Seperate Network

[Tim]

I've read many posts to try to find this answer and I think I found it, but I'm not sure it's makes the most sense so I'll ask it here. I apologize if this is the same question asked for the thousandth time....here goes.

My intent this year is to use an RGB star from Holiday Coro. I intend to make a completely seperate network for this star. WIth that said, will this setup work.......

computer (with S3 Advanced) with USB-RS485 connected with standard Cat5e to the DMX contoller. Will this work???? Or do I need a cross-over Cat5e connected from the USB-RS485 to the DMX controller????

Will this setup also allow S3 to sequence the DMX??

Thank you all so much for the help!! I feel like I'm making this a lot harder than it really is. Blessings!

Tim

[Shubb]

What kind of DMX controller are you using?

What kind of RGB lights?

Scott

[bhasse]

I just set up 4 RGB flood kits from Holiday Coro. And so far so good. I am using a LOR USB485 for my LOR network and a second LOR USB485 for my DMX Universe. In order to make the DMX controller work with the LOR adapter you will need to purchase or make a conversion cable since the data is sent on different pins in LOR than in DMX. You can purchase one premade at http://www.seasonalentertainmentllc.com/store/en/adapters/107-lor-dmx-adapter.html. I had extra cat5 cable so I made one myself. Once you have that done and set the addresses on your DMX controller you can set up your network preferences in S3 and sequence your DMX stuff. On a side note, I had to shift my DMX channels +1 within S3 for the software to control the DMX channels properly. There are several posts regarding this issue. It seems to be hit or miss, some people have to shift their channels like I did and some people do not. I have a USB485B from 2006 and a brand new that I just received from LOR today and I have to shift the channels for DMX no matter which of the adapters I use fro DMX.

[Jack Stevens]

OK, you will have to run two networks, as you suspect. One LOR, one DMX. If you use the LOR dongle to run your DMX network - or "universe" - you will need an adapter. The LOR dongle uses pins 4 and 5 of the RJ45 pin-out; most DMX controllers use pins 1 and 2.

I know there are postings on here about what pin goes where, but I also know how to get to this one much quicker -

http://www.diylighta...ama_Controllers

You'll have to build your own cable or cable adapter there. Personally, I chose to make a 6 inch mail to femaile adapter and use them where necessary, so I can standardize on my longer cables - just make them all cat5e compliant and I'm good; the 6 inch adapters fit inside the controller cases.

Just to add to the confusion, if you decide to use Renard controllers with DMX firmware (I have a few of those as well) they uses pins 4 and 5 like the LOR controllers do, but the polarity is reversed.

[edvas69]

You can run 1 network and just run your LOR controllers in DMX. Refer to this presentation for details on how LOR controllers can hook up into a DMX network. the presentation gives you all the info needed to make the adaptor cables and to address your LOR controllers for DMX

http://auschristmaslighting.com/forums/index.php/topic,1139.0.html

Note: you will need to be registered to download this file.

Anyway just a suggestion

Edited August 24, 2012 by edvas69

[Tim]

Thank you all for your help on this! I really appreciate it. Blessings!

Tim

[rmturner54]

Someone correct me if I am wrong, but I believe that the added +1 channel in the configuration has to do with an LOR dongle in DMX.

I am going to run to networks this year, 1 LOR, 1DMX with the Enttec Pro dongle. I have no issues with having to add +1 to the channel config since I am using the Enttec pro.

So far no problems operating both universes. Been testing all summer running both at the same time. I hook several different lights up to both networks run sequences to simulate my show. I just monitor the results throuhg out the summer.No glitches at all. If things fail or problems come up, I want it to happen now, not December.

[jcraigcx]

I've just added Holiday Coro floods to my setup as well. All works together great except LOR loses the DMX network and stops talking to the floods. Shows up as a socket error in the Listener and I have to reload control panel to restore. I've added a few chokes to the USB dongle (holiday coro dongle) and the time between failures seemed to improve, but it still fails.

Right now I'm testing with xlights running the sequence instead of LOR. No failures for about 4 hours so far. LOR dropped the connection about every 20 minutes.

[dgtlpro]

Just a note of interest I have found with my setup....I have 5 floods from holiday coro and 4 9 channel rob boards from Ray Wu. The 3 channel dmx controllers used in the floods require the +1 in LOR and do not play nicely with the 9 channel boards. This has forced me to run 2 dmx universes to get all the rgb to work right. I have tested everything with both the usb485 and usb485b with the same result.

[magish01]

Just a note of interest I have found with my setup....I have 5 floods from holiday coro and 4 9 channel rob boards from Ray Wu. The 3 channel dmx controllers used in the floods require the +1 in LOR and do not play nicely with the 9 channel boards. This has forced me to run 2 dmx universes to get all the rgb to work right. I have tested everything with both the usb485 and usb485b with the same result.

So in Ray's 49 channel board able to be used with dumb pixel strings (RGB) to create 16 x 3 channel setups for a megatree, similar to LOR's DC 16 channel controllers that would be able to run 5 x3 RGB channels?

[dgtlpro]

Just to clarify I have four 9 channel boards, so yes that is 9 channels of rgb dumb strips.

[magish01]

Thanks. Missed the space between the 4 and 9. DUH!