DMX Control of Consumer Fog Machine

[Warren Sound]

In a moment of weakness/desperation a while back, I purchased a consumer grade ADJ fog machine that doesn't have DMX control. It instead uses a 5 pin proprietary timer or wireless remote for control. It's served its purpose well enough, but I'd like to get a little more function out of it, if possible.

Is anyone aware of a device or some sort of interface that can implement DMX control for these machines?

Thank you!

 

[Amiers]

Most likely not.

You can get an IR extender or make yourself an extension for the wired remote.

The off chance it might have DMX on the board and just doesn’t have the connectors. You could crack it open and have a look at the main board. If it does connectors are cheap. This is a very low chance.

 

[Crisp image]

I have a couple of this type of smoke machine I used in small props. What I did was work out the connections that trigger the the smoke and then attached a DMX relay and sent signal to them via wireless DMX. I picked up the single channel dmx relay for a really low price because they were clearing them out. It was an electronics kit to build but it was not hard to do and worked well.
You can get DMX relays from your favourite ebay store or maybe even amazon.
Have fun but be careful. My trigger points were full 240V not a control signal.
Geoff

 

[Warren Sound]

Both great replies. Appreciate the suggestions, folks. May come back with more questions depending on the route I go.

Thank you!

 

[jtweigandt]

Inspired by this thread, I just converted an old old Chauvet... wish I had the model.. I stole the control lines from the remote connection.. this one was an older style that used the female version of
a 3 prong power cord as the connector. I got the dmx relay from amazon https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0111QOZXE/?tag=controlbooth-20 Had to buy a plug in screw terminal connector for the dmx side.. since they didn't have screw terminals already like the output side. It's actually 3 channel, but it was cheap and came in a housing rather than bare board.

Had the 12 v power supply in a drawer at work.. The chauvet control line was 24 volt. I cut a 3 pin dmx short cable in half and put the leads into the dmx inputs. I looked at the pinouts for + - and ground online for the male dmx, and I'm not convinced they didn't have the inputs on the relay mislabled... or I was thinking backward.. anyway first attempt no dice.. swapped the + for - and voila.. status LED's started working when I plugged into the dmx.

The chauvet had a convenient little bay to stow it all in (likely where THEIR dmx module would screw in) Addressing by dip switches, but also has a 10th dip that is test mode where it slowly cycles on and off... so you can test the output before you tackle the DMX Not bad to drop 30 bucks or so to really extend the usefulness of the unit..

Did I tell you our stage crews are always fine folk? But I have trust issues.