Control/Dimming Ion 5 pin DMX to 3 Pin DMX NSI Dimmer Packs

koimystic

Member
Hello, We have an Ion light board that has DMX 5 pin outputs on it. We also have 3 NSI dimmer packs that I would like to hook up using a 5 pin to 3 pin cable I made from a guide (I believe it was pin 1 to pin 1/pin 2 to pin 2/3 pin to 3 pin/ pins 4 and 5 weren't used at all.) I tried assigning the NSI dimmer packs to channel 109 - 112 and for some reason it is not working... I am not sure why. I will have to test the dimmer packs on a small cheap 16 channel NSI board tomorrow. Does anyone have any ideas on why they may not be communicating together? The NSI dimmer packs are 2 DDS 6000's and 1 DDS 5600. Thanks for the help!
Marshall
 
We have an NSI board at our church, and we had get the DMX add-on from NSI. I don't remember what it cost, but it added a 5-pin DMX jack to the back of the board, next to the 3-pin jacks already in place.
 
Thanks, but i was actually asking about the dimmer packs and why they weren't responding to the ION Board. Maybe the 3 pins on the dimmers have to be changedto 5 pins? I wouldn't think they would though since i made a 5 pin to 3 pin adapter though and the NSI dimmers only use pins 1, 2, and 3. Thanks for the suggestion
 
THanks Derek! This will let me add more conventional lights instead of moving lights... I will use these for about 12 pars we have laying around and 8 source foru juniors we have laying around that we don't use.
Does anyone know where I can get the DMX-512 digital adapter?
 
THanks Derek! This will let me add more conventional lights instead of moving lights... I will use these for about 12 pars we have laying around and 8 source foru juniors we have laying around that we don't use.
Does anyone know where I can get the DMX-512 digital adapter?

You can get them from NSI, NSI is now owned by Leviton BTW so you should probably just try calling Leviton.
 
...Does anyone know where I can get the DMX-512 digital adapter?
I suspect it's a modification done to the packs (replacing the 3pin XLRs with 5pin and changing a circuit board inside). See this page for contact info for Leviton (parent company of NSI): Commercial Support > Commercial Home > Commercial from Leviton Entertainment.
Leviton does offer the N0501-2 protocol converter, but I'd think converting the packs would be more reasonable, and most likely the less expensive option.
 
Sorry to chime in late, but I have one of the N0501-2 converters for our NSI dimmers. It's easy. I don't know how much it cost, as it was purchased before I got here, but it's great because it's simple and portable, it takes about 30 seconds to plug in the DMX in and the microplex out. Then just daisy-chain the rest of the packs from the first.
 
A quick Google search finds the Levition N0501-2 available for $903 from one vendor. As I said, I suspect modifying the packs would be a better option. At that price, throwing away the packs and buying new would be a less-costly option.
 
A quick Google search finds the Levition N0501-2 available for $903 from one vendor. As I said, I suspect modifying the packs would be a better option. At that price, throwing away the packs and buying new would be a less-costly option.

I think they gave us ours for free or at a much reduced cost when we purchased our Innovator 48/96 console. I can't see us spending that much money for that converter.:oops:
 
We got our "magic box" for around $500 bucks. Actually we had two of them... Then they both broke. I guess they weren't made for life outside of a permanent install.

Does anybody know how much the mod costs from NSI for the DDS 6000?
 
I used the NSI (Leviton) IF-501 for this purpose at the church I used to go to. It's still functioning fine after a couple of years of service. It was used for converting Lumanet to Microplex as well. The If-501 was around $300 if I remember correctly.
 
The IF501 Lists for about $490, but should be available thru your dealer of choice for a bit less. The OPT5512 is the optional DMX board for the 6000 series dimmers. This board actually replaces the Microplex board in the dimmer pack, so if you might need Microplex again it might be worth considering the IF501. The OPT5512 Lists for $118.

Best,
John

We got our "magic box" for around $500 bucks. Actually we had two of them... Then they both broke. I guess they weren't made for life outside of a permanent install.

Does anybody know how much the mod costs from NSI for the DDS 6000?
 

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