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[Ryan Lantzy]

Anyone know where I can get bulk DMX cable.

I'm having a hard time finding someone selling it by the foot and stuff that's not meant for installation.

I'm only doing 3 pin cables.  I've heard AES/EBU is an acceptable replacement.

I just got 8 moving fixtures and my old drive cable (which is a mic cable) works with it but I notice when I move the lights quickly left and right with the shutter off, the units will occassionally flash.  This doesn't happen on a shorter run so this tells me that the 75' run of mic cable is distorting the signal and Errors are occurring.

I want to replace all the "mic" cable I have in this DMX rig with either AES/EBU cable or DMX.

Full compass has Gepco DMX cable by the foot but they wanted $73 to ship 150 feet of it.

[Brian Houchin]

Ryan,

I looked and looked and could not find anyplace that would sell by the foot at a price I wanted to pay (cheapest was 42 cents a foot).  Is this stuff made out of gold?

For the long runs I ended up buying the cable I needed (100 footer was 48 bucks with Neutrik ends at Centerstage, free shipping) and for short cables I bought a 50 footer so I could hack off 15 feet and build the shortys out of that.

I wish EWI would make some DMX cables!

[Duane Massey]

Try Markertek. There are several (actually, a lot) of choices for "DMX" cable. As a general rule you want a cable that has one twisted pair, 110-150ohms, with a braided or braided&foil shield. The biggest difference is flexibility, which some of the cheaper cables don't have.
You're gonna pay anywhere from $.80 to $ 1.25 per foot, but I don't understand the rather outrageous shipping fees. Maybe they're putting on a reel, or are packing it in concrete?

[Terry Martin]

Contact Mitch at www.CenterstageLighting.com.  They are located outside of Louisville and should be able to get you a better deal on shipping.

Terry

[Matt Johnson]

The price of copper has gone up quite a bit lately:

"Copper prices have increased by 92 cents per pound since the beginning of April with price increases sometimes approaching 20 cents per day. To put this in perspective, copper prices increased 75 cents in all of 2005. This equates to a 58 percent increase in copper since January 2006 and a 138 percent increase since January 2005."  Jim Carlini http://wistechnology.com/article.php?id=2955


That's a crazy increase, in fact a penny is worth more than $.01 due to the raw materials now.  So no, cables aren't made of gold.  But yes, it is an increasingly valuable material.  

[Jim Cutshall]

I did a job this past summer that when I quoted it the price was xx. I marked it up 25% and a week later when I got the OK and ordered the cable, my profit was now 1%.

As for DMX cable, AES/EBU is almost identical in spec and you should have no problems running lighting over it.  Typically when you order DMX cable it is true DMX cable with 2 discrete pairs in one jacket which will cause you price to go up.

FWIW,  Jim

[David Buehler]

TMB and ACT lighting both sell DMX cable by the foot if i recall...

[Ryan Lantzy]

I heard back from Full Compass.  Just a messed up weight on that SKU.  I'll probably be getting it from there.

Thanks for the help.

[Kevin Esprella]

I'm also looking for bulk DMX cable and Ryan, just wanted to see if you were happy with your purchase from Full Compass. Also if anyone else has some other inputs that would be great. I know Terry said about contacting Mitch from centerstagelighting.com. Has anyone done business with them?

Thanks for the help.

[Thomas Bishop]

How much do you need?  I am a CBI dealer so let me know how much and what type (single pair with shield okay?) and I'll get you a quote.

[Silas Pradetto]

Thomas Bishop wrote on Wed, 16 February 2011 09:54

How much do you need?  I am a CBI dealer so let me know how much and what type (single pair with shield okay?) and I'll get you a quote.

+1, was going to recommend CBI.

Though, last I knew, the CBI/Belden stuff still wasn't that cheap, and the difference between 1-pair and 2-pair is only like 4 cents.

And, the 1-pair is a bit oddly shaped since it doesn't have filler to make it that round.

Both are quite stiff, but very durable.

I actually recommend AccuCable, which can be bought in bulk for cheap:

http://elationlighting.com/ProductsList.aspx?MainId=1&Ca tegory=Accu%20Cable

It comes in 300 foot spools. Email me for a quote.

silas@concertsunlimited.com

Thanks

[Thomas Bishop]

Interesting information, Silas.  I have actually not used the CBI DMX cable but am planning on buying a spool of it later this month.  I'll report back once I've received it.