blinding Posted July 12, 2005 Posted July 12, 2005 Things I have never understood about DMX: If 5-pin is the standard for DMX512 why are 2 of the pins never used? Is that just over design? Is it like that for future compatability? Is DMX an acronym? If so, what does is stand for? Why wasn't a standard reached regarding which pin was hot (+)...... most of them are now 3 aren't they? Cheers!
Flyingwysiwyg Posted July 12, 2005 Posted July 12, 2005 Things I have never understood about DMX: If 5-pin is the standard for DMX512 why are 2 of the pins never used? Is that just over design? Is it like that for future compatability? Is DMX an acronym? If so, what does is stand for? Why wasn't a standard reached regarding which pin was hot (+)...... most of them are now 3 aren't they? Cheers!<{POST_SNAPBACK}> Hi Blinding, The two extra pins are sometimes used to carry an extra universe of DMX (1024 channels down one 5 core cable). Quite neat if you need to run a couple of universes without having two DMX cables taped together. However you would need to extend those cables with 5 core wired DMX extensions, which are not "standard issue", which can be a bit of a pain if you're relying on a hire stock. DMX stands for Digital MultipleX You are correct, pin 3 is hot. (Pin 5 is hot if you're using the extra two cores) A very good book for DMX is: Recommended Practice for DMX 512 available from PLASA by Adam Bennette. Cheers, F - Wyg
Tom Baldwin Posted July 12, 2005 Posted July 12, 2005 Things I have never understood about DMX:If 5-pin is the standard for DMX512 why are 2 of the pins never used? Is that just over design? Is it like that for future compatability? <{POST_SNAPBACK}>- to provide easy differentiation of DMX cables from others- to support feedback from dimmers to desk (ESTA never specified how this would work, but reserved the pins for this). Using them for a second universe would work, but is not in accordance with the standard Is DMX an acronym? If so, what does is stand for?<{POST_SNAPBACK}>Digital MultipleX Why wasn't a standard reached regarding which pin was hot (+)...... most of them are now 3 aren't they?<{POST_SNAPBACK}>It is defined in the standard.Martin didn't follow the standard (on two counts) when they first used 3 pin XLR for DMX, so that they could use the same connector wiring which their own proprietary protocol used. HTH Tom
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