2. How to set up a Zero Wire DMX system - Page 5
Connecting a Box to a PC
To begin reconfiguring the boxes they must be connected to a suitable PC, either via RS232
or with a USB to RS232 adaptor.
The Zero Wire Configuration Utility is provided on a CD with the units. This utility allows you
to set up, configure, and reboot the devices, using a simple PC interface.
When connecting the Zero Wire DMX boxes to a PC, a special RS232 cable is required. This
cable is supplied with the units. A 9 pin serial port on the PC is required or if a 9 pin port is not
available then a USB port can be used with a suitable USB to RS232 converter. These are
available from most PC equipment suppliers.
Once the computer and the box are connected and powered up, the Zero Wire Configuration
Utility can be started.
Select the COM port which the Zero Wire box has been connected to, or press Search.
Now that a COM port has been selected, you can press Read Config to read the current
Configuration from the attached box. If the connection is established correctly, the window
will open up and display all of the current settings defined on the box.
The options are defined below:
IP Address
This is the units IP address. One of the benefits of the Zero Wire DMX system is that it uses
full IP addresses which allowing the routing of the DMX data across all kinds of networks both
switched and unswitched.
The IP address is each unit’s unique identifier.
No two boxes or devices operating on the same network should ever be given the same IP
address.
IP addresses allow each box to be set with a unique number which means we can tell the
network that Box 1 is an encoder and Box 2 is a decoder. IP addresses within the range
