Anyone know about DMX cables? (The 5pin XLR cables used for controlling lights.)

I use a Datavideo switcher (HS-2000 (http://www.datavideo.info/Mobile+Studios/HS-2000)) that uses those cables for the headsets / tally.

We ordered a few Hosa 5 pin XLR cables from B&H, but they only have 3 wires in them. (See attached photo.)

Obviously they don't work with the switcher as the switcher needs 5 wires for the headsets / tally. At a shoot with long cable runs I borrowed a DMX cable on a multi cam shoot from an AV / lighting tech & everything worked perfectly.

This seems like they're bad cables. Unless, does DMX use a 5 pin connector, but only 3 wires? It doesn't seem to make sense that you'd have empty pins with no wires connected to them.

Just following up in case anyone else stumbles across this post.

So the official spec of DMX cables is that they only use pins 1-3 & that pins 4 & 5 don't do anything. So some manufactures use 3 wire cable to save on costs (or make more profit). Higher quality cables use 5 wire cable (or two sets of pairs & a shielding) mostly in case pins 4 & 5 get used for something down the line.

It seems like the reasoning for using 5 pin connectors when DMX only needs 3 of them, is that the designers didn't want lighting cables to get confused with audio cables. That being said, there are people that use 3 pin XLR cables, the same ones used for audio, as their DMX cables, because you only need 3 wires for the functions of DMX.

So now, for my office, we just need to find some DMX cables that have 5 wires & something soldered to all of the pins. Once we find that, we'll have some extra cables for headsets & tally lights.

Good catch, Zach.

I had been looking at a similar setup with the Datavideo comm system last year and was looking at DMX cables as a possibility.

Then I "got wise" and said if I want comms, I'll just buy ClearCom or Telex and quit playing with toys. Especially after wasting 3 days emailing back and forth with Datavideo support about their 12v capabilities over the multi-cable...

Not too surprising. Similar to many connectors with more than 2 wires used. 4 pin power XLR only uses 2 out of 4 pins. As you mentioned..One of the reasons they use extra pins is to prevent you from plugging into a cord that is plugged into something other than DMX. If they used a 3 pin XLR you might plug into the audio board and cause problems you weren't expecting.

Hi there , You can use any XLR Microphone cable as a dmx cable providng the dmx device only has the standard 3 pin connection obviously , but my point is you do not need the extra 2 pins or wires, I run a light show with 36 fixtures all dmx chained to gather with microphone cables, some of the lights are 8 channel lights and I have never had a hiccup, hope that helps

Paul

Paul, you missed the point. The Datavideo intercom system the OP was hoping to extend is a 5-wire XLR system with the same XLR ends as a DMX but requires 5 wires.