zaleave Posted April 18, 2008 Share Posted April 18, 2008 I am a noise girl by trade so all you uber advanced lampies don't shoot me for this question! We have an Accent 3 AMX unit that controls (partly) our house-light system. The issue is that every incoming company (quite rightly) whines as they can't control the lights via the lighting desk and have to actually do some work by pushing one button on a remote control unit. Is it possible to get a DMX style unit to tie the 2 together? ie. buy / make an interface that would allow me to plug a DMX cable in the one side and wire into the AMX unit from the other and bob's your transvestite auntie? (of sorts) If anyone wants a mental challenge or equally wants to show off their massive brain and ego by just knowing things, please answer my post!! Many thanks in advance!:) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Lee Posted April 18, 2008 Share Posted April 18, 2008 If it is the AMX system I am thinking about, then that is just a controller system. If you find out what dimmers run your houselights it may be possible they can be controlled by DMX natively. That way you would just need to run a DMX lead to them and give the tech the DMX address so he can patch his desk. Just an idea to start you off. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cfmonk Posted April 18, 2008 Share Posted April 18, 2008 You can definitely do it IIRC we did the same thing in our theatre at school but we were controlling analogue dimmers through DMX. I will drop a line to some old contacts and see if they have the diagrams! Chris Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wuddy Posted April 18, 2008 Share Posted April 18, 2008 Are you meaning one of THESE. Axcent 3 is an enviroment controller, AMX is the manufacturer, control protocol is RS232? If it is one of those also look at HERE and navigate to Axcent 3 page Edit: to change linky info Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
niall Posted April 18, 2008 Share Posted April 18, 2008 You can definitely do it IIRC we did the same thing in our theatre at school but we were controlling analogue dimmers through DMX. I will drop a line to some old contacts and see if they have the diagrams! Chris however, that may have been 0-10V analogue and not AMX which is a different protocol. DMX to analogue demuxes are easy to come by! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cfmonk Posted April 18, 2008 Share Posted April 18, 2008 You are entirely correct. My mistake! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dbuckley Posted April 19, 2008 Share Posted April 19, 2008 Problem here is terminology; Say AMX to a Lampie and he'll think you are talking about a lighting control protocol called AMX192, much like when one says DMX one means DMX512. (pet hate note) AMX can also mean a manufacturer of environmental control systems, same as Crestron, and their kit is often seen in boardrooms and auditoria, and high end homes. Looks like you have the latter, an AMX control system. The real question is what are the dimmers actually controlling the lights? They may be DMX (see, I slipped; I meant DMX512) controllable, or maybe something else controllable, and something can be interfaced. But as of this moment, there isn't enough information to answer the question. Quick edit for speeling. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bryson Posted April 19, 2008 Share Posted April 19, 2008 It will probably help your Googling and dealing with suppliers if you note that it's an Axcent 3. Best bet is to call AMX themselves, I would have thought. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zaleave Posted April 19, 2008 Author Share Posted April 19, 2008 Thank you all so much! Wow, what a reply! You've all given me lots to think about and look at when I get back to work tomorrow, so I'll see what's happening behind the scenes and update you all in the next 48... The Goose flies at night... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pheonixtech Posted April 20, 2008 Share Posted April 20, 2008 Just on a side note, where the hell can you get 0-10V to DMX convertors? Excuse my newbie'ish question.Thanks in advance :P Alex Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
david.elsbury Posted April 20, 2008 Share Posted April 20, 2008 Search for MUX or multiplexer Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pheonixtech Posted April 20, 2008 Share Posted April 20, 2008 Search for MUX or multiplexer Thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Biskit Posted April 22, 2008 Share Posted April 22, 2008 Just on a side note, where the hell can you get 0-10V to DMX convertors? Just wondering why you would want to? If you're looking to control DMX dimmers/fixtures from an old analogue desk it could well be cheaper, and almost certainly more reliable, to buy a basic DMX desk instead. Ben. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pheonixtech Posted April 23, 2008 Share Posted April 23, 2008 Just on a side note, where the hell can you get 0-10V to DMX convertors? Just wondering why you would want to? If you're looking to control DMX dimmers/fixtures from an old analogue desk it could well be cheaper, and almost certainly more reliable, to buy a basic DMX desk instead. Ben. Well, Basiclly, We're upgrading to DMX, and I want to be able to control my 2 analog dimmer packs (Strand Tempus) from the new DMX controller. We're getting a set of moving mirrors and we've already got a bar's worth of lights on another Analog and DMX Zero88 Pack, and this is why I want to upgrade to DMX. Also, to make things worse, were on rather a tight budget and our maximum spend is around £200 at the moment. Sorry if what ive said above is a bit confusing. Alex ;) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Modge Posted April 23, 2008 Share Posted April 23, 2008 I see the problem here: People have read what you said rather than what you meant: what you need is a DMX to analogue converter, not the other way round.The key difference here is that it's called a DeMux, not a MUX and they're far more common and much cheaper. I can happily recommend the zero88 version, though others on here regularly recommend others, which may well be perfectly good, but personally I've only used the zero88 DeMux (which can do the -10v flavour of analogue as needed by your dimmers but may be seen as over kill being as you only need 12 ways). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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