[Bob Zelin]

One last question I think, we currently have a 75′ RS-422 cable run from our 2nd suite to the equipment rack. I’m assuming I can simply use a female Cat-5 adapter on that cable to the patch panel instead of running a new Cat-5 cable all the way back to the edit suite?

YES, you can use a RJ45-9 pin female adaptor, but you may find that it cost so little money to purchase a new LONG CAT 5 cable, that you may just want to replace your 9 pin with a CAT 5 cable, and not have any adaptors in the middle. CAT 5 cables are cheap !

bob zelin

[Bob Zelin]

Question here, you say I need to keep everything pin for pin, but in this case, I’m only putting the RS-422 connection on one end of each of the 5 cables for the VTRs/Konas, right? the other end will be left as Cat-5 to connect to the panel. So I should just be able to follow your color code and be good to go? thanks!

YES – you are putting RJ45-9 pin adaptors on your VTR Remote ports and on your AJA products. One end of the cable will snap into the CAT 5 panel, the other end of the cable will snap into the CAT 5 end of the RJ45 – 9 pin adaptor. It can be intimidating when you get the RJ45-9 pin adaptors, it comes with the wires dangling out of the plastic shell, and you have to put these wires into the 9 pin connector – they just push in. All you have to do is make sure that every connector is made THE SAME WAY – the same color code. And if for whatever reason, you need to get both male and female adaptors, make sure that the females are made opposite the males – rather than explaining what I mean, put the male and female together (if you even need any females)- and match up the color codes before the connector gets shoved into the shell – you will see the colors line up.

The only reason you would need a female adaptor is if you are using the Kona cable, and not the K2 or K3 box. The cable has a male 9 pin end, and you need to mate that to a female connector. The VTR’s and AJA boxes all have
9 pin females on them – so you only need to purchase the RJ45-9 pin male connectors.

Bob Zelin

[Bob Zelin]

I believe that Joe has posted incorrect information. The TrendNet TC-P16C6 is not a RJ45 coupler patch panel. This is a standard CAT 6 PUNCH BLOCK panel that uses 110 style punch down connections. This means that you simply just don’t buy the panel, and pop in the premade cables. You take a bare end ethernet cable, and punch down the wires onto the back of the 110 punchblock on the back of the TrendNet.

Walter wants a simple solution, and the panels I have listed are RJ45 COUPLER panels, which means that you simply take the RJ45 plug and pop it into the back of the panel – the jack has RJ45 connections on both the front and back of the connector.

Of course, if Walter wants to buy a Harris or Paladin 110 punch tool, and develop the skill of punching down ethernet cables, then he can get the TrendNet panel.

Bob Zelin

[Bob Zelin]

Oscar gives excellent advice.

Remember, when Apple released the PCI-express computers, not even Apple had their PCI Express Fibre channel card ready for their own Apple Xserve RAID.

If the very manufacturer of the computer is not ready – what chance do we have ?

bob Zelin

[Bob Zelin]

NEVER go into the XLR inputs on a Behringer, Mackie or Soundcraft audio mixer. You should ONLY go into the 1/4″ stereo phone plug line inputs
of your mixer. The XLR inputs are MIC INPUTS, and the trim control on each channel can only attenuate the input signal so far – you are plugging your Blackmagic product into MIC PREAMPS !!!! DONT DO THIS. The LINE INPUTS of these mixers are the 1/4″ stereo phone plug inputs.

YES, you will have to purchase XLR to 1/4″ phone plug cables. So why does Blackmagic provide XLR connectors, instead of 1/4″ stereo phone plug inputs? Because EVERY MANUFACTURER IN THE HISTORY OF EDIT SYSTEMS has provided XLR connectors. When Mackie released their mixers a long time ago, everyone thought they were crap (becuase they were so inexpensive), and you had to do this “strange thing” – plug into the 1/4″ line inputs – what professional would do this. Fast foward 20 years, and now EVERY major mixer manufacturer (of small “music industry” audio mixers) does this.

The distortion you are hearing is called PEAK distortion. The nominal output of the Blackmagic card is +4dBu, and this is the level that is expected on SOME Behringer mixers. You will find that the more expensive Behringers use +4dBu at the ZERO VU position on the LED’s, and the less expensive models use +0dBu as the ZERO VU position. It is certainly disturbing to feed a Sony Beta VTR, whose meters read ZERO into a less expensive Behringer mixer, only to find out that the LED’s illuminate up to the “4” position, silk screened on the mixers front panel.

If you see other responses from others stating “this guy is a moron, and does not know what he is talking about – we use the XLR inputs on the mixers all the time” – these people are INCORRECT, and misdirected, and have no knowlege of these audio mixers, nor have they ever read the manuals for these products, or spoken with the manufacturers.

