Soldering a patchbay..

[Gustav]

Im starting up soldering my new patchbay and building racks for my new CR this weekend. I have been looking at the patchbay, and it makes absolutely no sense to me. The way I see it theres some grounds missing ?

Can anyone point me to a very graphical explanation on how to solder a patchbay ?

I also made a very confused drawing of a row seen from the side, so if anyone could host a picture I would be greatfull.

Gustav

 

[peter purpose]

Gustav,
It's near impossible to say how to solder your patchbay without knowing which type you have.
What you will need to know about is 'normaling' and 'half normaling'.
These are ways of having connections within the patchbay that need no patch cables and also allow you to take feeds from outputs without interupting signals.

General rules...

Output above input.

PLAN YOR PATCHBAY

peter

 

[Gustav]

I have the patch planned to the degree I can plan it. I also know which lines I want normalled, and which I want half-normalled.
Just completely blank about how to make the connections.
the part I havent planned Is where to put all the stuff that wont be permanently connected. (compressors, eqs) I was thinking Id just deattach the 3rd row and line up ins/outs on that, but there are only two connectors for it, so how to balance ?

Its a solderable 144 point ADC with 3 rows.

Gustav

edit:like I said, I have a "drawing" of one line from the side. I actually have a plan to the patchbay as well, but Im not worried about that side of it, just how to make the weirdo connections.

 

[peter purpose]

Send the pic to me
peter (at) purpose.freeserve.co.uk

 

[peter purpose]

For those that don't know.

 

[wilebee]

Sounds like an ex telco bay in out and monitor jacks

Wilebee

 

[Steve Jones]

Just as much as the physical layout of your patchbay, don't forget that you must also plan the other critical part of the bay - must decide your studio earthing scheme before you start soldering - source earth, destination earth, or patchbay earth. The third is probably the most commonly used now I would guess, because you definately do not want to earth both ends of balanced lines in your studio, or everything will hum. This is why you will find missing earths on some points. The exception of course is any mic lines or lines that must carry phantom power.

You must decice where the technical earth is to be in your studio, and the only logical choice is via the power mains earth. So you need to break all the other balanced earth points at either their source or destination, or else earth all of them from the patchbay, as a kind of star earthing scheme. This is then your shield earth system, as opposed to your power earth system.

 

[Gustav]

[quote author="Steve Jones"]Just as much as the physical layout of your patchbay, don't forget that you must also plan the other critical part of the bay - must decide your studio earthing scheme before you start soldering - source earth, destination earth, or patchbay earth. The third is probably the most commonly used now I would guess, because you definately do not want to earth both ends of balanced lines in your studio, or everything will hum. This is why you will find missing earths on some points. The exception of course is any mic lines or lines that must carry phantom power.

You must decice where the technical earth is to be in your studio, and the only logical choice is via the power mains earth. So you need to break all the other balanced earth points at either their source or destination, or else earth all of them from the patchbay, as a kind of star earthing scheme. This is then your shield earth system, as opposed to your power earth system.[/quote]

That just added some more confucion.
I will probably need to run phantom power on most of the lines, and I dont get this at all. Maybe it would be best if I just had someone who knows what hes doing to come by before starting this out.

Gustav

 

[peter purpose]

Gustav's super duper drawing.

 

[Gustav]

nah...have to zoom in a lot more to get a good look at that :grin:

Just forget it. I might just get a punchdown instead. Ive seen they have T-R-S marked.

Gustav

 

[Gustav]

Found it.
Now.

https://www6.adc.com/ecom/hier?ITEM=OND4159&PREV=OND4081

I just bought a dumb patchbay I think. Just postbones the soldering till I get a new one.

Gustav

 

[Technetium]

Found it.
Now.

https://www6.adc.com/ecom/hier?ITEM=OND4159&PREV=OND4081

I just bought a dumb patchbay I think. Just postbones the soldering till I get a new one.

Gustav

Posted: Thu Sep 16, 2004

from that picture, i can definietly tell u that Wilebee is right & thats a telco (telecommunications) patchbay. it can work, my first bays were those same ones. pain in the ass to solder to though. i know new ADC/Switchcraft bays are about $200 each or so, but they worth the extra money. the points in those old telco bays were brass (IIRC), so they would need a cleaning every so often too. w/ the new bays that wont be necessary.

check this out. u can probably get it a bit cheaper if u look hard enough, but its basically the type u want.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3748640281

-dave

 

[Gustav]

Yeah.That ones been up forever, and it is the one I was recommended as the best choice on here when I first asked about which bay to get, but the amount of information he requires for me to buy it is a bit too much for me. I have to fill out forms and send copies of drivers license pass port etc. Was just stupid of me not to investigate any further before I jumped the gun on the one I have now. lesson learnedm and it didnt cost too much thankfully. the reall bummer is I have m8s coming this weekend to help solder and build racks for my new CR.

Gustav