DMX Female 5-pin to Female 5-pin Adapter

[s-p]

Hi

 

Apologies if this question has been asked before, no doubt it has, but as you can appreciate searching for this kind of topic brings up hundreds of results.

 

Basically, where can I purchase one of the above? I have a long 5-pin XLR cable I need to use, but it's male to male which isn't much use for my application. I'd prefer not to rewire one end, so where can I get one of these adapters please?

 

Any help appreciated,

sp

[Gilly]

Basically, where can I purchase one of the above? I have a long 5-pin XLR cable I need to use, but it's male to male which isn't much use for my application. I'd prefer not to rewire one end, so where can I get one of these adapters please?

 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

I assume the cable you refer to is intended for use as a DMX cable. If this is the case then I would suggest that you do re-terminate one end. DMX as standard has a female connector on the output of a transmitter (desk) and a male on the input of a device. By having non standard lengths of cable you can end up getting very confused, especially when using splitters and suchlike, as these only allow data to pass in one direction.

 

I have not seen pre-made jumpers of this variety; although others may have. If you really wanted one, I think you'd have to make it up, by which time you may as well re-terminate your cable.

[david.elsbury]

Are you sure it's a DMX cable, or cable that's within spec to be used as such, and not something else entirely? Seems a bit funny to me for a DMX cable to be wired as such, as that is not how the spec defines it.

You say you'd prefer not to have to rewire one end, but I think you will find a shortage of DMX female to females, so you'll need to wire two connectors together. Better to rewire the lead I think.

 

David

 

Edit: as already said above...

[paulears]

3 pin m-m and f-f are quite common, but not 5 pins - so buying two 3-5 adaptors and then swapping bit around is the only solution, but it is a very expensive wau of doing it. a couple of 5 pins wired back to back is the cheapest, but still twice as expensive as the solution mentioned by everyone - hack one off and replace it with the correct sex. Or do you actually NEED a male to male for a particular application?

[Jivemaster]

Make a jumper with OK cable and two 5pin male XLRs. or get an XLR 3 pin male to male coupler and two five pin plugs all same make and swap the inserts to give you a M-M 5 pin geender changer ant two three pin plugs (spare)

 

A conventionally correct cable will save confusion later.

[s-p]

Thanks for the quick responses guys.

 

Or do you actually NEED a male to male for a particular application?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Well that's the thing, I don't know why we have this cable - I just assumed that it was for DMX use. I'll just rewire one end I think to save hassle and see if it works ok. Though if it's not designed to be used as DMX then I could look for some proper stuff. In this case, where's the cheapest source of, say, 20-30m, DMX cable?

 

Cheers,

sp

[Freddie]

Sometimes a M-M cable might be needed. What about (as in my school) when the faceplate on the wall FOH is F (It shouldn't be I know, but sometimes...)

 

I'd just hack of an end and terminate it with a F.

 

EDIT: Oops, way too late

[zonino]

do you need 5 pin or can you do it with 3 pin?

[TomLyall]

do you need 5 pin or can you do it with 3 pin?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Don't use mic cable, Please.

 

You can get DMX cables from places such as CPC, and your local hire house, or try somewhere like 10outof10 with an online shop. You should be able to get a 20m DMX cable for a retail price of around £20.

 

Tom

[Mystic]

that's a bit funny because I have a Female-female XLR5 adaptor cable in my stuff, and I was wondering what could it be its use... I never found out, so I kept it in case of need and because if someday I need a female XLR5, I would take it from there. so if someone finds out, please, tell us :huh:

[zonino]

do you need 5 pin or can you do it with 3 pin?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Don't use mic cable, Please.

 

Tom

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

you can get 3 pin DMX specific cable though... such as from terralec which worked out at about 56p a metre IIRC

 

I havent found a 5 pin supplier, hence the asking (can't find the appropriate cable on cpc, guess they have it but havent located it yet!)

[JohnG]

Are you sure it's a DMX cable, or cable that's within spec to be used as such, and not something else entirely?

 

If it is, maybe it was used to connect two desks together. I believe that our DMX 3 port may be configured from its normal DMX OUT to a DMX IN port. This would allow DMX values from secondary console to transfer into my console. In this case the cable might be useful.

 

If this is something you don't see yourself doing I would buy two female 5 pin connectors, cut the cable in half and make two nice extensions.

 

1 Screen/Shield

2 Black DMX512 DATA -

3 White DMX512 DATA +

4 Green No connection

5 Red No connection

 

Best,

 

John G

[chris999998]

Don't use mic cable, Please.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Out of interest, why not?

Surely at the most basic level what is traveling down the cables are electrical signals, doesn't this mean that it shouldn't make a difference (at least not more than a standard audio signal)? Or am I missing something here?

 

Chris

[TomLyall]

Don't use mic cable, Please.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Out of interest, why not?

Surely at the most basic level what is traveling down the cables are electrical signals, doesn't this mean that it shouldn't make a difference (at least not more than a standard audio signal)? Or am I missing something here?

 

Chris

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

It's not the correct type of cable. Although this may not be an issue for short runs, it is likely to cause problems on longer chains and big setups.

 

Most people would only see using mic cable as bad practice, and not necessarily wrong, but why engage in bad practices? It's a false economy anyway.

[paulears]

a quick search of the forum will produce almost equal numbers of people saying that you can/you can not use mic cable. You'll also find many people advising for and against cat 5 cable being brilliant/awful for DMX.

 

The real solid fact is that you are squirting data down the cable, not audio - so anything that corrupts that data is bad. Reflections are quite common causes of odd DMX behaviour, loss of level, less so. interference from external interference may/may not be a problem.

 

terminating the line at the end with 110/120ohm resistor is good pracice, but plenty of people don't do it, and many have never had issues. I have, and don't leave line s unterminated any longer.

 

data cable, such as that sold for DMX, has a characteristic impedance of 110 ohms and should be ideal for ensuring accurate data transmission. XLR plugs are not constant impedance designs and as a result shouldn't be used, but they are written into the DMX spec anyway - so their constribution to DMX problems is insignificant.

 

Depending on what you prefer to believe, use mic cable or don't.

 

My experience is that crap cable is not worth using. I've got real turquoise data cable from canford, yet am quite happy running DMX down decent mic cable - it hasn't caused me any problems - but I always expect one eventually.

 

DMX problems normally trace back to daft things -like last week when we removed one portable dimmer pack fom the DMX chain. It was a strand act6+ with internal termination. Removing it prevented just one channel going out. We were looking for a stuck test button, couldn't find one - then spotted the unplugged cable - proper data cable. sticking it back into the unloaded dimmer pack cured the stuck channel. In this case, the cable wasn't the problem, but as there was some ordinary mic cable in the loop elswhere, I couldn't say if the problem would have gone away if it had been replaced with data cable.

 

 

So this post doesn't help at all, does it. Draw your own conclusions.