Dmx Cable Repair Question

[lcthebeast]

I have a 300' run of dmx I run through our ceiling to the middle of the house for programming for shows time to time. Recently it somehow received a nice tear down through the shielding and cut open one of the data lines but it wasn't severed. What's the best way to repair this? I have someone on staff who can solder well.

The dmx can still control the dimmers, but is ghosting a few of my older dimmers. I have 2 etc unison racks with 12 d20 units in each which are fine, and 21 7.2k dimmers from our old pig tail patch which are ghosting a select few.(for extra useless info)

I was thinking cutting it before the tear and just putting the connector there... or cutting it and splicing it

[JD]

Originally Posted by lcthebeast

I was thinking cutting it before the tear and just putting the connector there... or cutting it and splicing it

Actually, not a bad idea. You just end up with two cables. I hate splices!
Not sure the damage you describe is causing the problem you described. (unless one of the conductors is shorted to the shield.)

[cutlunch]

I agree with JD if you have the length to spare cut the cable back it is the simplest solution.
The ghosting may be caused by one conductors shorting against the sheild. This would cause the DMX signal to be out of balance which on older equipment might cause detection errors in the packs.

[lcthebeast]

thank you for the info!

just so happened after lunch my boss needed to stop at orvacs electronics, and i picked up 2 new connectors so i didn't have to scrap the excess

i have two cables now, a 94' and a 205'

is it a good thing to have the taste of solder in your mouth afterwards?

[BillESC]

You're supposed to use a sponge to clean the irons tip... Not your tounge.

[ship]

Exposed copper and or for datta one so deep for me would also mean an end to that cable length. Good solution presented the plugs for solving it.

[adamday]

I heard from someone that it is not good to solder dmx cables because it slows them down, is this true?

[JD]

Originally Posted by adamday

I heard from someone that it is not good to solder dmx cables because it slows them down, is this true?

No, that's how all the connectors are put on, and there can be a ton of them. I would still stick with putting connectors in where a break was. As long as the line is terminated, all should run fine. What connectors and fixtures can do is create reflection points if the line is not terminated.

[OnWithTheShow]

Perhaps unrelated if your problem is solved but we had some serious ghosting issues when we first put our new console in the house for programming. It was the same cable that it is normally hooked up to in the booth so we knew it wasnt that. Turns out there was something fishy about the power in the house (different phase, grounding issues, etc). Adding a power conditioner fixed the ghosting.