky backed cable ties) and they'd also be sure to keep the back of the PCB off the metal case.

    Can you give a link to the Wireless DMX modules you found? It'd be good to start with something tried and tested if I go down this route myself?

    Julian
    http://www.bristoldiscohire.co.uk - Quality Disco and Equipment hire for Bristol & Bath
    Weddings, Birthday Parties, Kids Parties, School Disco's and more
    https://julianburr.co.uk - Wedding, Family, Portrait and Product Photography

  3. #3
    bmdj's Avatar
    Join Date
    Sep 2012
    Location
    rotherham
    Age
    48
    Posts
    96

    Thumbs up

    Hi,
    I get mine from http://www.ebay.co.uk/usr/haiking_lighting only because I have used them before so know what Im getting. There are plenty of them, best putting in an offer to get them cheaper, Ive just ordered another 4. If more people wanted them I might be tempted to buy a bulk load. Obviously there may be import tax on these but it wouldn't be much.

    They also do a ready made module built into an XLR case but again these need a 5v psu brick to be plugged in somewhere for power.

    The pcb actually back stands back from the vents so doesnt block them, so plenty of air flow still getting in.
    Last edited by bmdj; 24-02-2014 at 12:14 PM.

  4. #4

    Join Date
    Jan 2009
    Location
    Bristol
    Age
    45
    Posts
    3,487

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by bmdj View Post
    I get mine from http://www.ebay.co.uk/usr/haiking_lighting only because I have used them before so know what Im getting. There are plenty of them, best putting in an offer to get them cheaper, Ive just ordered another 4. If more people wanted them I might be tempted to buy a bulk load. Obviously there may be import tax on these but it wouldn't be much.
    Ah, he doesn't have a lot on his eBay store at present. I'll have a look at some of the other eBay sellers, it looks like they've all got pretty much the same product.

    Quote Originally Posted by bmdj View Post
    The pcb actually back stands back from the vents so doesnt block them, so plenty of air flow still getting in.
    Cool, I couldn't tell from the photos

    Julian
    http://www.bristoldiscohire.co.uk - Quality Disco and Equipment hire for Bristol & Bath
    Weddings, Birthday Parties, Kids Parties, School Disco's and more
    https://julianburr.co.uk - Wedding, Family, Portrait and Product Photography

  5. #5
    bmdj's Avatar
    Join Date
    Sep 2012
    Location
    rotherham
    Age
    48
    Posts
    96

    Default

    Theres plenty on Aliexpress.com as well http://m.aliexpress.com/search.htm?k...eless%20%20pcb

  6. #6

    Join Date
    Jan 2009
    Location
    Bristol
    Age
    45
    Posts
    3,487

    Default

    6 units from eBay later and I thought I'd share my experience of doing a retrofit of my own. For the transmitter (velcro'd to the side of my DMXKing), the Micro Fusion washes and my lighting T-Bar I bought a bunch of ABS boxes from Maplins (N80BQ) which fit the units perfectly with a short fly leads for DMX out and power.

    For the transmitter I'm drawing power from a USB port from my laptop (quoted power drain is 500ma which is spot on for USB, but in practice these units draw less than 50ma in use), for the 3 boxed receivers, I'm pulling 5V from the CA-9 connector on the back of the Cougars and Micro Fusions so I haven't had to break into the fixtures at all (and also there's no space at all in the Micro Fusions!!)

    For the Equinox Ballero's I mounted the units inside the fixtures and pulled a 5v supply from the back of the control PCB as there's a lot of air in these fixtures and they're a plastic chassis which is easy to drill (I'm less shy about drilling into fixtures!)

    The first conversions took a couple of hours, the last one took about 45mins. Most of this time was spent drilling fixtures/boxes to mount the PCB's, making the electrical connections takes minutes.

    The Ballero's are older moving heads so with these there are no issues with the fixtures trying to switch to master and the transceivers moving to transmit - they literally power up and run instantly. With the Cougar's and the Micro Fusions the power up sequence is a little more complicated (especially when I chain a pair of ADJ Jellydome's off a Cougar) as the fixtures keep trying to flip to master/slave so the transceiver keeps trying to switch to transmit. Because of this it looks like I have to get the transmitter going first, then power up the fixtures, then manually force the Cougar/Micro fusion into DMX mode (so A001 is shown on the control panel) and then connect the transceiver. I note the OP had this issue as well...

    I have identified a couple of DMX transceiver buffer chips that I could use to stop this problem (by effectively making the DMX communication one way on the chain) but they're expensive, bulky (compared to the transceivers) and really hard to get hold of. If the components on the transceiver weren't so small I'm pretty sure I could either disable the DMX receiver part of the transceiver's DMX interface or disconnect the receiver line to force the transceiver to always run as a wireless receiver. I could probably do this by grounding the receive line on the edge of the transceiver PCB, but I'm not sure if this might damage the buffer IC on the board so I'm reluctant to try it.

    Next up on the list is wireless DMX for a few of my PAR's - I'm pretty sure there's going to be space in these to mount the units internally - every PAR I've opened up to date has been mostly air and the physical size has more to do with the space required for the power/XLR connectors than anything else

    Julian
    http://www.bristoldiscohire.co.uk - Quality Disco and Equipment hire for Bristol & Bath
    Weddings, Birthday Parties, Kids Parties, School Disco's and more
    https://julianburr.co.uk - Wedding, Family, Portrait and Product Photography

  7. #7
    yourdj's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2008
    Location
    The New Forest
    Age
    43
    Posts
    7,110

    Default

    I am interested in this - I saw those on Ebay too.

    All my lighting is wireless DMX but I have a couple of moving heads coming so will give it a go.

    I have a IEC powered box for the main lighting and the uplighting is wireless from another generic sender, so can route through one of them.
    Your DJ - Mobile DJ The New Forest, Southampton & Hampshire. Toby
    https://yourdj.co.uk/

  8. #8

    Join Date
    Jul 2014
    Location
    United States
    Age
    40
    Posts
    1

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by bmdj View Post
    Theres plenty on Aliexpress.com as well http://m.aliexpress.com/search.htm?k...eless%20%20pcb
    This is my first post to the forums (after a week of waiting to be approved, but it's done!) Anyways this thread brought me here and I have quite a bit of questions.

    First of all, how easy is it to find a 5V lead on most fixtures? I have a similar DAS Light controller (LumiDesk) which is identical in size. Are you able to share more photos of that install, particularly where you were able to find the 5V solder point on the controller?

    Thanks for this info so far. I love it.

  9. #9
    bmdj's Avatar
    Join Date
    Sep 2012
    Location
    rotherham
    Age
    48
    Posts
    96

    Default

    Hi I'm pretty sure the pcb is screen printed with the connections inside, my Daslight interface has a multi-connector on the side for an external switch interface and also has some internal pads on the pcb; you're best looking at the manual or opening up the case and having a look.

  10. #10

    Join Date
    Sep 2014
    Location
    Flin Flon canada
    Posts
    1

    Default More pictures

    Can some one post pictures of how these wireless dmx pcb are hooked to power and xlr. Thank you

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •