Jivemaster Posted April 17, 2009 Share Posted April 17, 2009 I'm going to need to send DMX about 120m along the bed of a lake to a pontoon. Does anyone supply reels longer that the usual 100m of the appropriate cable? OR is there a reliable way of IP68+ jointing cable? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andrew C Posted April 17, 2009 Share Posted April 17, 2009 CAT 5 in 305m reels. Should fit the bill! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
timmath Posted April 17, 2009 Share Posted April 17, 2009 TMB do Proplex in reels of up to 500m. Have you considered wireless DMX? it would make the load out much easier. If you go down the Cat 5 route, beware most of the cable is not designed for outdoor use and has a 'semi permeable' plastic exterior - not what you want under water! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TomLyall Posted April 17, 2009 Share Posted April 17, 2009 If you don't manage to get hold of a longer drum, a soldered joint covered in a reasonable length of adhesive lined heatshrink should be fine underwater. Depending on how long the job has to last I'd be inclined to go with the Cat5 idea suggested above. If you're going to be buying 305m of it anyway it might be wise to do a couple of runs along different routes. That'd give you 8 pairs, would probably be worth adding a buffer at the start and a merge at the other to give a fair bit of redundancy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
showman Posted April 17, 2009 Share Posted April 17, 2009 If you are considering the investment for that much cable: as timmuth said, Go the little bit extra and invest in a wireless DMX system? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dosxuk Posted April 17, 2009 Share Posted April 17, 2009 Cable will always be more reliable than a wireless system though. I'd also go along the CAT5 route. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drsound Posted April 17, 2009 Share Posted April 17, 2009 What's the range of wireless DMX? I've only ever used it for short (<25m) hops. To be honest DMX is robust enough to go along pretty much whatever cable you like. You might want to buffer it at each end but in the absence of sources of RFI you could probably get away with bell wire. It depends on just how important the job is and how much of a disaster a failure would represent. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul J Need Posted April 17, 2009 Share Posted April 17, 2009 We sell DST110 ohm DMX cable on drums up to 500m also Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wol Posted April 17, 2009 Share Posted April 17, 2009 There seem to be lots of people wanting to light stuff in middle of lakes. I've seen a few threads like this before so might be worth a search on possible alternatives too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keeper of the Keys Posted April 17, 2009 Share Posted April 17, 2009 There are wireless DMX transmitters out there that can cover 500m-1km easily, if I'm not mistaken the manufacturer of the wireless system used at the Olympics boasts of a potential range of 2,5km...(a quick look at wirelessdmx.com suggests a potential of 3,2km when the right antennae are used, their system also costs an arm and a leg though) A word to the wise, which has been said here countless times: if you want to avoid starnge unexplained problems with you DMX signal only use cable fit to transmit DMX on it, ie. twisted pair 100-150 Ohm (data) cable or CAT 5, 5E or 6 (if you have the conversion equipment you could also use fiber-optic but that again costs an arm and a leg but it does allow larger distances) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jivemaster Posted April 17, 2009 Author Share Posted April 17, 2009 The job will run for 12 hours on site maximum from arrival to clearing out, but there is a lot of reputation hanging on one wire to think only of the cheapest solution. The entire show will run off the one wire :P Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drsound Posted April 17, 2009 Share Posted April 17, 2009 If it's an important job then buy decent cable. If it were me I'd do at least two full runs. Could can always chop it up later to make shorter leads if you want. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
niclights Posted April 17, 2009 Share Posted April 17, 2009 Give AC a call and explain the job. Two runs of Tourflex (per universe) would be the way I'd go for reliability with a switch at FOH and a merge at the other end. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete McCrea Posted April 17, 2009 Share Posted April 17, 2009 ...but there is a lot of reputation hanging on one wire to think only of the cheapest solution. The entire show will run off the one wire So I'd be putting in a decent pair of 'standard' DMX wires that would then go into stock, and a back up CAT5 as a real Justin (case). But then I do get nervous. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pritch Posted April 17, 2009 Share Posted April 17, 2009 would probably be worth adding a buffer at the start and a merge at the other to give a fair bit of redundancy. Surely that would mean that if one line started acting a bit funny (as opposed to going completely open-circuit), then any jitters/errors/whatever you want to call it would get carried through to the rig? I'd agree that some sort of redundancy is in order, but there should really be a way of removing a faulty line completely, if required. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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