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Residential DMX
This thread has 8 replies. Displaying all posts.
Post 1 made on Tuesday November 11, 2014 at 11:13
chris-L5S
Senior Member
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I am working on a project that we will use DMX lighting control with Control4. I am looking at installing LED accent lighting around the ceiling trays, cabinets, and counters.

I don't know much about DMX so I'm not sure what wiring, types of LED lighting and transformers, and power requirements that I need.

For control, i have looked at Extra Vegetables DMX Driver [Link: extravegetables.com] and Enttec ODE with PoE [Link: enttec.com].

would someone be willing to give me a crash course? i have less than a week to finish the rough-in.

TIA
Post 2 made on Tuesday November 11, 2014 at 15:18
BlackWire Designs
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What DMX lights are you going to use? Why are you using DMX? Are you doing something with RGB LEDS?
BlackWire Designs
OP | Post 3 made on Tuesday November 11, 2014 at 15:34
chris-L5S
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On November 11, 2014 at 15:18, BlackWire Designs said...
What DMX lights are you going to use? Why are you using DMX? Are you doing something with RGB LEDS?

Homeowner wants the ability to control the colors. If there is another option, I'm all ears.
Post 4 made on Tuesday November 11, 2014 at 15:47
BlackWire Designs
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On November 11, 2014 at 15:34, chris-L5S said...
Homeowner wants the ability to control the colors. If there is another option, I'm all ears.

There are tons and mean TONS of options out there

there are a few threads in the private C4 forum as well

I personally used lightorama stuff.. they make all of the crazy xmas light stuff

There are cheaper controllers if they just want to control the strip as 1 unit. I have it setup so i can control sections of my kitchen lighting separately (upper cabinet, under cabinet and toe kick)

Controller:
[Link: store.lightorama.com]

basic RGB strips:
[Link: store.lightorama.com]

These guys make some stuff too

[Link: superbrightleds.com]
BlackWire Designs
Post 5 made on Tuesday November 11, 2014 at 15:48
BlackWire Designs
Senior Member
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if you want to make things easier you may just want to do the philips hue RGB strips

You still have to use the philips zigbee bridge but the C4 driver works well for it and they can use the philips app if they want..
BlackWire Designs
Post 6 made on Tuesday November 11, 2014 at 18:33
CreativeHT
Long Time Member
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March 2013
181
In terms of roughing in, DMX is just a form of an RS485 buss. So to cover yourself, run shielded twisted pair to all light locations along with necessary power. Power could be low volt DC or line voltage with local transformers if necessary. This should cover you to finalize the light brand and model later if necessary.
Post 7 made on Wednesday November 12, 2014 at 12:45
jcmitch
Founding Member
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May 2001
483
I find it extremely helpful to run multiple DMX links, and combine them later. Isolating noise in a DMX system can be a very helpful thing, and multiple links make that task much simpler. You will need additional hardware to do so however.

I also have used the Enttec ODE, and an iPad app called Luminair Very nice piece of kit.
Post 8 made on Wednesday November 12, 2014 at 12:52
studiocats1
Long Time Member
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February 2003
482
Read this. Use the Belden cable.

[Link: belden.com]
Post 9 made on Wednesday November 12, 2014 at 14:15
lippavisual
Senior Member
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December 2007
1,458
For C4, I would go with the Engineering Solutions RS232 to DMX box. It only requires 1 RS232 port and the module does all of the heavy lifting when it comes to sending out commands to your light strips. This solution is much better than the Entec/Extra Veg offering, trust me. No popcorn effect during lighting scenes, dimming all the way down to 0% and each light strip becomes a virtual dimmer making it easier on you in the end. Barely any processor overload too.

Jackstone (Jerome) is the user you would look for in the forums. Look for his posts on the dealer forums or c4forums.com.

The only thing I would suggest is to make sure you have done proper calculations for a power supply and don't use cheap Chinese LED drivers (if using strip lighting). This solution is much more inexpensive, especially if you are able to easily run the wiring.


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