DMX512 Lighting Cable with 3-Pin or 5-Pin XLR

A DMX512 lighting cable carries the control signal that tells a fixture what to do, and when it fails the symptom is rarely subtle: fixtures flicker, respond to the wrong channel, or drop off the end of the chain entirely. Most of those faults trace back to the physical layer rather than to the console, which is why the cable construction matters more than buyers expect. This range covers fixed installs in theatres and houses of worship, architectural facade lighting, and touring rigs that are struck and rebuilt night after night.

Three pin or five pin

Three pin XLR is common on fixtures and on lower cost gear; five pin is the connector the control standard calls for and is what most professional consoles and dimmer racks present. Mixing the two across a rig is normal, so we build both and can supply adapter leads where a chain has to cross from one to the other. Decide at the design stage which the house infrastructure will use, because retrofitting a building wired for three pin later in the project is tedious work.

What is inside the jacket

• One impedance controlled data pair rather than a generic microphone pair
• Foil screen over the pair to hold the characteristic impedance along the run
• Braided screen over the foil for mechanical strength and coverage
• Polyethylene insulation on the pair, which is what the impedance figure depends on
• Colour coded jacket so data runs can be told apart from audio at a glance

Right angle, pancake and weather resistant builds

Where fixtures are packed tightly on a bar or set into a floor, a straight plug simply does not fit. Right angle and pancake style connectors keep the cable flat against the fixture body and stop the plug from being knocked sideways during load in. For facade and outdoor work we offer an overmoulded sealed version with a gasket at the mating face, which keeps moisture out of the connector shell on a permanently exposed run.

Run length and termination on site

DMX chains are limited by the total length and by the number of fixtures hanging off them, and the practical limit is reached sooner on a touring rig with many connectors in the path than on a single clean installed run. Plan the chain rather than letting it grow, and keep the cable away from dimmer power and from lighting mains wherever possible. For long installed routes we can supply bulk cable with connectors and crimp tooling so the run is terminated to the measured length on site, leaving no excess to coil at the fixture.

Before you specify it

Conductor gauge, impedance, screen coverage and the sealing rating of the moulded version come from published competitor data. We need the supplier datasheet and, for the sealed build, an ingress test result before any of those numbers go into a specification document.

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