Turtlerock Forum

On the off chance, and before I go through soldering hell again. Anyone have one of these that's superfluous to your needs?

Maybe Paul Maybury has one... he's on this board so maybe send him a PM.

Hey Dave,

Why don't you get some DB-25 IDC crimps and about a meter worth of 25way IDC cable, cut them to 15cm lengths and solder those onto a regular TT patchbay. It won't save you from soldering hell this time, but next time will be good. Did this to mine and has definitely saved time in the long run.

cya
Geoff

Geoff, great solution – would be working with BPO bays if I can't find a ready-made fix so if anyone's got some BPO patch leads lying around I'd like to hear about it too.

Hey all,

I'm also on the hunt for TT patch bays terminated to DB-25's, DB-25 metal connectors, 8,16,24,32w multicore or preferably DB-25 -> DB-25 cables prefab (8w). Otherwise, first time d-sub soldering hell. I went in to factory sound (melb), told them that I wanted a ball park quote for a few different options (see what I'm up for), we got to talking and I mentioned how one option is for me to buy multicore (8/16/32w) and solder all the DB-25's myself. One guy shot back a facial expression like he'd just received a fly kick to the groin, the other laughed and asked me if I'd done DSubs before like I just said I wanted to fly to the moon on a go-cart. Surely it can't be that bad... can it?!

Can someone explain how to go about this? Also hear people talk about crimping DB-25's? Not sure whether this is for ribbon DB-25 (serial pc standard, unshielded) or can be applied to make this job easier using looms?

Any general advice and tips would be really appreciated. I won't lie... I don't actually know exactly what I've gotten myself into yet!

BTW: I've got my hands on about 40m of 16w multicore, plan is to do 2 d subs per end. I can get non dsub TT patchbays quite easily/cheaply, but I was thinking it might be worth investing in dsub/switchable state patchbays off ebay? Once I've done this at least it becomes really easy to adapt it to anything in the future/sell?

Any help/info/warnings would be much appreciated.

Cheers,
Nik

If you've got a fine tip for your iron, soldering db25's is fine. Just accept that it will take a minimum of 15 minutes per jack by the time you prepare the cables, and it's easy. Just use a 3rd hand to grab the DB25 jack, and pre tin everything and it's quick.

The biggest hassle I had the first time I made 8 core DB25 leads, was finding DB25 connectors that were big enough to fit around the 8 core. The cheap ones are fine for small diameter cables, but not for anything bigger.

I've got a fine tip soldering iron and a magnifying glass set up on an arm.
Thanks for the heads up, i'll be sure to check that out when i decide which way to go with all this. Do you know much about the use of crimping tools for the D25's?

Don't need a special crimp tool for the IDC DB25's, use a small vice and turn slowly until the outside clips clip in.