Bob Zelin

[Bob Zelin]

Don’t worry Gene, because of your loyalty to Apple, they will release 10.5 soon, and all the drivers for your Blackmagic, ATTO, Apple Fibre, and everything else, will stop working, along with all of your graphics plug in’s.

This is the never ending game of both Apple and Microsoft, to continue to generate income for their companies, while punishing all of us. So don’t be so damn happy.

Bob Zelin

[Bob Zelin]

This is a long post, as it requires some explanation, and effort, but it is worth it.

You will need the following –
CAT 5 coupler patch panel
RJ45-9 pin male adaptors
CAT 5e cables – 5 long ones to your VTR’s and AJA boxes
CAT 5e cables – 2 short ones, to be used as patch cords.

This is the most efficient and inexpensive way of patching RS422 signals around. Although companies like ADC, Bittree and Audio Accessories make expensive “professional” RS422 patch panels, even ADC is now making CAT 5 coupler patch bays, for the increased demand of CAT 5 patching.

You can purchase a CAT 5 coupler patch panel from
http://www.markertek.com
If you look at Page 34 of their new pink catalog, these items are on page 34
on the bottom. It is called the TecNec RJ45 Feed Through Bays.
The part # for an 8 port bay is PB8-R4R4. This is $119. You can get larger
panels like the 16X45 for $169, which has 16 ports on it.

The CAT 5e cables (or CAT 5) can be purchased from any mail order computer company, or office store. They are generic ethernet cables – possibly the most commonly used cable today (except for RCA plugs for stereo systems). The short “patch cord” cables will probably have to come from a mail order company, like CDW, or Tiger Direct (2′ patch cords work great).

Now for the “hard” part. You need to make up RJ45-9 pin adaptors. You can order these from http://www.milestek.com. Milestek also sells CAT 5 coupler patch panels as well.
https://www.milestek.com/search.asp?ltype=2&search=1&skw=RJ45%2FDB9
The male part # is 10-01042 – this is the RJ45-9 pin male adaptor

This is the link to the milestek site for both the RJ45-9 pin male, and RJ45-9 pin female adaptors. These adaptors simply screw into your VTR Remote ports, or AJA RS422 ports. You then run your CAT 5 lines to your patch bay, and patch away.

The RJ45-9 pin adaptors come UNWIRED – you must wire them yourself – which is simply pushing in the pins into the holes.

This is the color code that I use for this (but you can use any color code you like, since RS422 is pin for pin – as long as you keep the colors the same on both ends, any code will work) –
this is what I use –
Pin 1 – RED
Pin 2 – ORANGE
Pin 3 – BLACK
Pin 4 – GREEN
Pin 5 – empty (no wire)
Pin 6 – BROWN
PIN 7 – BLUE
PIN 8 – YELLOW
PIN 9 – WHITE

These adaptors cost $2.65 each. There is no soldering involved, and no special tools required – you push these pins (with the wires already attached to them) right into the 9 pin adaptor, and then the adaptor snaps into the plastic shell (I use a small screwdriver to push in the 9 pin into the plastic).

Unlike RS422 cables, which are difficult to purchase, and difficult to test, RJ45 cables are readily available, very inexpensive, and if you choose to test them (in case things aren’t working), there are countless CAT 5 ethernet cable testers on the market, sold by many companies.

Hope this helps.

Bob Zelin

[Bob Zelin]

The DVW-A500 is notorious for having these exact same problems when not receiving a black reference that is the SAME black reference locking your Blackmagic card. You will see the EXACT same problem with AVID and AJA systems as well. Lock everything to house black – if you don’t own one, buy one.

Bob Zelin

[Bob Zelin]

when you say your drives are not mounting – I dont’ know your system or situation, but in the PCI-X MAC’s (that use the Kona 2), you need to put the Kona card in slot 4, and the Sonnet X4P card in slot 2 or 3, and for now, don’t put ANY other cards in your system. When your system boots up, if you have a port multiplier drive array, it takes TIME for it to “come up to speed” – you can see the blue LED’s on the back of the drive array – until you have 5 LED’s lit up solid, you will not see your drives mount. This is not a problem – this is the way the Silicon Image chip set works. This upsets a lot of people, when their MAC is booted up, and they don’t see the SATA drives in the port multiplier chassis, until about 45 seconds after bootup. You can see the progress of the drives coming up by looking at the blue LED’s on the back of the chassis. New firmware will not help you.

bob Zelin

[Bob Zelin]

Speaking of prison Mr. Wargo, aren’t you down the road from that prison on the way to Tucson, Arizona, right near that ostridge farm ? I went to pet those ostridges, and they almost killed me.

Here is a great picture of that farm, where the sign says “not responsible for accidents” –
https://www.geocities.com/picachopeak2003/picacho31os.jpg

Bob Zelin