Fabricating Timeline Micro Lynx transport cables

[timkroeger]

The Timeline Micro Lynx is an awesome unit for synchronizing various recording gear, both analog and digital by means of MTC (midi time code), SMPTE, word clock and what not. In order for it to control a tape recorder you need a specific transport cable that connects the micro lynx to an "accessory" port of the tape deck. Too bad the company is out of business since I think 2002, so there is basically no way of acquiring a cable except facbricating one yourself. Maybe you can contact Bill McMeekin from T/L Services, who continues to service those units and helps with parts and even suppies refurbished units. There exist a lot of different cable configurations and you can find the PDFs on the Timeline archives along with the manual of the micro lynx.

The cable consists of a 40 Pin rectangular socket housing that is connected to the micro lynx and a suitable cable with a matching connector for the tape machine. What connector to use and how many connections/conductors you need depends on the type of tape deck. The Tascam ATR-60 for example needs an 38 pin ELCO connector with only 20 conductors live, whereas the Tascam BR-20T needs a 37 pin D-Sub connector.

What I thought to be easy in fabricating the cable turned out to be quite challenging, and that is finding a matching crimp type 40 pin rectangular connector housing featuring 2 rows with 20 pins each and a nice shell casing. The original connector is manufactured by JAE and consists of 3 parts.

• shell casing PS-HD40-R
• pins PS-SF-C1-1-5000
• socket PS-D4C-40

You can have a look at the drawings in PDF format on the linked product pages above.

Typical 40 pin cable cutting sockets will not fit due to most of the connectors being sparsely populated, void sockets, non-matching dimensions or polarizing keys and I don't think you want to use flat ribbon cable to hookup such nice tape recorder. You can find distributors for JAE-connectors on their website and even though mouser and digi-key are official JAE distributors, none of them feature those connectors. I found what I think to be suitable replacements from Omron via mouser, by comparing the spec sheets, trying to match all the dimensions. Omron connectors feature a cool hood, too, but they weren't in stock so I just went with some semi-hoods. Those connectors are IDC types (insulation displacement) just like the ribbon cable connectors but for single wires, that means you can sparsely populate conductors just as you need them and don't have to solder those small pins. I settled for the following parts:

• socket connector XG5M-4032-N
• 2x XG5S-2001 semi cover
• XG5W-0031-N replacement pins (just to be sure)

I would have really liked a Omron XG5S-4022 horizontal hood cover, but I don't want to wait 22 weeks See the Omron spec sheet for some cool details.

We'll see how that turns out. I got the ELCO 38 pin connectors used and refurbished via ebay and ordered 5 meters of 20 conductor 24AWG shielded cable from my favourite local electronics supplier. I would have loved a matching multi paired cable from mouser but they were only available as 100' packages and quite expensive. Anyone know where I can find 24AWG multi paired shielded cable (10 pairs)?

I'll post some pics when the connectors arrive. Hopefully everything will fit with only minor adjustments needed. Then I'll be able to slave my Tascam ATR-60/16 to my DAW... (insert evil laugh here).

Cheers
Tim

 

[pianodano]

Tim,

Outstanding research. Thank you for posting this valuable information. I am positive that it will help to some poor soul that is doing a google search on the subject someday.

Fwiw, I seem to recall the cables are TWISTED pair. Cory please weigh in.

Danny

PS: I sure wish that most Americans, myself included for that matter, had the wonderful command of the english language you do. Amazing.

 

[sweetbeats]

Tim, awesome...just awesome.

I have looked and looked on the Mouser site and never fund those Omron parts. That's just amazing.

Yes, the cable is indeed twisted pair and the TimeLine cable schematics are very particular about what is carried by each member of a pair. I don't see why even solid core cabling wouldn't work...telephone cabling comes in all sorts of pairings...

Tim, do you think those connectors will lock into those 3M receptacles on the Micro Lynx SU?

 

[timkroeger]

Danny,

thanks again for the compliments! I sure hope that the information will be useful to someone else. Thought about starting a poll-thread about who owns a Micro Lynx and what they use it for. I don't imagine it's only the three of us With my english, I don't know, I read a lot, mostly english novels, detective stories stuff, everything that's an easy read when I'm commuting via train. I've been watching a lot of tv series in original language and I love movies without overdubs. Just sounds better to me. Still, it doesn't feel right all the time and I am constantly looking something up in the dictionary. That way I'm learning every day. Depending on my current source of english (e.g. a few episodes of The Shield tv series) I might start to sound like a cop from time to time, hehe... Monkey see monkey do effect...

I have looked and looked on the Mouser site and never fund those Omron parts. That's just amazing.

Cory, I have to say it was a lucky find. Actually I wanted to klick on a different item but I mistakenly clicked that and there it was. Never considered the Omron stuff, I was trying to go wit 3M because I knew the receptacles are 3M.

Yes, the cable is indeed twisted pair and the TimeLine cable schematics are very particular about what is carried by each member of a pair. I don't see why even solid core cabling wouldn't work...telephone cabling comes in all sorts of pairings...

