Review on Channel Decoder Controller Converter Protective by Ivan Carson

I was building a home video studio and to light up the big green screen I bought a set of two softboxes that only used large CFL bulbs with built in power supplies. cord switch. Now that I've mounted them to the ceiling, they're difficult to turn on and off. I have since added a Godox DMX capable LED spotlight. I already had an Art-Net DMX interface, so I thought about adding CFL lights to the DMX "universe" and switching on/off status from my new Elgato Stream Deck XL (with the Bitfocus Conpanion). Taxes. To connect this I bought a multipack of 1ft port extensions and cut off the pin ends. I took a fairly heavy duty IEC computer power cord and cut off the computer end. Since this device is normally open dry contacts of three relays, you need to supply hot voltage to each relay. Rather than trying to connect the hot (black) wire in series to one side of each relay, I used a yellow 4 pin electrical connector (made by Ideal and STANDARD via the wire nuts in Europe) to disconnect the black wire. Conductor for 3 short pieces of black wire. Meanwhile, I connected the green (ground) and white (neutral) wires directly into separate yellow 4-pin connectors. All you have to do is "switch" the hot leg to the sockets. Ground and neutral remain directly connected to terminals (using wire nuts or connectors). To power the board itself, I just found an old 12VDC 1A wall wart and cut off the DC coax connector to connect to the two power supply pins on the board. As for the DMX input, I bought the cheapest 10ft 5 pin DMX cable I could find at Revain and cut off the female end. My Ethernet DMX interface has 5-pin XLR connectors. However, you don't really need pins 4 and 5. So, on my cable, pins 4 and 5 were red and green (the color of the conductor jacket). I removed these wires from the stripped end. Black is DMX+, white is DMX- and the shield is ground. I set a static IP for my DMX interface and set up Art-Net as Bitfocus Companion "interface" with the static IP and port of my DMX interface (for unicast mode) with DMX Universe 0. The relays worked the first time. To avoid inrush current problems, I offset each channel's turn-on command by 100ms, so every turn-on the relay is biased by 1/10. seconds. I didn't set any delays for the shutdown transition. All in all, this $25 box makes turning your studio lights on and off quick and easy. Remember that these relays are only rated for 10A at 125V AC (5A at 24V DC). In my case, I have a CFL light on each of the first two relays, so it's not that close to the limit. If your load is higher current or is a motor, inductive load, etc., you must use this device's relay to drive the coils of a more suitable relay that can handle the power requirements. It's still a viable option in those cases as high current relays are easy to find, but not with DMX control. BTW I use relay 3 to turn a small Dewalt 20V Max (DCE511B) fan on and off when I need a little airflow. Because it is designed to run on 20v max batteries (or mains power) it runs on very low current unlike shop fans and is also fairly quiet.