DMX over power?

JonCarter

Well-Known Member
We've had Power over Ethernet and Power over USB for some time now. There are multiple systems now existing for transmitting digital information over 120C (or 240V) AC power systems. When will some enterprising designer come up with a system of transmitting lighting control DMX data over the lighting instrument's power line? (Get rid of all that 3-pin connector/5-pin connector business, extra cable to all instruments, wireless DMX interference, etc., etc.)
 
I don't think it will happen. The industry has shifted over to wireless transmission of data instead of trying to deal with the engineering challenge of creating a product that can extract data from a power line in all jurisdictions and all power distribution variants.
 
You already *could* do this, using sACN(or ArtNet, I suppose) with off-the-shelf ethernet powerline adapters. No idea how well it would work, and you'd need a console that speaks ethernet(or an input gateway/node) on one end, and a gateway/node of some type to output DMX on the other end...

Not sure I'd trust it unless I had no other options, but theoretically possible. The network folks did the hard part, all we have to do is plug into it.
 
You already *could* do this, using sACN(or ArtNet, I suppose) with off-the-shelf ethernet powerline adapters. No idea how well it would work, and you'd need a console that speaks ethernet(or an input gateway/node) on one end, and a gateway/node of some type to output DMX on the other end...

Not sure I'd trust it unless I had no other options, but theoretically possible. The network folks did the hard part, all we have to do is plug into it.
No fixtures have the requisite EOP transceiver to convert back from sACN to something the fixture can process. Sure you can transmit to some other receiver and then do an sACN to DMX conversion before daisy-chaining DMX to each fixture, but it's not what @JonCarter is asking for.
 
With as dirty as my power is pre-conditioner, I wouldn't trust too much over a power line. Power over Ethernet and USB tends to be low voltage in my experience. 5v seems to be the typical output, running a power line over DMX wouldn't work, and I don't think that data over a 110 would really work either, but I'm usually wrong.

I'm just waiting for wireless power, then I can rest.
Isn't that usually referred to as solar, wind, and water???
Toodleoo!
Ron Hebbard
 
I've been watching LumenTalk for a while. They are tightly focused on their own fixtures. At some point I can see an input/output pair of devices, maybe even multiple universes, being some form of cable replacement like early ethernet systems. Places where it beats wireless in our industry will be few. Someday the wireless spectrum will be over run, not soon.
 

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