DIY Patch Panel Doghouse

frederic

New member
The way my studio is set up, the mixing console(s) are at the front of the studio, and the producer's desk with all the outboards, synth modules and so forth, are at the back of the room. I never really got around to wiring the front of the room to the back, simply because I started "remodeling" my truck and my wife and I have an infant (8 mos) in the house now.

But today I managed to pull away from other things and start the massive wiring undertaking that will occur over most of the winter. I am *sick* of having 10 snake cables draped across the floor.

Anyway, since the wiring will be passed thorugh the front wall, behind the console table, I decided since I'll rarely be unpatching anything on this end (and doing the patching on the bay's in the producer's desk, as that's where the quantity of gear is), I'll install the patch panels in a "doghouse". I decided to angle the doghouse a bit, so while on my hands and knees, I can see the labeling easier, without having to put my head to the floor. Here is what I've done thus far... once the paint dries I'll assemble it and mount it permanently at the base of the wall behind the console table. It will make more sense once I have photos of the completed doghouse.

"Hacked" out rack rails from a 7' high aluminum relay rack I no longer need. Why not recycle :D
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Here I've made the sides, and installed one patch bay so I can measure the width and make the metal parts appropriately:
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The welded doghouse, minus the MDF sides, in primer:
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Painted to match the moulding of my studio. It's nice when the colors you choose come in both an oil-based brush-on paint as well as a spray on paint for metal.
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Once it dries, I'll install it, and take the final picture and it will make a lot more sense.
 
Well, lets see how it looks after it's dry and installed. Sadly, after six hours of sitting outside, the paint is still a bit tacky. Hopefully tomorrow morning the sun will hit it and it will dry enough I can slap it into it's proper place.

On a less exciting note, I was cleaning out the attic trying to make room for extra baby crap and sure enough, I found several more boxes of studio stuff. Like the one with 200 or so homemade TRS patch cords! Another box jam full of unsorted, tangled wall warts. A box of roland drum pads, sticks, and a snare stand, and another two or three boxes of 2 gig SCSI drives for my akai recorders. Almost like Christmas!
 
Cool stuff Frederic.

I'm actually doing something similar, although not for my studio. My church is going to in-ear monitoring and I bought the rack-mounted version of the Aviom personal mixers, thinking that I'd put them in 2-space rack bags for each musician (8 total stations). But the powers that be thought the bags looked ugly so I came up with attractive rack stands that will hold the Aviom gear plus the Shure wireless transmitters plus whatever else we want to put in them. The design concept uses 16-space rails (to get the height up to where it is easy to reach) which are attached at the bottom to a wooden base piece made from 1x2 oak. The rails are tilted back slightly and supported by a vertical/angled piece of 1x2. Cross braces on the bottom and a 1.5" dowel across the top (for a carry handle) finish up the assembly. I'll try to snap a photo later on and let you see it. I was very pleased with my idea. I get a 16-space rack that is extremely light weight and is very portable. So far I've only built the prototype, but this weekend I'll be building the real units to hopefully have ready to implement the week after Thanksgiving.

Darryl.....
 
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One of the patch bays is to be removed, and replaced with my 32-port wordclock buffer, but before I do that I have to solder on another power jack on the front, so I can feed it power from the top, right by the power strip. I put the power jack on the back of the unit expecting it to be in a more conventional rack. Anyway, at least the doghouse is done. I drilled into the sides, from the back wall, and using 1/4" lag bolts it's now permanently attached to the wall and will not move around, flexing any of the wires I solder behind. The steel cover is removable, and held on with eight screws as you can see. On the bottom there are cork feet, and the distance between the metal cover and the hardwood floor is just enough to slip three pieces of copier paper underneath. I didn't want to drill into the floor, just the wall, as if I remove this doghouse someday it's easier to spackle holes than to redo flooring.
 
Here are the pictures of my little units. Please note that this is the prototype which I made out of poplar instead of oak for cost purposes. The production units will be oak and will have a finish on them.

Darryl.....
 

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Regarding the doghouse... documenting the wiring before trying to solder them up is critical. Then, at least you have a plan in case something goes awry.

Here is my wiring plan, even though I dispise HTML tables: doghouse wiring plan
 
Yeah, simple is my mantra :D

For your patchbays, what do you do for labels? I've been contemplating this recently since my patchbay labels are virtually unreadable because the text is so small to fit in the little label slot they have. Of course, I don't have the nice Switchcraft solderable bays like you've got, but rather the cheapie plug-in bays that have reversible cards.

Anyway, your doghouse looks great.

Darryl.....
 
I guess I should have added that my racks cost about $25-30 apiece to build (with oak; poplar or pine would be a few bucks less). I got the 16-space rails from Musicians Friend for $15.99 each (it was $35 locally for the same thing).

Darryl.....
 
Thanks! Glad you like it. It solves a problem for me.

The little label slot is a PITA... but Ive learned to use abbreviations... Input 1 is abbreviated IN1. Line Input 6 is abbreviated LN6. And so forth. I've been using the same abbreviates my entire life and at this point I can glance at them and know what I'm patching to what.

After a while you start to remember anyway, at least I do, on commonly used items. For less used items, I look either at the labels, or in my "run book". Every studio, pro or home, I've always built a "run book" which has the diagrams of the outlets around the room and which switch/circuit they are on, hidden plumbing, exits, and so forth. Also, patch panel diagrams one per page (landscape so they fit), as well as basic procedures for every piece of gear I own. THis way, if the Korg something or other goes brain dead, and I don't remember how to reset it to 'factory', I can look it up. Of course I could dig out the manual and flip through for a while, or google online, but it's easier to document the procedure in the run book. Then you, or any inexperienced "assistants" can find it quickly and do what needs to be done.

I love "run books".
 
I'll have to give that a shot. I need to re-do my patchbays anyway since I recently re-did my primary I/O to incorporate a new mixer and a Firewire interface/control surface to replace my water-damaged Mackie 32x8 board. Right now everything is setup direct but I know I'm going to want to be able to have some flexibility that only a patchbay can offer, so I need to spend some time fixing that up.

Have fun with all your soldering!!

Darryl.....
 
RUN BOOK!

LMAO. Thanks... I'll be soldering until I'm dead. (4) 48-point bays in front, (4) 48-point bays in the back to match these, then (12) 48-point bays on top of that for all the gear.

I'll have no life for a while. I still have to desolder quite a few of them too, which is a huge PITA.
 
2006-01-11 Update

For doghouse lovers everywhere....

The final specifications I put together will require four, instead of five, TRS patch bays, and one "other" patch bay that will have a variety of different connectors on this. The easiest way of doing this was to buy a Leviton "quickport" rack mountable frame, and buy the appropriate "quickport" connectors that I need. Then, wire things up.

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Here the "quickport" patch bay is installed, and the first eight jacks are gold plated Banana jacks, for the various speakers in the studio, with the first jack being (-) and the second jack being (+), and so on. Many blank locations for future expansion as necessary, and the last three jacks are RS422 (over cat5, as you can see it's hanging out at the moment), 75 ohm Wordclock and 50 ohm Akainet.

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