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the_very_simple_guide_to_dmx

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The Very Simple Guide to DMX

Hello and welcome to The DMX Wiki,

As you may have of seen or heard many times or perhaps even not DMX is sometimes referred to as DMX 512 Or you'll here the word 512 bounded around alot!

This '512' refers to the maximum amount of channels that DMX can have in One 'Universe' so they say, what do I mean by Channels? Well imagine infront of you 512 milk bottles in a row… Each one can contain some milk but only so much and that limit is '255' so the milk bottles in front of you represent the 512 Channels in DMX but what does that '255' refer to? Well that's the maximum 'Value' of the amount of milk your bottle can hold.

and this is how DMX Works imagine your light needs 1 Channel (a milk bottle) and when that milk bottles empty (the values at 0) you get no light output but slowly as you fill the milk bottle with milk (increasing the value) your light gets brighter and brighter until your bottle has got 255 litres of milk (the max), need it dimmer? Then pour some of that milk out! every litre is activating a switch that does something on your light and some lights don't mind having a value within a range for example in the manual it will say 230 - 255 turns the light green so when you fill that bottle up once it reaches 230 and up until 255 your light will stay green!

So to Summarise :

  • Imagine the 512 Channels of DMX as 512 Milk Bottles.
  • Each one can contain up to 255 units of milk (The Value).
  • For every unit of milk added to the bottle it can make your light do different things or if you fill it up between xxx units and xxx units your light may activate one function like a colour change.

From now on we'll talk about these imaginary milk bottles as Channels and the contents of the bottles as Values.

So how does your light know what channels are assigned to it? Well this is what we call Addressing in DMX every channel is fixed so imagine 512 milk bottles lined up in a row every single one has a number on it in order 1 to 512, rather like a street with houses that all have an address.

Your light needs an address so when your DMX Control Software or Hardware sets the values of a channel your light will respond (fills up a bottle and your light responds to that amount depending on how its programmed).

Your light will say in the manual it needs a certain amount of channels to operate for example let's say 6 but how does your light know which 6 channels out of the 512 it needs? It needs to know where its main address is within the 512 that's what you set on the light either with the display or using Dip Switches

the_very_simple_guide_to_dmx.1375622904.txt.gz · Last modified: 2013/08/04 13:28 by djsupport

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