Adding DMX

ShellNZ

ShellNZ

Senior elf
Joined
Jun 17, 2012
Messages
892
Location
Karaka, Auckland, NZ
Im trying to understand the world of DMX at the moment.

I am simply looking at possibly adding rainbow floodlights to my display via LoR.

As its all running through LoR S3 I gather I do not need the pricey iDMX-1000.

I just need a dongle like this....http://www.ebay.com/itm/ENTTEC-USB-DMX-PRO-INTERFACE-FREE-OR-LICENSED-SOFTWARE-10-00-INSTANT-OFF-CHURCH-/230817405596?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item35bdca1a9c

It only shows one end, Im assuming the other end is USB or RJ45 connection?

From there I would need e.g a 10m DMX cable that goes from the Output of the dongle to the input of e.g floodlight like this...
http://www.aliexpress.com/store/product/LED-flood-light-36-1W-with-DMX512-controlled-IP65-various-color-available/701799_289763463.html

If I wanted to add my sons green laser DMX light (or another floodlight) then I would run another DMX cable from the first floodlight output to the green laser input. It will then stop there.

Do I have that right?

What does this thing do? http://www.seasonalentertainmentllc.com/store/en/adapters/107-lor-dmx-adapter.html

Cheers everyone
Shell
 
You dont need the IDMX to run DMX with LOR S3, but what you do need is

1: A second LOR dongle running in DMX mode for you DMX network. The entec pro is a good dongle but its expensive. The LOR dongle will do well as an open DMX dongle
2: Advanced license of LOR S3 which allows DMX.

Now the DMX network if used with a LOR dongle will just use CAT5 and will require the adaptor that you linked to. The network is daisy chained form one controller to the other, so if you wanted to connect up that laser then you just need to connect to the daisy chain. You may need a 3pin XLR to RJ45 adaptor (its easy to make one up if needed) when connecting the laser to the DMX network

Now with the rainbow floods they are controlled by a DC controller which LOR do have and may save you the hassle of connecting up a DMX universe, but then you wouldnt be able to run the laser as it is a native DMX controller.

Now after saying all that, LOR will be releasing their E1.31 addon very soon which may make the DMX option not as cost effective especially if you have plans for going to pixels and expanding your display in the future.
 
The cable shown is an adaptor for when you are running lor controllers in dmx and are daisy chaining out to esta pinout dmx controllers. It can also be used if you are using a lor dongle and going out to esta pinouts on a dmx board. Because cat5 cable is so cheap and easily available most of us blinky heads use it for running everywhere rather than 3 or 5 core cable hooked to matching cannon plugs. There's info on the wiki on the various pinout for lor, esta and cannon dmx. If you are looking at controlling via dmx you can run lor controllers in dmx and just use the 1 dongle. In this case each of the lor controllers become 16 dmx channels and need to configured in the sequencer and visualiser.
 
Everyone here gave a lot of great information. This isn't the place to point you in the right directions for our Seasonal Entertainment products but there are a lot of options out there for you to add DMX to LOR very easily. You do it very easily and very inexpensively. If you want to discuss things further you can contact me directly at greg (at) seasonalentertainmentllc.com. Again, this is not the place to discuss our equipment.


One thing you may want to do is read over our Understanding DMX document which lays out all the options for you with mixing LOR and DMX. It can be found on our Downloads page or right here:


https://www.seasonalentertainmentllc.com/pdf/UnderstandingDMX.pdf


Feel free to email me or send me a PM and I can help you put everything together. You can also hit us up on our Live Chat service directly on our site.


Greg
 
oldmanfathertime1000 said:
ShellNZ, This is all you need for a DMX universe for about $29 .
I had my LOR controllers on one of them in LOR mode& some of my 6803 pixel strips on another in DMX mode.

Its a USB to DMX dongle & works great for LOR or DMX

http://store.lightorama.com/uscoad.html
Click to expand...

This is the dongle I was talking about as it can be used as an Open DMX dongle. But you may also need the LOR to DMX adaptor cable that you linked to as the pin configuration of the LOR dongle is different to the DMX standard pin configuration.
 
Greg
Not a bad document, a couple minor errors in it in my opinion and happy to discuss offline, makes it better for everyone.

It's good that early on in the document you make the point that DMX is not hard.

