Segregating DMX
Dear Swami, I've heard people say that you should separate fixture types on their own DMX line or they will not work properly. Is that true? Signed, Lines Crossed in Dimmer Land Dear Crossed, The sky is dotted with clouds that color truth. DMX is well defined and as long as the maker of the machine follows the path of the protocol it will take flight. There is no technical reason for segregating DMX fixtures by type, although there may be historical reasons. In the early days of automated lighting, Martin used an non-compliant pinout and swapped pins 2 and 3. If you used an adaptor it would work with any other DMX devices. Old habits are like the weeds that grow between the cracks in the sidewalk. To be rid of them is hard. There may be other reasons for the practice of segregating DMX by fixture type but it has nothing to do with compliant fixtures.