If however, it is truly just an ETClink-jack mounted into a box (6-pin
XLR female) and you have traced the
line and found its companion up near the
console (which would ALSO be a 6-pin
XLR female
jack) then you can use standard 5-pin
DMX. The pin orientation is identical (I believe) except for the center 6th pin. However, you will need a 5 pin male-to-male after the box near the
console to reverse the gender and give you the correct orientation into the
console which would be male 5-pin
DMX into the female
DMX 512
jack on the back of the
console. You are not using the ETC-link to drive the
unit, you are just borrowing the
line that runs from
FOH to the
stage for your purposes at the moment.
Basically, it would be cabled as such:
Martin RoboColor<F---5-pin DMX----M<F-ETC-link Stage---------------FOH ETC-link-F<M--5-pin
DMX adaptor--M>F---5-pin DMX---M<FConsole
**Note: You might have to toss in another small 5-pin
jumper after the
adapter if it won't fit into the ETC-link jack--some of the adapters are over sized.
Now, this is all based on theory. As I remember, ETC-link and
DMX use the same cable type and amount of resistance, ETC-link just adds the center 6th pin. If this is true, then your all set. Its sort of an ass-backwards way of doing it, but when your in a jam and don't have any spare
DMX and none is already run, it can be done this way. This will work perfectly on the 48/96 which does have ETC-link. Label this cable/
adapter set up like NO OTHER. You don't want some kid accidentally plugging ETC-link into the same
line that your
Martin is on--I would hate to see what that would do. Chances are nothing, but it could also be very bad for the chips in there. You could also, if you are adventurous and skilled enough at soldering, replace the ETC-link jacks with either 5-pin jacks (making sure you use the correct pin orientation) or simply put a male 6-pin
jack on the
console side so your not using a
gender bender.
I had to get a female-to-female 6-pin
jumper made up so that I can use my
RFU with ETC-link cable. ETC-link is male to male while
RFU is male to female, both 6 pins however. My
gender-bender jumper saved me from purchasing a $150 cable when I already had a 100' ETC-link cable but no
RFU cable. Sure, I could have just changed out the
XLR, but the
jumper was a solution that didn't bastardize any gear and made the whole
system multi purpose.
Good luck, and don't EVER force the plugs together if they don't want to go. If they don't click real easily, forget it, they weren't meant to couple.