DMX 5Pin / 3Pin

[Wessy]

Ok this isn't as technical as most of the questions on here, but as I'm thick and fairly new to DMX here goes.....

 

I have six DMX fixtures, 4 of them are 5Pin and the other 2 are 3 pin, I want to run them in the following order

 

Dynamo(3pin) - DMX250(5pin) - DataMoon(5pin) - Datamoon(5pin) - DMX250(5pin) - Dynamo(3pin)

 

Will a normal 3-5pin converter from fleabay and the reverse do the trick or do they have to be reverse polarity? I'm not sure what the latter means but somebody mentioned this to me so thought I best check first.

 

Thanks

 

Lee

[PaulDF]

Unless your fittings are reverse polarity the normal converters should work fine using 3-5 pin converters, in a lot of 5pin cables only pins 1,2 and 3 are connected.

The pinout is as follows:

Pin 1 = Ground

Pin 2 = Data -

Pin 3 = Data +

 

In a reverse polarity situation pins 2&3 are swopped so 2 is Data+ and 3 is Data-.

My only pet hate of 3pin equipment is confusion with sound equipment!

[mrjammy83]

AND

 

While your on the purchase of adapter etc. get yourself a DMX terminator. will cover you form annoying glitchy signal you often get with lower end kit.

 

I have run DMX to acme winners and rovers for years without a terminator. and never had a problem.

 

along came some LEDj parcans and BOOM. wiggly twitchy mirrors everywhere.

 

bought a terminator ( cheaper on ebay than it was to buy the bit to make one) and they stop misbehaving instantly.

 

 

HTH

 

james

[swampman]

Would it be an idea to buy a splitter with 3 & 5 pin out some come with inversion +/- of pins 2&3? Would help if you change your layout.

Subject to loss of guarantee (permissions to mofify...) could you add/replace 3 or 5 pin and have them all the same?

 

Termination is just an XLR with a resistor soldered in it to absorb end of line reflections - some commercial terminators give little flashes to tell you they are alive and "something" is getting that far - not always a usable signal (can be inverted, weak, corrupted - only a good one deals with those issues.)

[Jeremy MLS]

If you could change the order of your lights slightly - at least cabling wise, you could go into the mac250 5pin DMX and then use the 3pin DMX out of the Mac250 to go to the lights that require a 3 pin connection. As far as I can remember you should also still be able to use the 5pin out on the Mac250 and it will work fine. :)

[Bruff]

Ok this isn't as technical as most of the questions on here, but as I'm thick and fairly new to DMX here goes.....

 

I have six DMX fixtures, 4 of them are 5Pin and the other 2 are 3 pin, I want to run them in the following order

 

Dynamo(3pin) - DMX250(5pin) - DataMoon(5pin) - Datamoon(5pin) - DMX250(5pin) - Dynamo(3pin)

 

Will a normal 3-5pin converter from fleabay and the reverse do the trick or do they have to be reverse polarity? I'm not sure what the latter means but somebody mentioned this to me so thought I best check first.

 

Thanks

 

Lee

 

One thing to be aware of with the Datamoons - pins 4 & 5 are used to supply power to the hand controllers when used in stand-alone mode. This is not an issue when driving them with DMX, but for stand-alone mode they need 5-pin connectors and 4-core (+screen) cable.

[spartacus]

Yes you can use the MAC250s as 3 to 5 pin converters. I've done this before and have had no problems.

+ 1 for buying a terminator or 2. It eliminates a possible problem that is just waiting to happen.

[smalljoshua]

You can't however use both the 3 pin and the 5 pin outputs on them simultaneously. Nor is this possible on the original (Mac 250/250+) Macs as they are 3 pin only.

 

Josh

[spartacus]

That's right. I should have made that more explicit. Thankyou for clarifying.

[mrjammy83]

so as not to confuss the OP

 

he does not have mac250's

 

the fixture he states is the DMX250 these are scanners made by NJD (correct me if I'm wrong)

 

 

 

with regard to making your own terminator. yes its simple with just an XLR and resistor. yet form my experience it was far cheaper to buy a complete one then it was to get the component parts and do it myself.#