# Led lights using Cat5 cable



## Gabe A

Hello guys,

I hope you all can be able to help me with this one; I am a newbie willing to learn the best way of doing this. 

I have 5 led lights that was stripped apart; I got them from a church that was giving their old microplex stage lights. They converted 5 of them using led lights with cat5 cables inside of an old par cans. Attached are images of what I got.

I want to merge all 5 of them together on 1 Ethernet cable on one end, and the other end will be a dmx connector. is this possible? I am not worried about changing the color of the lights on each led light panels, i want to control all 5 at 1 time. 

Your counsel will be greatly appreciated.


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## dbaxter

It doesn't look like they gave you any sort of controller. You will need something like this or similar. The cat5 cable was probably just used for the number of conductors in it. You may need sometime with a volt-ohm meter and a 12V supply to figure out which leads do what.


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## Gabe A

dbaxter said:


> It doesn't look like they gave you any sort of controller. You will need something like this or similar. The cat5 cable was probably just used for the number of conductors in it. You may need sometime with a volt-ohm meter and a 12V supply to figure out which




They gave me a NSI 6300 controller, and it had a DMX-512 optional interface, but its for 5-pin. I am going to purchase a controller.

Another question. Is there a way to control my track lights using dmx?


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## porkchop

Gabe A said:


> Hello guys,
> 
> I hope you all can be able to help me with this one; I am a newbie willing to learn the best way of doing this.
> 
> I have 5 led lights that was stripped apart; I got them from a church that was giving their old microplex stage lights. They converted 5 of them using led lights with cat5 cables inside of an old par cans. Attached are images of what I got.
> 
> I want to merge all 5 of them together on 1 Ethernet cable on one end, and the other end will be a dmx connector. is this possible? I am not worried about changing the color of the lights on each led light panels, i want to control all 5 at 1 time.
> 
> Your counsel will be greatly appreciated.



First off, Welcome to the booth. Enjoy your stay.
Those look like the bare light source. I also doubt that the ethernet cable was anything more than just what they had on hand when they were making these. To use these you'll need a driver like the one that Dave linked to. That driver will take in DMX and turn that into voltage and current pulse that actually turns the LED's on. From there you need to figure out where your DMX is coming from.


Gabe A said:


> They gave me a NSI 6300 controller, and it had a DMX-512 optional interface, but its for 5-pin. I am going to purchase a controller.



Despite what the cheap Chinese fixture market may think, 5-pin is the standard for DMX. 


Gabe A said:


> Another question. Is there a way to control my track lights using dmx?



Yes. If you're talking about incandescent lights you just need a dimmer. I have some doubts that this is the best solution for whatever you're trying to accomplish though.


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## jonliles

There doesn't appear to be any on board electronics for those. It brings into question voltage supply and control. LEDs. LEDs are tricky, are they 5V or 12V or 24V - it matters greatly. Are they all single color LEDs? Are they all the same color LED? They don't appear to be RGB in a single LED. one lead to and from LED makes me assume they are a least a sinle color LED. Also, different color LEDs will have different power requirements. Wouldn't be a problem if there was some form of on-board elctronics (at least I can't see any). Are they constant voltage or constant current LEDs. That alone will change the power supply and the method of control. There's more than 1 type of PWM circuit. 
Can you send us a photo of the name plate of the old can they came out of? On the fac of the LEDs, the connection points might be label see if you can get a close up shot.


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