RS-422 Com Cable, any good?

bdeditch

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I managed to get about 4000 feet of this stuff for free. Just wondering how good it is for running a signal to DMX lights. I google it and noticed they always have the RS-485 wire in with the search as well.
 

David_AVD

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RS422 and RS485 are the same thing signal wise (5V differential pair).

An RS422 system has only one sender but can have more than one receiver. RS485 is usually used where each of the nodes can transmit or receive.

I guess that while DMX is said to be an RS485 transmission, in reality most times it has one sender (the console or PC) and many receivers (the lighting controllers) so it's really an RS422 implementation.

DMX systems that incorporate RDM (where the light controllers can talk back to the console) are true RS485 systems as they operate in "half duplex" mode.

So in a nutshell, RS422 and RS485 cable is electrically the same!
 

bdeditch

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Do you think it would handle the 12 volt input for a LED strip, or would it be better for a 5 volt strip.
What this was used for was sending data from different equipment on a drilling rig to a main console. It has a very heavy protective coating.
 

bdeditch

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David_AVD said:
Can't speculate about it's power capabilities without knowing the wire sizes.

Once you know that, you can work it out using this wiki page I prepared earlier. :D


I will dod that, by looking at them I can tell right away they are much thicker that a Cat 5E wire, not much. so I am guessing about a 20.
 
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