Yes, you can use that scenario to run DC strings, etc.
Newbie - First Setup, what to buy? (Have read, am confused)
- Thread starter anakaine
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If your not afraid to grab a soldering iron, diyledexpress.com is offering a 6 port E1.31 to DMX bridge with a prop controller for 70 US Dollars
Until you go to pixels you're unlikely to need more than 1 512 channel universe so a usb-dmx dongle for $25 is a cheap option. David_AVD's usb-dmx dongle is a fair bit dearer than that as it has electrical isolation between the usb line and the dmx line. That way if you do something nasty to the dmx line (like hook up 240V to a 12V dmx flood) then you don't blow up the usb port on your computer. As far as I know Davids usb-dmx could be the only device that offers electrical isolation between computer and the dmx data.
In my opinion if planning on going to pixels and you want to use E1.31 controllers then the ECG-D2 is great value at $72 with case which gives you 2 DMX universes. This then allows you to develop your E1.31 network as your display grows without having to use 2 different network interfaces from your computer. Its sometime cheaper to spend a little bit more at first then buy something that is cheaper that you may only use for one season or doesnt fit within the network topography you want.
So the system you have described is a good starter, im just not sure if you actually need a D4 instead of a D2 because a D2 with still give you 1024 channels of DMX and when you decide to goto pixels then you will be using a dedicated E1.31 pixel controller instead of a DMX controller. So a D4 may never be utilized. Where the D4 can be an advantage is if you want to distribute your DMX network and have 4 seperate DMX runs, so you basically treating the D4 as a DMX distributer with 4 ports and an ability to do 2048 DMX channels (512 per output)
So the system you have described is a good starter, im just not sure if you actually need a D4 instead of a D2 because a D2 with still give you 1024 channels of DMX and when you decide to goto pixels then you will be using a dedicated E1.31 pixel controller instead of a DMX controller. So a D4 may never be utilized. Where the D4 can be an advantage is if you want to distribute your DMX network and have 4 seperate DMX runs, so you basically treating the D4 as a DMX distributer with 4 ports and an ability to do 2048 DMX channels (512 per output)