MOTM

> From: "CHRIS PARKER" <CPARKER@...>

> My first question is this:  What specific Brand and Model Number
> of cable would you recommend for fabricating HIGH QUALITY patch
> cords?

I roll my own out of guitar cables I have laying around that I cut up.
Usually Belden, but for patch cables it's important to have the heavy rubber
cover, and a woven copper mesh ground, not the foil and drain wire kind of
ground. Also, for me it's important to find a cable with wire that solders
easily. Seems like a silly requirement, but I have seen some cable that
absolutely refused to take solder.

In other words, get something similar to what would be used to make a high
quality guitar cord. SOrry I don't have specific wire numbers.

> The 5-pin DIN jacks that I recently purchased actually have 6
> solder connections on the back.  5 of the connectors are arranged
> in a 180-degree half-circle (from 9:00 to 3:00), while the 6th
> connector is at the bottom (at 6:00).  I have read that the
> standard 5-pin MIDI connection has 4 data transmission pins and 1
> ground; if this is true, what is the 6th pin for?  How many
> conductors would I need in my MIDI cables?

The 6th lug is probably a chassis ground. Don't use it. One of the points
about MIDI is that it avoids connecting the chassis grounds of the two
devices it is plugged into. MIDI only uses 3 connections. I don't have the
connector pinout in front of me, but it is the middle 3 pins of the 5, with
ground being the middle one. So your cables only need 2 wires plus ground.

> On the Pro-2000 break-out panel, I will be bringing the 4 MIDI jacks
> around to the front along with the 1/4" outputs.

I'm going to build a panel for my Expressionist also. I'll be adding gate
lamps to the 8 gate outputs, and will build the LED drive circuits on one of
Paul's breadboard kits, if I can figure out how to cram everything on the
panel and still leave room to mount the circuit board support legs.

Dave Bradley
Principal Software Engineer
Engineering Animation, Inc.
daveb@...