Control/Dimming Can you ID this plug?

[CYTlighting]

This is the male end of the cable that is plugged in to the house light control in our booth. What kind of connection is this? Is there an adapter to convert this to DMX for board control? Or can I remove the male end of the cable and connect a DMX plug? It has 12 pins, with some vertical and some horizontal.

I want to control the house lights through our board, but I have no idea of what kind of controller is used for this plug. I can't even find the name of this kind of connection to search for adapters/alternatives.

Your help is much appreciated. Thank you.

 

[venuetech]

a Jones plug
they come in various pin configurations

http://www.jameco.com/Jameco/Products/ProdDS/248760-DS02.pdf

 

[derekleffew]

It's a Cinch-Jones P-312-CCT, most commonly used with 0-10VDC analog systems.
The "some horizontal and some vertical" is so that it can only mate one way.

Electronics Plus - Hard to find parts and accessories, available and ready to ship!

You cannot use or adapt it to DMX without a DMX-to-Analog or Analog-to-DMX converter, see DIY DMX: Demux, Protocol Converters, etc. - ControlBooth.

What brand/model numbers are your control and dimmers? Post pictures if you don't know.

 

[gafftaper]

Crap you guys were fast. In the time it took me to search the wiki to check if there was a Cinch-Jones listing two people had answered. CB FTW!

 

[venuetech]

This is normally used in analog systems so there is no "adapter"
what you need is a "converter" such as made by doug fleenor
Doug Fleenor Design - DMX to Analog Converter 24 Channel

this one is to convert a dmx512 to control voltage 0-10V

Looks like I left out the "Cinch" (the manufacturer)
and am late on the converter info.
Its hard to beat these guys to the punch

 

[gafftaper]

you need is a "converter" such as made by doug fleenor
Doug Fleenor Design - DMX to Analog Converter 24 Channel

Unfortuantley that's a $1600 part and there really isn't a cheap solution to your problem. Dmx became a standard in 1986. It might be time to think about an upgrade. Yeah they still work but they won't work forever.

They are far from the most durable thing you can buy, but at $200 or less each a 4 channel Elation Cyber Pak DMX shoebox dimmer is a great option for people with no money. That gives you 32 channels x 600 Watts (or 16 channels x 1200 watts) for less than the price of that one Analog to DMX converter. You might want to think about it.

 

[derekleffew]

Unfortuantley that's a $1600 part and there really isn't a cheap solution to your problem. ...

Untrue.
If eight or less channels are required, this

Northlight Systems DMX512 decoder, 0-10 VDC output.
will do it for $95, plus some additional parts (connectors, enclosure, power supply).

...They are far from the most durable thing you can buy, but at $200 or less each a 4 channel Elation Cyber Pak DMX shoebox dimmer is a great option for people with no money. That gives you 32 channels x 600 Watts (or 16 channels x 1200 watts) for less than the price of that one Analog to DMX converter. You might want to think about it.

Again, no.
The OP specifically stated this was for houselights, and I don't know of any dimmer, shoebox that is designed or rated for permanent installation.

 

[venuetech]

Unfortuantley that's a $1600 part

24 channels for $772

96 channels for $1600

pricey yes, but it is very much a turnkey solution.

I have a 24 channel unit for my 5 house light channels, just had to wire the output cable to the terminal strip in the control panel

 

[dramatech]

24 channels for $772

96 channels for $1600

pricey yes, but it is very much a turnkey solution.

I have a 24 channel unit for my 5 house light channels, just had to wire the output cable to the terminal strip in the control panel

I agree with Derek, I have an 8 channel Northlight DMX to Analog converter driving my houselights and it has been doing it for 6 plus years without a glitch. If 8 channels isn't enough, Northlight has a 24 channel DMX to analog converter for something around $160. I used one of those to build a dimmer system for a black box theatre at one of the local colleges. Again, never had any problem. I also recently purchased a Lightronics 24 channel converter for $24 on Ebay.

For many items in the DMX world, it is important to have the "Rolls Royce" quality of Doug Fleenor products. But for many other applications, something less will do the job very nicely. From the sound of the OP, they wouldn't appear to have a large budget. Both Northlight and Lightronics are American made products. I know that there are some on this forum that bad mouth Lightronics, I think primarily because it seems to be associated with the DJ market. The only real concerns that I have ever heard about Lightronics, deals with individual dimmer channel failures. They use the same approach of Triacs for the final stage of dimming that the other small dimmer manufactures use, and Triacs seem to be more sensitive to failures created by shorted outputs than Solid State Relays, SSRs used by the manufactures of larger dimmer packages. I have heard of very few problems with Lightronics control circuitry.
If this was the Lightnetwork forum, where it's primary posters work from huge budgets, I could understand the brand label snobbery. This is Control Booth, where many of our posters are with organizations that barely scrape by on their budgets. When giving advice to such people and organizations, the advice should include the most expensive and the least expensive solution to the problem, with as much experience and knowlege on the subject as possible.

OK, I have steped down off of my soapbox, about what irritates about many postings on CB. I am ready to receive the flaming posts of my error.

Tom Johnson
Florida's Most Honored Community Theatre

 

[venuetech]

I am not trying to sell any one on any product. it is just a fact that I have that product and have had good experience with it.
Had I known about other products when I was searching for a house light control solution some forgotten number of years ago, it is very likely that I would have used the northlight product. but at that point in time it was an unknown to me. The OP now has much more info on converters at this point thanks to the many forum contributers.

 

[FatherMurphy]

If you're willing to go used, the Fleenor (and other brand) decoders can sometimes be found on Ebay and other sites, as people who needed them for a while upgrade to all-DMX gear.