Most LOR users should pick it up in 10 seconds, for a LOR S3 user it just a case of running the software and LOR dongle in DMX mode and then having the adapter cable to change the pinouts when connecting non-lor, standard DMX devices.

From a physical perspective a LOR network and a DMX network (physical cabling) is the same, just the data protocol on top changes.

A cheap LOR dongle and a CAT5 cable wired for pinout change is all that's really required.

Phil
 
Greg,

Will do, thanks, give me a few days and i'll flick you some comments.

We have gone from what has been often sparse information to information overload in the space of 4 years around things like DMX (E1.11) and sACN (E1.31)

Cheers
Phil
 
Thanks everyone for your help. It seems relatively simple and doable but I think I might just leave it for the moment and come back to it.

Im prob in a lil over my head jumping into this so quickly, I better just get this years lights/LOR in order first, then work out where if anywhere to go from there :)
 
If its just the flood lights you want then the rainbow floods can run from a LOR DC controller, thats way you dont need to learn anything much extra as you will be using the current LOR setup that you have become familiar with. remember each rainbow flood with take up 3 channels.
 
We have been getting a ton of questions lately about adding any of our basic lights (ie: Flood, Spotlight or Wall Runners) to the LOR, or any DC controller. While our new 16 channel DC controller isn't available yet it will be soon enough so we released information on two different breakout boards. One board allows for easy connection to and from any DC card and than into our Rainbow Standard Jack connection or our Rainbow Standard Pigtail connection. Those boards are in production and will be available at the end of the month. The other board is an ATX power supply breakout board which allows you to connect easily to any of voltages supplied from a power supply.

Information was posted on our Facebook page last week about them and we will have them soon enough. The Cat-5 Breakout Board really is going to make it very easy for people who want use our lights with a DC card.

Greg
 
Alrighty, unfort after a few more days of research Im prob more confused than ever. As previously mentioned, I should give up on the whole thing and leave it till next year but I hate giving up on things and not being able to control (to some degree) my new 10m of TM1812 ledstrip. I thought just plugging it straight into LOR 240v would give me an element of control (on off to music beat) but apparently not.

Anyyyyways...

I have drawn up a few options.

Basically Im going for the least costly (already spent farrrr too much this year) yet futureproof method of adding ledstrip/floodlights/pixels.

dpitt is 98% sure that the TM1812 is a variant of 180x so hopefully will "fit in".

1. Purchasing another LOR RS485 dongle and Davids DC48. Cheapest option out of the 3.
addingdmx1setup.jpg

2. Purchasing David's RS485 & DMX dongle, plus the DC48. Renders my LOR USB485 useless (I think).
addingdmx2setup.jpg


3. Purchasing ELOR and E681 (or PIXAD8). Costly.
addingdmx3setup.jpg


I know there are likely many more options than these, but I at least halfway "understand" these options, lol. At the moment at least I would rather not hear about these other options unless they are

1. Dramatically cheaper
2. Futureproof to add more
3. Easy to setup and understand :)

Bare in mind I also still need to purchase more Cat5 cable, speaker cable. As much as I would love more ledstrip, floodlights etc, if I have to spend more than $200 on adding dmx/pixel control then I wont be able to afford anymore lights this year. Have prob spent 2K this year already.
 
OK, let's review your listed options;

1) The RS485 dongles (either LOR or mine) are USB, so plug straight into the computer's USB ports. The network switch doesn't have a place in this line-up at all. One dongle could run the LOR boards in LOR mode, while the other could feed the DC48 in DMX mode.

2) You could use your existing LOR USB dongle to run your LOR boards as well as a DC48 in DMX mode. You'd also need a wiring adapter ($6 from me or make your own) to convert between LOR pinout and ESTA pinout on the CAT5 cables.

3) The E681 plugs into the computer either directly or via a network switch. The exact method varies depending on your PC's internet connection type. You don't need an ELOR as the LOR software can (as of advanced version 3.5.0) talk directly to the E681 (or any E1.31 pixel controller). The LOR dongle and controllers part of this diagram is correct.

I've simplified the options a little, but I think that's best so you don't get more confused for now.
 
Ditto to DA's answers. (saved me a lot of typing)


Option 2 would seem to be very cost effective and simple....
and you could look at adding a J1Sys ECG-P2 to look after the 1812 strip pending confirmation the 1812 is supported and likely stay inside your budget.


Cheers
Phil
 
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