Yes, I know they are TP, I just wasn't able to get a cable with 10 pairs, so I thought I give it a try. As I said, mouser features 100ft 20 conductor 24AWG TP shielded cables but I didn't want to spend 160 EUR(!) for 5 times the cable I need.

Tim, do you think those connectors will lock into those 3M receptacles on the Micro Lynx SU?

I think they won't fit immediately but they were the ones with the best matching dimensions regarding size and polarizing key size AND they have a proper housing. I still think I will need to work a notch into them similat to the JAE connectors. Yesterday the parts were still in TX, now they're in TN. Let's hope they arrive soon, then I'll know for sure what modifications I need to do

Cheers
Tim

 

[timkroeger]

I just finished my transport synchronization cable. And it was easy The PDF file for the transport cable configuration for the Tascam ATR-60/16 (and MS-16) is called 70D086.PDF and you can download it in a zip archive from the timeline site I linked in the first post.

Have a look at the first 3 pictures how the old original JAE connector and the new Omron connector match.

I'd say that is pretty much a perfect match. Now have a look at the cable. I bought a 20 conductor cable although I only needed 18 conductors, si I'll disable 2 of them. Since the Omron sockets are insulation displacement types, and the cable shield needs to be connected to pin 15, I needed to fabricate an additional insulated conductor from the shield.

I inserted one wire after the other into the receptecles for each pin. You can buy an expensive crimp tool for about 100 bucks from mouser but some pliers or small plastic screwdrivers work, too.

I used some heat shrink tubing so the rests of the shield and the superfluous wires are hidden from plain view.

Then I added the semi-hoods to the connector housing. The horizontal hood would have been perfect but it wasn't available. Doesn't look too bad though.

Now for the tape deck side. Instead of the 40 pin rectangular socket, we need an ELCO 38 pin connector. First the pins for every strand. One strand is dead and two wires share one pin.

I used some heat shrink tubing again just to be sure there can not be any short circuits inside the housing. Then some more tubing for the isolation. Now all pins are mounted and the housing can be closed.

So that's what the whole cable looks like. And the connectors fit perfectly without the need for any kind of modification or tweaking.

Cheers
Tim

 

[sweetbeats]

Tim...the picture links aren't working...wanna see the pics!!

 

[timkroeger]

Strange... I can see them just fine. Did you have problems with the pictures in the M-3500 or ATR-60/16 thread I posted? They're linked in the first post.

Can you see the "direct link" to one of the pictures?

I've done nothing different than before, so I'm a little puzzled as how to fix this.

Cheers
Tim

 

[pianodano]

Links work fine here. Nice work Tim.

 

[sweetbeats]

I can see them now...

Something must have burped.

Niiiiice...this is exciting.

 

[sweetbeats]

1. Tim, did you happen to test and see how the Omron pins fit in the JAE connector?
   
2. Also, the cable you used was not twisted pair. Do you know (or does anybody know) why the need for twisted pair? I can confirm that all the Micro Lynx cable schematics specifically show the use of twisted-pair cable, and they did indeed use twisted pair cable. What are the potential issues with not using twisted pair cable??

 

[timkroeger]

Hey Cory,

the Omron pins don't fit with the JAE connectors, it's a complete different setup. The dimensions aren't right and the Omron pins are insulation displacement whereas the JAE pins are crimp style.

Regarding the twitsted pair cabling, I am not sure. It may have something to do with countering the induction caused by one wire. I don't know. I have dealt with twisted pair only for AC tube heating (twisted the wires to keep them from influencing nearby components). Maybe Ethan knows something more about TP in signal cables. I have not encountered any issues yet with my non twisted pair cabling and the atr + micry lynx setup.

Cheers
Tim

 

[sweetbeats]

Bummer...

Thanks, Tim.

Bummer on the Omron pins. Those local pins that I thought fit the JAE connectors do not.

I'm back to square 1 as far as making a cable for my 388. I now have a total of 3 of the JAE connectors and hoods but no unused pins for making new cables.

 

[evm1024]

Twisted pair

is usually used for noise immunity and with a balanced receiver you end up with high CMMR. Plus, TP acts as a transmission line and tends to not transmit interference. Plus, as a transmission line with source and termination loads (which would be internal) it would limit the reflections in the line (think echo's) caused by an impedence mismatch. You want a low VSWR. What all this means is that digital data would be corrupted by its own reflections and give a large error rate.

THis would be quite useful for a long run or in a high noise environment.

 

[sweetbeats]

Wow.

Thanks, Ethan.

So the symptoms of not using twisted pair would be seen as a decline in sync performance or possibly performance latency as the system tries to "think" or "listen" through noise?

And these symptoms, in theory, would be exacerbated by increased cable length?

Interesting.

So if the cable is short it may not matter at all...

Tim, how long did you make your cable?

 

[timkroeger]

It's about 16 feet. The deck doesn't perform as smooth as your BR-20T but I think that's the difference of my deck being built in the 80's vs. your deck being built in the late 90's. Mine breaks by switching fast between REW and FF. I found that quite a strange behaviour but how else would you tell it to slow down? The built in RTZ is much more smooth and just stops at 0000 without the strange switching. When I jump to e.g. a cue point via the micro lynx, the deck accelerates and then gradually increases the frequency of switching between FF and REW when it encounters the cue point. The lifters are released when it's almost there, just like with your BR-20T.

