Balanced to unbalanced... what to do with Pin 3?

[CharlesThomas]

This weekend I had to make a snake that went from the balanced XLR outs of a board I was borrowing to the unbalanced RCA inputs of my recording deck.

I was unsure what to do with pin 3 (cold or -) from the XLR side. Some said to just leave it, some said you had to tie it to the shield.

Since it was easier, I elected to just leave pin 3 alone. I haven't noticed any hum, but was wondering if this was the proper thing to do. I'd rather avoid an unpleasant surprise down the road.

Thanks for any info.

CT

 

[Track Rat]

All of the above. Normally I'd tie it to the shield unless I get a ground loop.

 

[tutton]

Yo
if theres no voltage going throught it
tie it to the shield or ground

Tony

[This message has been edited by tutton (edited 07-01-2000).]

 

[Tim Brown]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by tutton:
Yo
if theres no voltage going throught it
tie it to the shield or ground

Tony

[This message has been edited by tutton (edited 07-01-2000).]<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

I was always told to tie it to Pin 1 at the XLR, and then leave the other end "floating".

Tim

 

[John Sayers]

Pin 3 is in fact the -ve of your circuit so you should have used pin 2 and 3 to the RCA and the shield pin 1 remains connected to the console. You can check this out at my site:
http://www.lis.net.au/~johnsay/Acoustics/Titles/Acoustics4.htm

and click on the "audio wiring" tab.