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The school I teach at has just upgraded to a Leviton 48/96 light board and Leviton I96 dimmer rack after using an OLD EC dimmer rack and interface to a Strand 300 Series board. There is no DMX run anywhere in the auditorium. My question is this:
Can we plug DMX equipment into the dimmers using them as a normal outlet (ie, full on/off) and then dimming via DMX. My principal is VERY!!!! interested in LED border units to replace the old ones we currently have.

  sorted i just had to flick the dmx out back and forth - wierd...

Basically...
I was happily programming some scenes etc and I noticed one of the laser beams was slightly of centre to the other one (Its a double laser) anyway i turned off the power, realigned it, turned it back on and it started going through auto mode. However that's all it is doing now! I had wired two double lasers to it and I cant seem to work ether of them   

Please help..... 

Best get a terminator, best be safe than sorry, afterall they only cost a couple of quid on eBay or better yet if you have a soldering iron that's even cheaper. 

I could use some help to hook up my Elation DMX Operator to a Chauvet ColorStrip.

Hi,
I'm also a bit of a newbie to the world of dmx but i found this video on youtube very helpful to get started 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Svs--6XgRIY&feature=related

DMX512 signals are eletrically RS485 signals, so perhaps  RS485 surge and lightning protectors are what you need.

A quick google gave products by Citel, Robust Datacom and Telebyte.

I believe I am the victim of what the subject says... We had incredible storms over the last few days, and now EVERYTHING on my main dmx run is unresponsive.  Tried other dimmers and they don't show signal, tried a different control board and it doesn't control anything, etc. 

Gear includes an ETC Express, CD80 dimmers, and a NSI protocol converter that runs the house light system. 

So I've got a repair bill or three, and an insurance claim to file.

How can I prevent this from happening again?

/Ed

The best advice is to use a terminator, but in reality many (maybe most) DMX systems in the world are improperly terminated and work just fine.

What I tend to do is (which is just a tad naughty) to use a DMX splitter in dimmerworld, and that will correctly terminate the incoming line (theres a switch on the splitter to enable an internal terminator) so the long cable from desk or computer to stage is correctly terminated.  I then tend to worry less about the feeds out of the splitter, 'cos they are relatively short.

Sometimes you see systems that work without a terminator but when a terminator is installed they stop working. This is almost always due to busted wiring.

I am using dmx dimmers to control theatrical lighting, do I need a DMX terminator? And if I don't use one, what might happen? We have been using the system for a couple of years without one and haven't seen any real problems. The only problem we have seen is that on occasion the lights will come on with the controlling computer completely off. This usually occurs when a storm is in the area. Would a terminator stop this from happening?

Thanks & God Bless,
Glenn