DMX cables |
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Meat
Old Croc Joined: 05 June 2009 Location: Manc Status: Offline Points: 1514 |
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Posted: 04 December 2017 at 2:52pm |
I've got a noobie question that I couldn't find an answer to.
I've always just used microphone cables to link between 3 pin XLR lights. Is there any benefit to using proper DMX cabling (also 3 pin XLR). I was about to order some and the ones I looked at said they're 110ohms? Does this make a difference? Should I just order microphone cable instead? |
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Don't test the champignon sound
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APW
Young Croc Joined: 13 November 2012 Location: Kent, UK Status: Offline Points: 1174 |
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It makes a big difference, Microphone cable will 'sometimes' work over short distances but can cause all sorts of problems over longer distances.
Audio is an analogue signal that has a bandwidth that's normally up to about 20Khz, DMX is a digital signal that has a bit rate of 250,000 bits/per second (250Khz) , in theory a perfect square wave has infinite bandwidth (Digital signals are or should be square waves), in practice this is not possible and the bandwidth is limited, even if the bandwidth is limited to say 10 times the fundamental the waveform will have been distorted and the signal degraded, using the incorrect cable will distort the digital signal further and will eventually get to the point that the lights cannot reliably read the signal. DMX cable should be 100-120ohms, anything else and you're asking for trouble! Edited by APW - 04 December 2017 at 4:08pm |
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JonB67
Young Croc Joined: 22 April 2016 Location: UK Status: Offline Points: 1376 |
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Unless you want to find one day its stobing or flickering or not doing what it's told dedicated dmx cables are required.
Mic cables might be a get out of jail free card if youre a cable short but you won't want to wire the whole rig with them. |
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Meat
Old Croc Joined: 05 June 2009 Location: Manc Status: Offline Points: 1514 |
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Thanks for the swift and definite answers. Duly ordered.
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Don't test the champignon sound
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norty303
Old Croc Joined: 18 August 2004 Location: Eastbourne Status: Offline Points: 8806 |
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Truthfully, mic cable will work on smaller rigs a decent amount of the time. Certainly a good amount of the actual DMX cables you can buy are often marked up as mic cable on the sleeve.
If you already own a load of mic cable, then give it a go if its just for short runs for a few fixtures. We've often run DMX down spare audio multi channels to avoid having to run extra cables in. When I had my rig, I used exclusively DMX cable for everything, lighting control and any audio connections. Its absolutely fine using DMX for audio, not necessarily the other way around. |
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mk2_ginger_biscuit69
Old Croc Joined: 03 November 2008 Location: Brighton Status: Offline Points: 7801 |
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+1, i do exactly the same. All my XLR is made with blue sheaved cable too, just to make it clear and make it less likely to 'fall' into someone elses trunk. |
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ceharden
The 10,000 Points Club Joined: 05 June 2005 Location: Southampton Status: Offline Points: 11776 |
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If you use analogue/digital compatible audio cable (suitable for AES/EBU) it'll also be fine for DMX.
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