LF schematics for patch bay

[jrhoden]

hi y'all

im looking for schematics for a patch bay...

yes it'd be easier to buy one but i like building stuff

does anyone have links to them?

thanks in advance

 

[dgatwood]

hi y'all

im looking for schematics for a patch bay...

It's just a bunch of jacks on the front and a bunch of jacks or cables on the back. Wire it tip-to-tip, ring-to-ring, and shield-to-shield. The hard part is drilling out a patch panel with sufficient accuracy.

If you want to go really fancy, you can do normalled or half-normalled.

Normalled: the jacks on the front are both switching jacks. When no plug is plugged into the jack, the switched contacts make contact with the tip and ring signal contacts. You wire those switched contacts together (tip switched to tip switched, ring switched to ring switched). In this configuration, if you plug something into either jack, the connection between them goes away. This allows you to have a default connection between them without needing to plug in a patch cable, but allows you to disable that default by plugging into either jack.

Half-normalled: same as above, only the switched contacts on the bottom goes to the signal contacts on the upper jack (and the top jack doesn't need to be switched). In this configuration, the output of the first device (which would be coming out the top jack) can be split between the default (normal) connection and the output cable, but plugging a cable into the input of the second device (the bottom jack) disables the normal.

Cross-normalled: I've never seen a patchbay wired this way (for good reason), but I always thought it would be perversely fun. You wire the switched jack to the signal on the opposite jack. In this configuration, plugging into the output jack doesn't break the normal (splitting the signal between the normal and the cable), plugging into the input jack doesn't break the normal (crudely mixing the normal signal and the cable's signal in a not-so-safe way), but plugging into both jacks disables the normal....

 

[MOFO Pro]

hi y'all

im looking for schematics for a patch bay...

yes it'd be easier to buy one but i like building stuff

does anyone have links to them?

thanks in advance

Single????

 

[jrhoden]

thanks for the info

 

[mshilarious]

Dude, don't waste your DIY time on a patchbay. A Neutrik patchbay costs like $50. The Neutrik jack you would need for a patchbay is NYS212, and it costs $0.73. You need 96 of them, plus a 2u rack case (you probably won't be able to stuff NYS212 in a 1u case as Neutrik could with their PCB-mount jack), that's another $40 or so. Off the bat, you will spend $110 for the privilege of drilling 96 holes and doing a LOT of point-to-point wiring.

When you are done, it will take up twice the amount of space in your rack, and it will work exactly the same.

Building something useful that you can't easily or cheaply buy, like a tube compressor or something.

 

[dgatwood]

Dude, don't waste your DIY time on a patchbay. A Neutrik patchbay costs like $50. The Neutrik jack you would need for a patchbay is NYS212, and it costs $0.73. You need 96 of them, plus a 2u rack case (you probably won't be able to stuff NYS212 in a 1u case as Neutrik could with their PCB-mount jack), that's another $40 or so. Off the bat, you will spend $110 for the privilege of drilling 96 holes and doing a LOT of point-to-point wiring.

Agreed, with one exception. If you need a custom patch panel for non-audio bits (e.g. ADAT lightpipe, FireWire/USB jacks, etc.), you're likely better off buying a pre-cut panel with keystone holes, buying the keystones, and setting it up yourself than you are buying a pre-built panel with the right pieces.