Anyone make their own DMX or power cords?

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IceBurghDJ

IceBurghDJ

DJ Extraordinaire
Apr 17, 2015
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What's your thoughts?
Source of wire and connectors?

I would like a cleaner setup and cords of the exact right length would make that so much easier...so thinking of making my own DMX and maybe power cords.

Durability of the connections is I guess my main concern.
 
IceBurghDJ said:
What's your thoughts?
Source of wire and connectors?

I would like a cleaner setup and cords of the exact right length would make that so much easier...so thinking of making my own DMX and maybe power cords.

Durability of the connections is I guess my main concern.
Click to expand...

You can buy custom length power cables, and it does not cost much more than buying off-the-shelf. As for other types of cables, like XLR, DMX, VGA, USB, DVI, HDMI, RS-232, etc., you can buy connectors that allow you to run almost everything over CAT5 cables, which are relatively easy to make and are generally pretty durable. TecNec makes a good DMX/CAT5 adapter that sells for about $20. Then you can make your cables any length you want.[emoji4] I buy my CAT5 cable and crimp connectors from Markertek.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
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I have made some, and bought some!

All parts come from parts express! I have great success with good soldering iron and heat shrink and a heat gun! I have been making my own cables and soldering since 1983. I use heat shrink for strain relief.
And all premade cables come from the best and most affordable cable maker on the planet! MONOPRICE.com. They have spring strain releif.

I can build a better bulk cable with Parts Express stuff! Take your time use some good heat shrink from parts express also!
 
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NLFX (Ben Stowe's company) specializes in just such endeavors. Estimating my free time at $60/hour, having someone else do it is my choice. Plus, if I even look at a power tool, my hand starts to bleed. I plug in a soldering gun, little burnt pin holes appear on my shirt and jeans and the garage is filled with the odor of 2nd degree flesh burns.
 
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DMX cabling is unnecessarily expensive all around. Here is a mind bender. Invest only in some short XLR cables of 2 feet or so and in some XLR adapters and make all your former XLR runs into Cat 5 cable runs. Cat 5 is much cheaper and easier to make into custom lengths.
 
Well, I had no paid work for 3 days over the holiday..so to say my time is worth $60/hour is a paper tiger sorta thing.
Spent today driving a bus and bus maintenance at $12.50/hour.
So well, that is more what my time is worth. LOL

Cap Capello said:
NLFX (Ben Stowe's company) specializes in just such endeavors. Estimating my free time at $60/hour, having someone else do it is my choice. Plus, if I even look at a power tool, my hand starts to bleed. I plug in a soldering gun, little burnt pin holes appear on my shirt and jeans and the garage is filled with the odor of 2nd degree flesh burns.
Click to expand...
 
dapperdan said:
DMX cabling is unnecessarily expensive all around. Here is a mind bender. Invest only in some short XLR cables of 2 feet or so and in some XLR adapters and make all your former XLR runs into Cat 5 cable runs. Cat 5 is much cheaper and easier to make into custom lengths.
Click to expand...
Good thought Dan, but the name of the game is to eliminate as many connections as possible. A connection is a point of failure! In the years of music setups and especially installations we never splice or convert with a connector if we don't absolutely have to! And if we did, we wrote it down and the next show we built a cable already converted!
 
dapperdan said:
DMX cabling is unnecessarily expensive all around. Here is a mind bender. Invest only in some short XLR cables of 2 feet or so and in some XLR adapters and make all your former XLR runs into Cat 5 cable runs. Cat 5 is much cheaper and easier to make into custom lengths.
Click to expand...
You can use CAT 5 cable for a DMX
run? Must use my Google-foo and learn more.
 
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IceBurghDJ said:
Well, I had no paid work for 3 days over the holiday..so to say my time is worth $60/hour is a paper tiger sorta thing.
Spent today driving a bus and bus maintenance at $12.50/hour.
So well, that is more what my time is worth. LOL
Click to expand...

Right on, My time is worth whatever I make it. Especially when I have fun doing it! Making cables should be fun to a dj.
 
scgstuff said:
You can use CAT 5 cable for a DMX
run? Must use my Google-foo and learn more.
Click to expand...
Yes DMX has no chance of E M F I. If you don't know what that is. Look it up! doesnt pull much current, so you can use 26ga,,,, and cat5 is readily available so,,,, you can use it,,,,,,if you want but it is not protected that well! The sheathing is pretty tough!

3 conductor eso cord 18ga is what we use in bulk. We buy 10,000 ft rolls. That seems to be the norm for dmx! Not speaker cables or xlr! Because it is not twisted or sheilded!

Also,as a side note, You should never parallel run your act cables along side of your xlr, line level, and speaker wires together. When you have to cross them on the floor always 90 the cross point then go back to running about 6 to 8 inches away from each other to avoid EMFI.
 
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DJKLEEN said:
Yes DMX has no chance of E M F I. If you don't know what that is. Look it up! doesnt pull much current, so you can use 26ga,,,, so cat5 is readily available so,,,, you can use it,,,,,,if you want but it is not protected that well! The sheathing is pretty tough!
Click to expand...
Reading about it now. Looking at the ETSA standard.
 
EMFI in short is electromagnetic induction! Voltage or noise being introduced by way air! The farther the cable runs in parallel to the inducer, the more noise that gets induced! The more current the inducer carries the larger the electromagnetic field.

Sheilded cable helps, but is not completely immune!
 
Ive thought about it making my own, but the few times I tried to solder it did not go very well, so maybe one day I will give it a shot, I would need to get a new solder gun first.
 
Cap Capello said:
NLFX (Ben Stowe's company) specializes in just such endeavors. Estimating my free time at $60/hour, having someone else do it is my choice. Plus, if I even look at a power tool, my hand starts to bleed. I plug in a soldering gun, little burnt pin holes appear on my shirt and jeans and the garage is filled with the odor of 2nd degree flesh burns.
Click to expand...

A man's got to know his limitations....


Hey Ice...I have to agree with many here...
You can get any cord in darn near any length you want.
I have found 6" IEC cords for my subs....and 15-foot IEC cords for my tops.
Same with DMX. I order the cable when I buy a new fixture, according to where I am gonna put the light.
While I am not afraid to break out the soldering iron,
I simply don't trust my talent enough to do it all the time.
 
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At the DJExpo last year, DMX cables from both Blizzard and ADJ were about 50 cents per foot or less .. at some point it just doesn't make sense to make them.
 
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I usually whip up what I need. I buy 50' DMX cables and chop them up. Neutrik connectors, a bit of red heatshrink at the male end. (Blue for audio cables)
 
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