DMX Speed

If you need further information, the book " Recommended Practice for DMX512: A guide for users and installers" is highly recommended and available from The Esta Foundation.

There are several areas where DMX timing can vary in a DMX packet. Each packet follows the format shown above.

First, a break occurs telling the receiver that this is the start of a new packet. Then the line is driven high for the Mark after Break (MAB) time. Then follows the start code, followed by the "post start" time. Then there follows the channel data, during which the line can be high (idle) for a variable amount of time between channels, known as the interbyte time. Finally after the last channel the line goes high (idle) for the interpacket delay time until the break of the next packet (also known as the Mark before Break (MBB) time).

The following are the minimum values allowable by the ESTA DMX-512A standard :

Note: These timings can be any value to add up to make a packet length of up to one second.

As you can see a very wide variety of timings is permissible. For reference, here are the timings for some different ETC products.