DMX Connection and Wiring Chart

Let’s Start at the beginning. This first picture is of the DMX adapter you get from DMX PRO SALES. It connects to your
computer through a USB connection and looks like this:

The output is a 3 pin female DMX connector that mates to the DMX Input connector provided with your skull. It is Plug
and play and does not require you to download or install any drivers. It will show up in your VSA settings under PORT as
an ENTTEC-PRO followed by a series of numbers identifying the device. It is not an ENTTEC product, but VSA has only
added the ENTTEC name in their list for USB DMX adapters, so it shows up as an ENTTEC-PRO. This is correct, so don't
worry, and just select that option if it is not already selected. The USB DMX Adapter MUST be plugged into the
computer BEFORE opening VSA, or all the ports will revert back to NONE since it didn't find the device when it started,
and you may have to select it again for all your used ports. In most cases, just close the VSA program without saving it
and open it again after connecting the USB DMX Adapter and the correct ports will show if they had been selected
when you made the routine. The settings should look like this if you are using a single skull:
The next thing in the chain will be whatever length DMX cable you buy that reaches from where you set up your
computer to the first DMX device in your chain. The length is totally up to you. It can be up to a few hundred feet if you
want. Most people set their computers 20 to 25 feet away so they can be hidden, but with DMX, it’s OK to run long
lengths unlike the serial controllers where the signal degrades after a short distance.

Next, I’ll show you how to wire your DMX cables that go into the skull, assuming that you bought the DIY kit. Your input
to the skull will be a Male DMX Plug which will plug into the Female end of the DMX cable you purchased. The plug,
which in this picture is the Front View of a Male DMX plug, will look like this:

Here is a diagram showing which pins are for what wires:

Now, if you take that front part of the plug and stand it up so you’re looking down at it from the back side, you will see
the contacts that you need to solder to as shown in the next image. Before you solder to it slide your wire through the
two other pieces from the right end of the image towards the left. The middle piece is designed to clamp down on the
wire and act as a strain relief. Here is what the solder contacts look like:
You can see that the back side of the Male DMX Plug also has the pins numbered in the casing so you don’t get confused
with the mirror image pattern. The picture above represents the Male (Rear View) image in the DMX Wiring Standard - 3
Pin diagram a few images back. If you are using the Thin DMX Cable recommended to you in the Parts list, that wire
contains a shield, which is the bare wires and foil that surrounds the two data wires, a red wire, and a black wire.
Different cables from different companies may use different colors but as long as you mark down which color wire is the
Data + wire and which is the Data -, you’ll be fine. The shield is ALWAYS the bare wires and foil covering. If you have a
red and black wire it makes sense to use the red wire for Data +, and the black wire for Data -. If you follow the wiring
color code I just used, you would connect the shield to Pin 1 (The pin to the far right in the picture above), the Red wire
(or Data +) would be soldered to the pin towards the bottom of the image below (or Pin 3), and the black wire (or Data -)
would, of course be soldered to the remaining pin, which is Pin 2. You do not need to connect anything to the tab at the
top of that image. The other end of that wire is supposed to be left just bare wires. Strip each wire so that there is a
short length of bare wire showing and tin that wire with a soldering iron. Those wires will be connected to the
Halloween Skulls Controller board shown below with an explanation of all it’s connections. You can slide the center part
of the plug (The part with the tabs for soldering) out of the casing for easier access to the solder points.
In the image above of the Halloween Skulls Custom DMX board, you will see the DMX connections at the bottom. The
order that you connect the wires in is Red, Black, Shield. The diagram shows the output followed by the input, but
making the input and output separate connections was just done for convenience. Electrically, the input and output
connections are the same. Just above the terminal block where you connect your DMX input (and output if you have
more than one DMX device) is a small jumper labeled “Jumper 2”. That jumper is a built in terminator which is activated
by using the jumper connector which is shown connected here in the picture. If this skull is the only DMX item you have
there is no need for a terminator at all. The jumper will come by default, unconnected, meaning that the board is NOT
terminated. If you have more than one DMX device, you will need a terminator at the end of the daisy chain. This can be
2 or more skulls, or one skull and a couple DMX lights, or any combination of things. You can only have one terminator
in any DMX chain, and it always goes on the output of the last device in the chain. If one of your Halloween Skulls 3 axis
skulls is the last device in a DMX chain of more than 1 device, then you should connect this jumper on the board of that
skull only and you do not need an external terminator. If you use this jumper to terminate the chain in the wrong
position, any devices in the chain after the one that you connected this jumper in will not work.

The servo outputs are wired as follows:

Slot 1: Jaw servo

The rest of the servo outputs are for future expansion and additional features.

If you have only one skull, this is all the DMX wiring you need to do to make the skull work. If you plan to add a second
skull to the daisy chain, you should buy a Female DMX jack and more thin DMX wire and make a second connection so
that your next skull or other DMX device has a connector to plug into. The Female DMX connector is listed in your parts
list and gets soldered in the same manner as the male counterpart that you saw in the images above. The holes for the
pins will be in reverse order and will look like the last two examples in the DMX Wiring Standard – 3 Pin Diagram several
images back. Below are pictures of the Female Connector that is in your Parts list. Here it is from the front (you can see
the numbers identifying the holes for the pins from the male Plug:
Here is the jack disassembled in the same manner as we disassembled the Male plug:

And here is the solder tabs on the back side of the first part in the assembly (these, as you can see, are also numbered):

Again, the numbers are in the opposite position in the Female Jack as they are in the Male Plug, but you connect the
same color wires to the same numbers as before. Again, you leave the other end of the cable with just short, bare wires
and tin them. Then connect them to the DMX Board where it says DMX output at the bottom of the board diagram.

That is all you need to know about the DMX connections and wiring.