Datamoons decided not to play via the controller last night and desperate to get fixed before saturday nights gig!

There are 4 wires
yellow
green
red
black

on the din style plug there are 6 pins
1
2
3
4
5
6

pin 1,2 and 3 had a wire on it due to solder residue

pin4 not used
pin 5 used as solder is present
pin 6 is the earth eyelet

there is no trace as to what colour went where as all are the same length and left no trace from the outter case colours.

I am trawling the web as we speak to find if there is a resource there, but anyone that has the pair of datamoons with the black control box similar to a phone cable and wouldnt mind opening theres to see what colours are where, i would be eternally greatfull


thanks

too late now, but i will tell you tomo night, ive the same controller

Jeff

According to the datamoon manuals,

http://www.njd.co.uk/technical/354.pdf
http://www.njd.co.uk/technical/355.pdf

... all the pins in the DIN connector are used. Depending on which pins have a voltage (10V) applied, the moon does a number of different functions.

Pin 1 is to select twist and flash to sound
Pin 3 is to select change colour to sound
Pin 5 is to select twist clockwise to sound
Pin 4 is to select random mode change

Pin 2 is the signal ground.

Using a cheap multimeter it should be a pretty straightforward exercise to find out which cables do what from your controller. I'd start by finding the ground cable (probably the black, but that's only an educated guess) then connecting across it and another cable, and trying the functions in turn until you get a voltage showing on the meter.

UNLESS, you are using an NJ121C controller, then it becomes a little more complicated, but still workable if you put your mind to it.
If it is an NJ121C, you can buy replacement leads (NJ310) easily enough anyway, from Electrovision.

Then after you've done all that, bin it on ebay and buy a DMX controller you'll have far more fun !!

Not gunna believe this........ Just opened up my controller dmx plug to have a look for you, and two of the wires just came off in my hand.... what a load of crap!!! Im in the same posistion as you now! thats what happens when you try and help someone out haha

UPDATE

Just phoned the tech help in St Helens

PIN 1 YELLOW
PIN 2 RED
PIN 3 GREEN
PIN 4 NOT USED
PIN 5 BLACK
PIN 6 (Chassis) NOT USED

Get the soldering iron out!!

Tech guy says its a common problem, called all the time for this....... Says to try and put some heat shrink over the cable where it goes into the DMX 5pin plug

errrrrrrrrrrrrrrr Shouldnt that be done at NJD???? save us having this problem! come on NJD, sort it out!

Thanks for that jeff, but to add salt to injury, i called em myself as i was waiting for such a reply, but you can see how infuriating it is with cables being so stiff!!

I agree the shrink tube should be done at the factory and its not that the lack of this shrink tube is the wholle problem, but the cable is not secured enough inside the housing, it just slips through, so as well as insulate the cables i have also made the cable much thicker by winding insulation tape around it so the the cable grip has something to grip!

thanks again i really appreciate you going to the trouble

What's that about the cables being "so stiff" ?

I've not seen one of these boxes myself, but if it is stiff cable that could be a cause of a potential recurring problem. Why not change it for some decent 4 core flex and a good quality connector ??

not possible as the other end has a small phone plug that slots into the controler, but the problem is the outter casings of the wire as the wire is standard copper strands, but the outter casings are stiff and a swine to solder acurately without a third hand!

the design of the dmx 5 lead to the light unit is the problem, the gauge of the final outter casing is too narrow to be held down by the plug clamp, thus being allowed to be stressed instaed of a fixed outter casing held firmly by the clamp.

the best thing to do if you ever need to repair would be to do several windings of insulation tape where it meets the clamp to keep the whole casing rigid and not loose!