 

[sweetbeats]

Yeah, okay. Pretty sure that doesn't have anything to do with the cable but just the transport itself. I think the one to compare to for you would be Danny's MS16...that transport is much more similar to your ATR60.

I recall that my 58 with the Tascam ES-50 synchronizer worked fine but did much more overshooting and scrubbing and hunting; using the reel motors as brakes to slow down and such (which I think is pretty normal, Tim...Usually a synchronizer only applies the brakes when the transport enters a parked state). That's part of why I'm so excited with how it works with the BR-20T as I think the BR-20T and Micro Lynx work together in such a way that the additional wear and tear on the heads will be so minimal (because it gets close to the chase destination so fast and get's very close and then retracts those lifters when the tape is already moving relatively slow, and because its already close the scrubbing time is very short, and almost always unidirectional, IOW it doesn't have to sweep back and forth...my 58 did quite a bit of that but that may be related to my inability to configure the ES-50 to the 58...anyway...)

It also may have something to do with the differences in the parallel and serial interfaces (your ATR60 is parallel, the BR-20T is serial). Can't recall why that makes a diffference but I read something at some point.

Anyway, it'll be intersting to see how the Micro Lynx interacts with my 388 which also uses the ELCO38 like your ATR60.

Since the interface cable that came with my Micro Lynx from Danny is proper 10 twisted-pair cable, and loooong, I may actually redo that to use for the 388 and make up a short cable for the Micro Lynx --> BR-20T cable out of non twisted-pair if I can't find any in 10 x 2 with the shield.

I have to say, again, its amazing what the Micro Lynx can do. I've had the chance here in the last couple months to put my hands on three different systems, all 25 years old and in various states of care, and every single one of them just simply works. That is impressive for a device that does so much and has lots of IC logic onboard to do what it does.

Lookit the guts:

 

[timkroeger]

The links to Timelinevista and sessioncontrol in the first post are now broken. I tried to edit the initial post but it did not seem to work. It's still possible to access the information along with a few cable schematics through the wayback machine but it's incomplete. Sorry for resurrecting this, but it seemed it was the only way to give an update.

 

[miroslav]

Tim's thread here was what set me on my cable construction path for my Timeline and Otari...especially the info he provided for the "odd" connector that's needed for the Timeline.

There exist a lot of different cable configurations and you can find the PDFs on the Timeline archives along with the manual of the micro lynx.

I think this was the link where I got all the Timeline PDFs from...and for some reason, I ended up downloading every PDF that was there, even though I only needed the one for my Otari.
Now that the link is dead...I'm glad I did that. I have a whole bunch of cable configuration PDFs, and they are on a storage drive that is backed up, and I will keep for a long time come...and not just on some webpage where they can vanish with the site...so if anyone is looking, just post up and I will see if I have it.

So again, thanks to Tim...he set me on my path, and that caused me to download all the PDFs (I'm a packrat)...and now a few years later, it's again needed by someone else.

 

[brainditch]

And once again thank you folks for the initial postings, and thank heaven for your being a "digital packrat" miroslav, it's truly amazing how fragile the streams of information and experience actually are, even in a time of such ubiquitous digital "superiority".

 

[brainditch]

So, timkroeger, just a quick note (as well for those of us who may be attempting to follow your fabulous work and replicate it): I believe you may have put a typo/misprint in your original post that I thought I should clarify. The aforementioned Omron parts are indeed (as verified by links to the Mouser website):

Isulation Displacement Connector (IDC) pins = Omron # XG5W-0031-N
Socket = Omron # XG5M-4032-N
Semi Hoods (Pin Covers, two required per connector) = Omron # XG5S-2001

As is typical most resellers/vendors use an internal reference part number that may differ from the original manufacturers part numbers.

Additionally, as a point to ask the group as a whole- sweetbeats, timkroeger, miroslav, evm1024, jpmorris - has anyone here had the time, tools or inclination to do a backup of the EPROMs for their Microlynx? This would be a seriously valuable part of the equation for preserving the longevity of the Microlynx User Community, as the code "burned" into the EPROMs is particularly fragile (EPROMs apparently have a designed "lifespan" of ten to twenty years I'm told), and without which the units simply will cease to function. Kaput, nada, zero useful output.

Most of the rest of the chips and devices within the units are generic enough that there may be repair sources found. Not so with EPROMs, as their contents are 100% proprietary to a company that no longer exists. Miraculously, many of the earliest pieces of gear I have have not suffered EPROM loss due to age, but the issue is apparently of great enough concern to the vintage synth community that a website has become a repository for the EPROM code (stored as .BIN, or binary "dump" files) for many earlier devices. This has an added advantage of storage of the different versions of firmware, which may help some of us out in troubleshooting problems with our units.

EPROM readers/burners are becoming cheap, and if carefully done with working unit EPROMs, the resulting data may become invaluable. I plan to make the investment in one as soon as possible.
Has anybody already done this?