REQ help on hooking up this undocumented dm-160 programmer to dm-101 LED control

robt

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This seemed the most appropriate forum, i hope this is ok.

I have one one of the dm-101 led controllers ( http://www.aliexpress.com/item/D​M-101-4-channel-RGBW-dmx-constant​-current-decoder-DC12-24V-input-6​00ma-4channel-output/867988923.ht​ml) and the programmer dm-160, does anyone know how to hook up the dm-160?

There are no instructions, it seems simple enough, so i gave it a shot and it's not working the way i think it should.

I have dmx from dm-160 hooked to dmx on dm-101. The dm-101 has only one set of solder pads for dmx, i guess you wire in two sets of wires to it and use it for both dmx IN and OUT, that's the way i have it hooked up now, and seems to work, but i'm using very short cables for testing..

Pout on dm-160 to Pin on controller, controller powered by its own 12v (LED needs 12v), and dm-160 has its own 5v supply.

Results.. I had no idea what to do with it, the buttons have lables that's the only clue. Apparently the SET button increases the channel number. I held it down by mistake and went to far so i had to increment all the way up and cycle through to the lower numbers again. I missed it again! So i said heck with it and used channel 7. I hot write. It beeped. I hit test, nothing. Out of curiosity i cycled the dmx numbers one at a time.

Channel 9 causes white to pulse o on and off, same with 10. I didn't find another channel that does anything else. But this is a four channel controller hooked to a 4 channel led (rgbw), and it's already been tested with a dmx controller, everything works. I never thought something so seemingly simple could be so puzzling (besides those cool little chinese puzzles. These are made in china, maybe they're made by the same company).

The dm-101 controller has a Pin and Pout, as said, i have Pin on dm-101 hooked to Pout on dm160. Maybe there needs to be something hooked to Pout on dm-101? Electricity does need a return for there to be current, but i'm not an electronics genius. The Pout on the dm-101 i'm pretty sure would normally go to the Pin on another dm-101 and you can have lots of them hooked that way and have the dm-160 cascade the addresses so you don't have to do them 1 by one, but i'm just using one to make sure i'm not frying anything if i hook it up wrong. Any ideas?

Have searched, i found a few forums where people seem to have it working, but didn't get replies, have posted on occasion, no replies, have emailed and called the mfo replies, have emailed ray wu 2 times (i bought them from ray), no reply (has been weeks, i know he's got to be super busy though). Have emailed other stores, i got a reply once that said they'd find out from mfg, but never responded after that.

Thanks for any info!

Rob
 

robt

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p.s. i have seen instructions on various pages that sell the dm-160, but they are translated from something, probably chinese, and, well they work ok as clues, but still they say nothing about how to hook up.
 

robt

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I just used the SET button to go to channel 1, hit WRITE, now channel 1 and 2 pulse white on and off, no other channels do anything (the dm-101 and the LED ar four channels for RGBW)
 

robt

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I just found that there are TWO dm-160 programmers! The link i sent last time, and this one:

http://www.aliexpress.com/store/product/DM-160-DMX-editor-for-setting-dmx-address-of-our-DM-series-dmx-decoders/701799_868004494.html

One is red (the one i have), one is blue, but i don't see any difference in the specs. The red does sat 12-24v, the blue just 12v. But the power connector says 5v, and that's what i have it hooked up with, i don't know why it says one thing on the page and another on the controller.

I just noticed that the blue one doesn't have Pin or Pout. That seems to imply that it should work without Pout connected? Maybe that's messing with something, will try it..
 

robt

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Same thing, but it does work without Pout hooked up. I went to ch5, hit write, the led's red comes and stays on. I hot test. nothing. I go to ch6, white pulses on and off, i got to 7, white pulses on and off, no other channels do anything. Confused..
 

robt

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Pin and Pout must be used only when cascading addresses. (?) I wish there was some form of documentation. usually even the simplest devices have instructions:

When you want light on, turn switch to on. When you want light off, turn switch to off.
 

robt

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So i pressed SET to get to channel 17, then hit write. As usual when i hit test, the light goes out. I ignored that and disconnected, hooked up to my dmx controller. Now channels 65-68 control the RGB&W. Something funny is going on. Shouldn't they be controlled on channels 17-20?
 

AAH

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It would appear that it's now controlling the 17th group of 4.
 

robt

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I gave up for awhile to work on other projects and finally had more time to waste. This is a project i've been working on as i have time for about a year. Most of the light fixtures are working, this is one of the few problems i haven't been able to find a solution to.


I am using several dm-101 drivers and trying to program addresses using a dm-160 programmer. Is anyone familiar with the programmer? Thanks to AAH i realized that the display doesn't show addresses, but address ranges. But i *still* don't know how to make it cascade.


The dm-101 boards have a d+ and d- for DMX plus and minus. I have two sets of wires hooked to these and use one for dmx in and one for dmx out. Right now i have two dm-101 hooked to each other via their DMX in this fashion and the work fine using a standard DMX controller.


But i'll eventually have dozens of LEDs, and i can't get them to cascade- supposedly they will cascade the addresses- so you program the first one to address 1, and it automatically programs the other dmx-101's that are hooked to it with successive channels. Right now it just seems to program *both* of them with the same address when i hit the write button.


I haven't been able to find any other similar questions in other forums, maybe noone else in the world uses these, or i'm the only one that's not sharp enough to figure it out.


Thanks for any help:)


Rob
 

David_AVD

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If the driver only has one set of D+ and D- wires, I'd say you have to program them one at a time the same as the common $7 3-channel DMX drivers Ray sells.
 

fasteddy

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These controllers have to be set one at a time and not connected together

Most here do not use the ray Chinese controller option as there are much better options and community support using the community based controllers like J1sys, Sandevices, Advatek and others
 

robt

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I have an e6804 and a few others, great for led strips, not quite as useful for the way i want to set up the high power LEDs just because they're spread out. But the other controllers are amazing!


Thanks for saying- just surprised to hear, the dm-160 controller was designed specifically for that series (dm-xxx) of led driver, do you know which driver they will cascade with?
 
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