Efficiently Address DMX LED Controllers

DMX addressing through a Dip Switch module is a crucial part of DMX control, but can be confusing.

Watch Martin explain how to address a DMX LED Controller through Dip Switch Binary Code.

Martin: Hey, guys. This is Martin again, from SIRS-E, and today I’m going to talk about DMX addressing and binary code, and how to address all of your LED-CON2s, LED-CON4s, and pretty much anything that has a Dip Switch or some sort of DMX addressing module or panel.

So for example, we’re gonna start off with an LED-CON2-R2. This LED-CON2-R2 has the regular DMX Dip Switch type of addressing module here on the side, and the way this works, it works by binary code, and binary code, essentially, is just a fancy way of saying that each little one of these dip switches has a value to it. So, “Dip Switch 1” has a value of 1, 2  has a value of 2, 3 has a value of 4, 5 has a value of 8 (*This was a mistake on our part, in actuality, DIP SWITCH 4 HAS A VALUE OF 8*), and it keeps going; 16,32,64, and I think it goes all the way up to 256, up to 9. Dip switch 10 is not really used for addressing, it’s just like a test function here on the LED-CON2. So, for DMX addressing you really use 1-9.

So that being said, I’m gonna show you a small example and I’m also gonna talk about why DMX addressing is important. DMX addressing, when you set the starting DMX address of a fixture, essentially what that is, it’s the starting address value where the DMX signal is going to be sent for that particular fixture. So, within a DMX universe, you have 512 channels and whenever you set your starting DMX address for a particular fixture, that’s where that fixture is gonna be at.

So, let’s say you have an RGB strip connected to one of these; it’s three channels, red, green, blue, and you want to connect it after another fixture that’s also three channels, so you would go to channel 4. So to find channel 4 here, you know that 1 is 1, 2 is 2, 3 is 4, so in reality the way it works, the dip switches here, is you actually add value. So since dip switch 3 has a value of 4, the only one you would put down is 3, and now this is at 4. Okay, so it’s as simple as that.

You know, there’s also an iPhone App, which I will show you guys here, in just one second. This iPhone App, actually, you can select, let’s say you want address 4, and you see there, it will show you that dip switch 3 is the one that needs to be up. You know, so, you could pretty much figure out any DMX address in a matter of seconds, you know? So, it’ll show you pretty much any DMX address, what the dip switch values should be, but if you don’t have this, you could just do the math, it’s a little bit trickier, but it works either way. The name of this app, it’s called DMX Dip, okay? So, you could go to the App Store and I think it’s $0.99, or it might be free,  I really don’t remember.

But anyway,  there’s another type of DMX addressing, that’s also available in other fixtures or LED Drivers or Decoders, and this is a digital display, and it’s a lot easier; you don’t need an app, you don’t need anything. This one, all you do is you go to the mode where you set your DMX address, and you could either go up, or down, and you can actually find the address you want. So you want 4? There you go, 004. You want 6? There you go, 006. Simple as that, and that’s what DMX Addressing is for.

If you guys have any questions, comments, concerns, anything like that, please do drop us a comment. Also, don’t forget to subscribe and check out our website at sirs-e.com. Thanks for watching.