DMX Lighting

Hi,

I've got a number of questions regarding the DMX gateway 5500DMX

Apologies if these are stupid questions but it's my 1st time doing DMX and there's currently no technical support in the UK and suddenly got 3 different jobs requiring it

I have a job where there are 3 areas of DMX lighting (colour change LED strip) all on different circuits and quite a distance between them.

My plans are to have the 5500DMX in the comms room with the rest of the CBus.

The DMX drivers I'm hoping to use are
http://www.sdllighting.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/px24500.pdf


1
Do I need 1 5500DMX per circuit or does 1 do all 3. I'm guessing it's one per circuit but please confirm.

2
Can I just use a Cat 5 between the 5500DMX and the DMX Drivers or does it need to be a specialist DMX cable?

3
The SDL DMX driver also needs a 12/24v supply from a power supply. Does this need to be switched from a CBus relay or just need a permanant supply. I'm not sure if you can select off from DMX or need to kill the power to all?

3
I have a client with just a warm white LED strip and he wants to change to DMX. There is a 3 core cable going from the comms room where the CBus relays/dimmers are to the drivers above kitchen units. Could I use this cable for DMX or again does it need to be specialist DMX cable?


4
For a different job again they are using a fibre optic unit which they want to control with DMX
https://starscape.co.uk/fibre_optic_light_source.html
What would the cabling be to the DMX versions of this and would all the DMX ones be compatible?


Thanks in advance for your help. I really do appreciate it
Mike

 

The 5500DMX supports 12 DMX channels so you can drive up to 4 RGB led strips per controller. Just remember DMX is a daisy chain bus so you must connect the 5500DMX to the DMXin of the first controller, then the DMXout to the DMXin of the second controller etc.

DMX specifies shielded twisted pair cable with specific specifications (this is not the same a microphone cable even though that is often shielded twisted pair and uses similar plugs). The shield is connected at both ends and provides the earth reference. CAT5 using one pair as the D+ D- and a second pair (or single) as an earth would probably work but noise margins would be compromised. Use the designed cable.

Turning the power off to the drivers isn't a requirement as you normally just turn off the individual RGB leds. The only advantage is that it saves the standby power of the drivers. A disadvantage in turning off the power is you will need special logic to determine when to switch the power on/off (i.e.turn on when any of the led group addresses is > 0, turn off when all 3 led groups are = 0).

As mentioned above, DMX specifies STP (shielded twisted pair). If you don't use it, you're on your own.

From the instructions, this device uses 4 DMX addresses, so that's 1/3 of a 5500DMX. Cabling is no different from any other DMX device.

 

Hi Ashley,

Thanks so much for such a quick reply even on a Sunday

The majority all makes sense now but I'd just like to confirm one bit

With you saying each 5500DMX will control 4 LED Strips would they always be doing the same thing or if they are in different rooms which they are could they be doing different things?

Thanks again
Mike

 

The 5500DMX controls a single DMX chain (called a Universe) that daisy chains between devices. One DMX chain can control up to 256 channels. The 5500DMX can control any 12 of the 256 channels. Using Toolkit, you map 12 CBus group addresses to any 12 of the 256 DMX channels. As an RGB strip light requires 3 channels (i.e. R, G and B) a single 5500DMX can control 4 sets of RGB lights completely independently.

If you have a logic device you may find this thread useful:

http://www.cbusforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=8657&highlight=hsv

 

That's great, thanks again for your help