UltraDMX Micro – USB DMX Adapter/Dongle

[short review: I used this with Q-lab and I never had a problem. Sometimes I would have to restart my laptop for the dmx connection to establish, but I never had a problem mid-show]I'm the tech director for a small theater company in Hollywood, which means we rent the theaters we work in. That means that it's a real crapshoot on what you have to work with when it comes to lightboards. The theatre that was rented for our last show did not have a workable light board and I knew that Q-lab now supports USB-DMX, so I purchased this product as it was the cheapest one recommended by the Q-lab website. It consistently worked. And while the show was relatively simple lighting, it was able to accomplish everything I needed it to including a subtle 2-minute Fade to Blue led light.I'm so glad this is now a part of my kit, it fits in my back pocket (though I'd never keep it there) and I don't have to worry about lighting board situations ever again.

I got this to replace a cheap knock off DMX USB cable that never quite worked right. I should have just spent the extra 30 dollars and got this one in the first place. This one worked flawlessly out of the box with no configuration or weird drivers needed. Dims well, and haven't had any timing issues or flicker at all driving some rgb led pars and a few various MLs. QLC+ recognizes it straight out of the box. If you're looking for a cheap DMX controller to use with your PC or Raspberry Pi, save yourself some headaches and just get this one.

Short version: It works great.Long version: My band uses backing tracks synced to a MIDI-controlled light show. Our hardware DMX interface died, so I took a chance and picked up this USB DMX adapter. It (obviously) took some effort to replace the hardware device with software and adapter, but it went relatively smoothly. You have to download the software from http://dmxking.com/ and some drivers which are explained in the documentation. I got QLC+ (http://www.qlcplus.org/), which is free DMX controller software, and loopMIDI (http://www.tobias-erichsen.de/software/loopmidi.html), which is another free program that allows you to route MIDI from one program (the DAW, Reaper) to another (QLC+). Then I went through and mapped all the old MIDI commands to the correct scenes in QLC+. The trickiest part was just ensuring the signal flow was correct: the DAW was outputting MIDI to loopMIDI, QLC+ was receiving the MIDI commands from loopMIDI, and QLC+ was outputting DMX to the adapter. Once all that routing and setup was correct, everything worked like a charm.If you're just looking to run a manual light show, it's relatively trivial to use QLC+ (or other DMX software) to output DMX commands to this adapter. Just read the documentation and grab the drivers.

This is NOT a complete system at least not out of the box if you are running MacOS 10.11. You will need to download and config 3rd party drivers. I was able to get the adapter to work with Chameleon DMX software but it is poorly implemented with it's last Beta release in 2015. Im going to purchase My DMX Buddy DMX adapter by American DJ. it's 100 bucks and includes the controller software. Another possibility is the ENTTEC DMXIS dongle and software for 280.00 and looks well designed but out of my price range. In both cases you can download the controller software and see if it fits your needs before purchasing. The seller says he has thousands of customers running this software under OS 10 and I believe him But I did not want to "hack" my system to run it.

I personally have one of the cheap UDMX dongles, sold by several vendors for less than $30, and even at twice the price this is well worth the extra money. The first issue with the uDMX is finding a good driver for 64-bit Windows (via Google I found a site with 4-5 possible drivers & directions to try); this DMX King widget is plug & play. Other issues with the uDMX are the jerky fades of my LED lights, and intermittent problems driving wireless DMX systems (I just got the Lixada system). Although fades with the DMX King can be a bit stair-steppy too - although that could partly be my cheap Eyourlife LED fixtures - it's immensely better than uDMX, and so far had driven the Lixada wireless system pretty near perfectly. So, if you aren't willing to shell out $200+ for a nice interface, this one will work for you, and I can't say that about the cheaper ones. Also, as far as software, you hear a lot about Freestyler, but I'd recommend Q Light Controller Plus software (QLC+), also free. It's a lot more flexible and I think has a better interface & workflow. ADDENDUM - I've received my own DMX King dongle and it's working very well. First public use is in about a week, but I've already hung & tested the lighting, working well with the Lixada wireless DMX system.