West Penn Wire does offer RS-485, RS-422 and RS-232 Data Cables. Two wire RS-485 Cables include: West Penn Wire: D4851, D2401, D420, M54089. Other Cables include: D4852, D4853, D4854, D2402, D2403, D2404.- DA2401, DA2402
West Penn has many distributors that carry West Penn Wire products. See our Stocking Distributors list located on the main menu and in our sales and support page.
West Penn Wire manufacturers over 1,000 different wires and cables. Most of these products are stocked in our distribution centers. Our distribution centers are located in: Washington, PA, Memphis, TN, and Sacramento CA.
DMX is a standard protocol developed in 1986 for lighting control to use equipment from different manufacturers in one system. The DMX 512 standard (Actually USITT DMX 512 - 1990) is published by the USITT.
It is a multiplexed protocol transmitted via the industry standard interface EIA485 (RS485) and provides up to 512 control "channels" per data link. It allows these 512 channels of information to be transmitted. For more than 512 channels, multiple DMX links are used. The DMX protocol does not have any form of error correction.
RS-485 defines that the signal voltage between the two wires should be at least 200 milivolts.
Higher voltage on the "+" pin and lower voltage on the "-" pin results in a digital "1". Higher voltage on the "-" pin and lower voltage on the "+" pin results in a digital "0".
Voltage on both pins measured to ground should be between +12 volts and -7 volts.
The used connector is the 5-pin XLR. The sending port always uses the female and the receiving port uses the male connector.
Data is tranmitted in serial format asynchronously with a transmission speed of 250 Kbps. All data for the individual 512 DMX channels is sent one after each other, beginning with channel 1. Not all 512 channels need to be output per packet, and in fact, it is very uncommon to find all 512 used. As soon as one packet is finished, another can begin. If nothing has changing the same data will be sent out over and over again. The fewer channels are used, the higher is the "refresh" rate of information.
Because DMX is a RS-485 interface, don't use standard microphone cables. The standard wiring is a twiste-pair, shielded, low-capacitance data cable designed for RS-485. Recommended cables are:
West Penn Wire:
Non Plenum:D4851, D4852, D2401, D2402.
Plenum: D252401, D252402
Use DMX cable with only the first three pins connected. DMX cable with all five pins connected should only be used when the user manual for the product states that it is necessary (for example if the dimmers return status data to the console).
