Running
scroller power down a
DMX cable would be a really, really bad idea. Not so much in a concept of would it work and in non-used pins being adapted to other purposes such as
power or time stamping, (did that with the Hog Remote in powering it up from 400 to 500' away
thru 24ga 8-pair cable,) and it was fine. This problem with doing so would be more about the amperage of a scrooler verses the
gauge of
wire that makes up a 2-pair
DMX cable. The Hog remote was designed not to draw a lot in doing so. Even if a really, really heavy duty 2-pair
DMX cable in use of 20ga (normally 24-22ga) - never seen one at 20ga., but I think they are out there, that's still not a large enough
conductor size to
power up the scrollers, especially given length of cable/number of feed
thru connections
voltage drop for even one
scroller. Nor does it in shielding protect the data
line from the interference of the
power lines parallel to it. True
scroller cable uses a 16-14ga
conductor for the
power and as seperately isolated in shielding, a single pair of data in the same cable. Can one do so... sure but really bad Karma.
Problematic in concept both for
voltage drop/over heating, and for getting data to your fixtures much less the down stream scrollers.
If for Colorfader Scrollers, the
scroller derrives
power from a seperate source than from the data cable and it as also four pin (depending on how it works.) Could in theory work with such a 5:4
adaptor - assuming the Colorfader scrollers are digital
DMX and not analog - don't know. Or if not that it only takes a drain and two pins I don't believe such scrollers do.
I have made some 5:4 adaptors in the past (don't remember what they were for, but I did following pinology provided,
mark their purpose when making them). Was some purpose for them, could have been
Clear Com headset lengtheners but not realistic - more realistic for that will have been a 6:5
adaptor for doing dual
channel. This given the
headset is the only 4-pin on a
Clear Com and other than in doing a follow spot or pin-rail, it's fairly rare you might need a longer leash on your
headset and not be able to afford to just make a
jumper instead of having to use adaptors in using
DMX - much more expensive and combersome way to do it.
By way of bad Karma in
DMX, you are talking about someone that has successfully in the past taken a economy trouble light/work light
cord reel and made it into a
DMX cord reel (changed the wiring, removed the stops on the reel but the brushes transferring the signal were the same.)
DMX is very robust but there is still certain rules about it unshielded in parallel with
power circuits, and with the
power circuit -
gauge of
wire that are not theory but instead rules to follow.
To continue
DMX from the end of a
daisy chain of scrollers to other
DMX items. The functions on the pins of 3 pin, 4 pin and 5 pin XLRs are the same when dealing with
DMX. Pin 1 is
ground to the
DMX and also the
ground side of 24vdc on
scroller, Pin 2 is negative data and pin 3 is plus data. Pin 4 on scrollers is plus 24vdc. (this is not true on the
Wybron colorram). pin 4 and 5 are not used in 5 pin
DMX. The
adapter mentioned had a male on both ends, which would not be the absolute proper configuration, but sometimes things are made up using what ever is at
hand. The fact that most
DMX fixtures do a
passive loop of the
DMX from the input
connector to the output
connector, means that it would work to use the cable as described.
Wire pin 1 to 1, and 2 to 2 and 3 to 3. Leave pin 4 unused.
I have wired my
theatre with four pin cables to all of my electrics and
scroller power on the
connector. When I use
portable or
shoebox dimmers on that
electric, I use a similar
adapter. The only differance is that I use a four pin male and three pin female.