centronix patch bay - HELP

[Damien]

can anyone help. i have a few centronix patch bays. they have 96 bantom on fron and 8 centronix connectors on the rear. where can i get conectors/cables for these?

i have found (and ordered, but about to cancel the order) centronix-db25 cables (printer cables) but they need 36 pins, not 25....

help.

damien

[JulienG]

Printer centronics *is* 36-pin, so if you can get a connector that has all pins you should be fine.

There's the old 50 pin SCSI, but that's obviously too large.

There are still places selling the straight connector:
http://www.pacificcable.com/More_Pages/ ... ector.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Micro_ribbon

[TimS]

I have an old printer cable with a 36 pin Centronix connector and 25pin RS on the other end..
Your welcome to it if you think it might be useful..
From Julians links at pacific cable, its the PM1-25T IEEE1284 Bidirectional, D25 Male To C36 Male - its about 1metre long

[Alastair Reynolds]

Try Dick Smith or Jaycar for the connectors or for a nice one Farnell or RS Components. Don't use a cut up computer cable , The cable is cheap and the twist and densisty will cause crosstalk problems and affect frequency response and phase depending on impedance and capacitance. Use a good quality Audio installation cable , say a belden 10 pair to each connector and break out through a Krone or ADC Punchblock or individual cable or stereo to each Centronics connector. You've got 12 channels or patch points in each connector (TRS). Drop the Gnd in the Centronics and only GND at the equipment end to eliminate GND loops,then GND the frame of the jackfield. Don't go cheap, you'll regret it when the performance is poor.
Cabling, Grounding and interconnection is one of the biggest things that can affect overall performance , be-it Noise floor, phase shifts, hums/buzzes you name it. No point having a U47 into your Avalon Pre-amp then through a $3 computer cable into your patch bay.

And whatever you do

DON'T SPRAY ANYTHING IN A JACKFIELD

Bantam and long frame patch bays are self cleaning , just exercise them a few times with a plug . Spray Cleaners attract dust and make it worse.

Warm up the soldering iron and burn off those fingerprints. A bit of time now making the right cables will pay long term dividends.

[TimS]

he said it!!
:-)
computer cable chucked out!!

[Thirteen]

Twisted pair ribbon cable with flat sections for termination..

http://www.spectra-strip.amphenol.com/e ... n=66141836

You can buy it shielded as well:

http://www.spectra-strip.amphenol.com/e ... n=66141836

[Alastair Reynolds]

I would disagree.
Data cable is just that, data cable. The characteristic impedance is not right for audio and achieving an ideal match and loading. If it were then we'd be using that instead of a Star-Quad on our mic leads. Ask any guitarist what effect a different lead can have on the sound of his rig. The complex loading of a transmission system will affect your sound.

Use good quality audio cables for audio and data cable for data. It's worked well for professional studios and Broadcast for the last 80 years.

[Thirteen]

I would disagree.
Data cable is just that, data cable. The characteristic impedance is not right for audio and achieving an ideal match and loading. If it were then we'd be using that instead of a Star-Quad on our mic leads. Ask any guitarist what effect a different lead can have on the sound of his rig. The complex loading of a transmission system will affect your sound.

Use good quality audio cables for audio and data cable for data. It's worked well for professional studios and Broadcast for the last 80 years.

Very true, but with a patchbay like that he doesn't really have the option to use quad star, and I would rather see him use something better than a DSE SCSI cable.

[Alastair Reynolds]

exactly,
the majority of modern broadcast facilities use a huge amount of D-SUB or Centronic style connectors for Audio I/O into routers and processors. We, like the ABC, Austereo and DMG, use Klotz digital routers and consoles and have around 700 such connectors ranging from D-9 to HD-68 all terminated in Belden multicore. There is a wide range of cables available that can be terminated easily and it's worth finding the right stuff, Belden, Mogami, Canare, Gotham, Klotz just make it a quality brand, they're easier to work with and you'll only have to do it once if you do it right. We did somewhere around 80,000 connections in the build of our current studio Block and MCR and it performs very well, which is more than I can say for some of our on Air talent ;)
As Steve says
It's not cheap if you buy it twice