Other DC Controllers

[mmais68569]

I am using a Lynx Dongle to run my show & wonder what other DC controllers will work? Yes RJ makes a great MR16 but it is (you know what to set the start channel) so I am looking for an alternative.

          Thanks Mike
I am currently using
27 CH from Ray
also know LOR works

[twooly]

Ray has his 27 channel one

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[Steve Gase]

Ray has his 27 channel one

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+1
I have MR16s and Ray's 27.  both work great.  the MR16s are sometimes hard to get, and they require time to build. but they can handle a larger draw (more lights).  Ray's are less expensive, already built, and they have more channels.  Both will do a great job for you.

[twooly]

Steve curious did you change the plugs on rays to rj45 or did you do some type of custom cable?

[mmais68569]

Not Steve but I bought a pre- made Cat5 from Monoprice & left the RJ45 on one end on other cut off & soldered on a XLR. Used Orange & orange strip.

             Mike

[Steve Gase]

Steve curious did you change the plugs on rays to rj45 or did you do some type of custom cable?

I used a rj45 to xlr adapter.
But, I recently purchased some floods from Ray that had pigtails with waterproof xlr connectors and I removed them to use cat5 pigtails.  I will use the extra xlr pigtail to create my own adapters.
Also, you can ask ray about connectors.  he'll know the right ones to use... I've seen some connectors that may work for $1.15 for both male and female.  you can then create your own xlr cables, and/or xlr/cat5 adapters.
there are pin-out instructions in the wiki and other places... but I can help.
 

[zwiller]

I haven't used the 27 channel controllers but plan to add a few this year.  Another member here suggested soldering the dmx connector on the bottom, as well as a mod for additional amps. 

[dpitts]

The first few I did I spent the time to remove the connectors and  soldered cat5 wire to board. The last 5 I just decided to leave existing connector and solder wire to back.

Here is post regarding the modification to get more current output.
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Also note you can get the female side of the 4-core connectors in a longer size to make wiring easier.

[Steve Gase]

dpitts... nice job with the entire setup.  the only thing I'd suggest doing differently is using one of the cat5 pigtails instead of the male end of a cat5 cable.  I find the pigtails to have a tighter, more secure, and more waterproof fit.  and by positioning them so that the incoming cable plugs up, into the pigtail you also have less chance of water reaching the conductors.  those female/female couplers seem to have more problems for me.
 
one thing I did differently was to also use power-over-cat5 with power injectors. I use this with other DMX elements, and so it works well with my other setups.  of course, if I ran too much power through my MR16s and Ray27s, then an enclosed power supply that connects to the board (like yours) is a much better choice!

[kernal]

The pictures helpme a ton! Thanks for adding those!  Steve, do you mean you have power comjng from the cat5?  Or do you use a lone power supply for each of the Ray27's?  And the pigtails...   they have to be used with some sote of 4 wire rgb leds correct?  Or could i "jerry-rig" store bought led's?

[SteveMaris]

Here is a useful picture for hooking up the cat 5

[SteveMaris]

Here is a useful PDF for channel selection.

[dpitts]

dpitts... nice job with the entire setup.  the only thing I'd suggest doing differently is using one of the cat5 pigtails instead of the male end of a cat5 cable.  I find the pigtails to have a tighter, more secure, and more waterproof fit.  and by positioning them so that the incoming cable plugs up, into the pigtail you also have less chance of water reaching the conductors.  those female/female couplers seem to have more problems for me.
 
one thing I did differently was to also use power-over-cat5 with power injectors. I use this with other DMX elements, and so it works well with my other setups.  of course, if I ran too much power through my MR16s and Ray27s, then an enclosed power supply that connects to the board (like yours) is a much better choice!

Great suggestions. I have a couple that I did use the pigtails on although I did not do it for the better water proofing. In Colorado it never rains in late November till March it snows and it is real dry. We do not have the water issues like other areas.

 

[Steve Gase]

The pictures helpme a ton! Thanks for adding those!  Steve, do you mean you have power comjng from the cat5?  Or do you use a lone power supply for each of the Ray27's?  And the pigtails...   they have to be used with some sote of 4 wire rgb leds correct?  Or could i "jerry-rig" store bought led's?

There are 2 commonly-used schemes for using existing (and unused) wires in the cat5 8-wire bundle to supply power to your lighting elements. 
 
1) DLA or RJ's scheme... uses pins 1 (orange/white) and 2 (solid orange) for DMX+ and DMX- respectively.  Then, pins 3-5 tied together for 12v+ and pins 6-8 tied together for ground.
 
2) HolidayCoro or David Moore's scheme...  again, uses pins 1 (orange/white) and 2 (solid orange) for DMX+ and DMX- respectively.  Then, all color/white pins tied together for 12v+ and all solid colors together for ground.
 
I started with David's scheme for my CoroStars, and floods... and visually I find it easier to remember.  Therefore, I use that for all of my DMX stuff. 
 
How does it work?  Well each element (including a MR16 box that I assemble, or a flood, or a coro-something) has 2 pigtails.  Each are wired together (pigtail-to-pigtail), and the controller taps into the DMX and power lines.  This allows me to pass in power, and I have the DMX controller take what it needs -- and the remaining power is passed along to the next thing connected in the chain of DMX devices.  So, I can connect multiple floods and corostars together inline with ONLY the single cat5 to give them DMX and power.
 
Where does the power come from?  well, that is the role of the injector.  The power injector receives a cat5 cable, has a 12v power supply next, and then another cat5 connector.  The first cat5 connector receives the incoming DMX pins 1+2, and it may (or may not) have power arriving from upstream.  The other cat5 connector has the power from the power suppply plus the DMX signals that were passed from upstream... this connector is connected to the light elements downstream.
 
When connecting the incoming and outgoing cat5... only connect pin1 together with pin1, and pin2 with pin2.  don't connect the other pins 3-6 from the incoming wire... we are throwing any remaining power away.  The power supply is connected to the 3-wire groups for 12v+ and ground and all devices downstream can now use the power from this new power supply.
 
You can use various power supplies, but I am using the 45watt water-proof supplies that David sells.  They are small, and can power quite a few things.  Also 45watts will not overly-stress the 3-wire clusters that I use to provide power to the lights.
 
It is important to measure the amount of power that each light element will consume.  count the number of LEDs, find the amount of power that each consumes.  with a little reserve, you should know when you are approaching the point of being out of power before the next lighting element is added to the string.  (at the point where you are getting close to no remaining power, then you add another injector to start with a fresh 45watts (?) for the next bunch of elements to use.
 
at some point I will write this up with pictures for addition to the wiki. 
 
thanks to David Moore, and Harrison Ward for teaching me this info so that I could pass it on!

[zwiller]

I would prefer to stick with DIYLA gear but this 27 channel controller will work well for me.  I feel like a traitor... 

RJ please create a 24 channel (3x8) dmx controller that outperforms Rays!