Unison to Sensor+ to Ion DMX

I am trying to daisy chain my Unison house dimming rack to the Sensor stage dimming rack so I can control house lights from the board. I know how to terminate the wire I just need to know if an American DJ 5 pin DMX cable will work or if I’ll need something a little fancier. Also, what settings would I need to change on the racks for that to work? We also have two button stations and would like to have those take precedence over DMX from the board. Last thing, will the DMX A and B work like that on the Sensor+?

RickR over 6 years ago

For the wire, anything rated for EIA-485 will work. Many folks don't like cheap connectors or jackets that fail early, but it doesn't effect the signal.

Wiring into a Unison rack is a fair bit more complicated. There are no XLR jacks 3 or 5 pin or any other kind. All the terminations are inside the rack. A friend of mine (who knows better) nearly killed himself replacing a fan inside a rack. So you should have some solid construction electrical skills not just theatrical stuff.

Settings are likewise very complex. We would need to know what kind of Unison rack you have but also what the current settings are. DMX ports on a Unison can be inputs or outputs, there can be patching in the software, and all sorts of other things. Aside from having dimmers it doesn't share a lot with a Sensor. Unison racks generate DMX One of the really cool things about Unison gear is how flexible it is.

Your best bet is to track down system drawings of the building. Check with the building owners, facility department, maybe even the city. ETC may have some info, tech support can look for it if you call them, preferably with a job number. To change the deepest settings you will need an ETC field technician with some proprietary software, probably from a local dealer. In fact they are probably the best place to start. With any luck they helped install the system in the first place.
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