To emphasize what Len said, there are plenty of
Opto splitters and non-opto splitters available for distribution of
DMX. While we would all like to have Fleenor splitters, many projects just don't warrant such expense and quality.
I have 2 Elations, 1 Neo-neon, 1 Northlight and some Chinese product that I purchased just to see how good it could be for $32. They all work and even the cheapest has Texas
Instrument ICs.
One of my Elations has had a 24 volt regulated supply attached to the top and all of the output connectors changed to 4 pin XLRs and serves as a
scroller power supply for 20 scrollers. The Neo-neon has had the 3 pin connectors changed to 5 pin. The cheap Chinese
unit has no isolation between outputs, other than the RS485
driver ICs, in this case they are surface mount, have 3 pin connectors, and an external
wall wart supply. It sure comes in handy for driving Chauvet color splash Jrs. It also has 8 outputs which is great when driving lots of
LED effects.
Are they all perfect, are they top of the
line? No!! They work and are installed according to the priority of how important a failure would be. So far after 7 years on all but the cheap Chinese
unit, there have been no failures and they are on most all of the time. The cheapo
unit has only been around for a little over a year, with no failures. Would I use it on any really important stuff? Absolutely NOT!!
The
point is that
DMX ISO splitters are several
power supplies, Isolation ICs and RS 485 tranceivers, plus a housing and connectors. Most al of the ICs are the same manufacture. The big differences are the
circuit board and
transformer quality. We sometimes tend to become equipment "snobbs". On the other
hand, when the
DMX product has some sort of software such as a merger, then the best you can afford becomes the logical rule. Splitters don't have any software, they just receive the signal pass it through an isolation and
send it back out with more outputs.
The soldering and circuitboard quality of the units I have vary a
bit, but all will work. Of the ones that I have the Elations have the best product quality "under the hood".
From what I have observed, if I am asked which to buy, I generally suggest the
Enttec four output for $100, but there are many more choices that will serve the purpose as well.