Control Patch Panel (RS-422)

Easy version

Run a cord from a controller (top row) to a deck (bottom row).
The patch cords have RJ-45 connectors, which look like Ethernet cables (similar to phone jacks, only thicker).
Remember to hit the remote button on the deck, since they're usually in local mode by default.

More detail

We have multiple remotely controllable decks: U-Matic, digital beta, analog beta. We also have multiple controllers: the linear edit board, the SGI Premiere and PC Avid nonlinear editing systems. The manual patch bay lets you map controllers to decks.

(In the old system there was only a single controller, the edit board, and we always mastered on the U-Matic decks, so those control connections were hardwired.)

Additional notes

The patch bay now split into two logical segments - one is used for deck control, the other is used for keyboards so that the setup described in the conference room page works. The deck control stuff is on the left, the keyboard stuff is on the right (as you face the bay).

Keyboard Patching

These lines patch a keyboard and mouse signals. Since keyboards must be within 30ft of the host we have bought these special keyboard/mouse extenders from BlackBox Inc. The signal travels over a normal DB25 cable and gets decoded at the receiver. Our patch panel patches these extender lines, rather than raw keyboard/mouse signals. Through expermentation I discovered that the keyboard and mouse are transmitted on lines 7-10 of the DB25 cable. We just need to ensure that these lines go through the patch bay. The back of the patch bay takes a DB9 connector. There are standard DB25<->DB9 converters for RS232. Unfortunately we don't have a RS232 signal. It turns out though that RS232 is on pins 2-5 of a DB25 connector, so if we get a breakout box and wire pins 7-10 into pins 2-5, and then use a DB25-DB9 connector we can wire this into the patch bay. Frys sells a solderless breakout box and I was able to build this conncetion in under 5 minutes. Then coming out of the patch bay we do the reverse. Apply a DB9-DB25 connector, and then using a breakout box, move pins 2-5 back to pins 7-10. This is now suitable to pass to the keyboard extender receiver. The final setup looks something like this

Troubleshooting

The problem below has been fixed by moving to another patchbay port and declaring the previous port broken. 10/99 TMM.

The digibeta connection can be loose sometimes. Symptoms: the edit board keeps beeping at you, or the remote control just doesn't work. Solution: cram the cable into the space between the racks, so there's downward pressure on the connection.

Return to Main Video Menu
videolab@graphics.stanford.edu
Last modified: Mon Nov 29 20:22:05 PST 1999