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Why use DMX Why use dmx? it sounds complicated. Here is a case scenario it is fictitious but it demonstrates a point. A person wants an animated fountain 4 metres across, nothing too exiting just 4 foaming jets, one central spray ring, 4 fan nozzles, 4 straight jets coloured lights. He wants to be able to change the patterns from his office, not on a regular basis but just when he wants to. The first thing that is required for the controls is a daylight sensor to turn the lights on in the dark, we calculate that the best option would be to have 32 lights (8 of red, blue, green and 4 white, since the colour transmission of the first three is less than100% more are required to give a higher level of light. We would recommend using DMX and access software this way he can use his office computer to log in and change the patterns as and when he wants to without leaving his chair. To use dmx apart from the software he would require two dmx dimmers (One for the lights being four colours, the other being for the 4 different nozzle patterns) we would also recommend that each nozzle has its own pump, now although that is 13 pumps it would be more reliable and in the long run more economical than to use say 3 or 4 bigger pumps because it will be less pipe work and easier to control. The real beauty of DMX is that not only could he tell the pumps to "run" but also how fast (thereby changing the height of each set of nozzles, giving him almost limitless combinations patterns.) In closing, It may be cheaper to use just four pumps but then you have all the pipe work and no speed control, (or if there is you would need to run 4 pump cables, 4 lighting cables, and both ways if the power comes from the control cabinet, making a total of 16 cables) where as DMX means only one small data cable from the control cabinet to the computer in the office, yes there will be just a few cables but these can be brought in via an underground conduit which was installed during installation from the pool to the control cabinet. Over all we have saved our customer a great deal of hassle and money (Not to mention a potential 16 cables running into his office.) He also gets a friendly user interface on his computer with which he can set his fountains as he wishes. Let me now ask YOU a question "So anyway how is he going to operate the fountains, without dmx? big switches?" It could be argued that you could use relays and then have a small panel on his desk (more clutter) And don't forget relays only go on or off and only have a "limited" number of operations, DMX doesn't since there are no moving parts to wear out. That is why we use DMX
Since December21st 2004 you are the
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