Colortran Patchman

[one48]

I have just come into possetion of a, Colortran Patch Man 36x2 control board, Model
#168813. Would be very appretiative of any information or directions to archived manuals
and or spec sheets. Thanks, one48

[philhaney]

Welcome to Controlbooth.com!

I used to work for Colortran back in the late '80s. We were still using the Patch Man back then. I don't know if manuals or specs are still available.

This might sound silly, but if you will jog my memory by taking a picture of it so I can see the front panel, I will tell you all I can remember...

Edit: If I remember correctly, they used the Colortran protocall, which was the forerunner of DMX-512, but I don't think they ever had DMX-512 output themselves.....

[mnfreelancer]

Oh the patchman...my very first board. Back in middle school - has two double-bitted key locks, one for power, one for patch enable? I think mine was 24 channel, two scene pre-set. Ours was connected to a little 24 way Colortran ENR dimmer rack. I believe it was DMX-512 - I know for sure it had a 5 pin female XLR "output" on the back of it. Another student spilled a whole can of coke into the board and it still worked somehow. Fun to reminisce.

[derekleffew]

Welcome to the Booth, one48. Moving this thread into the Lighting forum. Sorry, no manual, but was able to find a brochure, dated 09/1983. Maybe it will help identify some functions.

Designed to compete directly with the popular Century-Strand Mantrix, Patchman was superior in that it allowed 512 dimmers to be accessed via one cable. IIRC, pins 4&5 were meant to provide overtemp indication feedback from the dimmers to the console, but this was never implimented. There was also something slightly different about its protocol and that of the Prestige series. I'm thinking the Patchman's was more robust, somehow.

[waynehoskins]

That sure is a Mantrix competitor. It even one-ups Strand: 10-preset versus 4-preset.

I sure wouldn't mind having one. (yes, I know, two-preset is dead .. but ten-preset! ten-preset is still alive and kicking!)

[icewolf08]

"Patchman is available in multiples of 12 channels up to 96. Double tier configuration is used above 48 channels. Select the Patchman that fills your present control requirements and obsolescence will be a thing of the past."

Well, if that ain't wishful thinking, wouldn't that be cool!

[church]

I have manuals and drawings for the Prestige and the scenemaster consoles and I note that on a number of the drawings they also identify they are for the patchmaster. I can take a look and sort through and scan them for you. I can't guarantee I have a full set of drawings.

[one48]

Thank you Church, I can't tell you how much I would appreciate the the help by scanning the documents for me. Thanks again, one48

[one48]

Another question on the Patchman; can anyone tell me if the 5 pin out on the back of the console is DMX or Colortran Protocal, and what are the operating differances between the two?

[derekleffew]

(one48, please don't start a new thread with the exact same title and a similar topic as the original. Your post has been merged into this thread.)
Whether the output is CMX or DMX depends on when the console was built, but it's most-likely CMX. From this thread: http://www.controlbooth.com/forums/l...-cmx-dmx.html:

Originally Posted by SHARYNF

the difference between cmx and dmx is predominately the speed.

CMX
History - CMX (sometimes called C-156) traces its beginnings to an innovative control console called Channel Track that Colortran unveiled in 1979. A digital data stream, sent from the CPU over a coaxial cable, was decoded by a local D/A converter into individual 0-10 volt analog levels. The protocol appeared in its present form in later designs, such as the Patchman, Dimension 5 and Prestige series consoles. These products utilized RS422 differential data transmission for remote D/A's or direct control of dimmers. CMX receivers included a 108-channel D/A card produced in the early to mid-1980s and the popular D192 high-density dimmer rack introduced in 1985. Virtually all control and dimmer products sold by Colortran were user-configurable for either CMX or DMX operation by 1989. As many people in the industry are aware, CMX protocol was the prototype for today's DMX512. The only major difference is the data rate, which was increased to 250 Kbaud for DMX. Interestingly, Colortran's design team foresaw the need for the protocol to talk to more than just dimmers, so they designated the first word of the data stream as an identifier for the type of information to follow (now DMX512's start code!).

Details - Two slightly different transmission speeds were used: 156.25 Kbaud for early systems and 153.6 Kbaud from about 1985 on. There's not enough difference between the two rates to matter, so a controller running at either speed will work with any dimmer rack. CMX pioneered the familiar 5-pin XLR and pinout later adopted by DMX512: shield/common on pin 1, data- on pin 2, data+ on pin 3. Some products such as Status consoles received their DC power from the dimmer pack on pin 5.

Interfacing Hints -- Problems may be encountered if you try to read and convert the CMX output from a Patchman console. This unit sent even parity instead of a second stop bit, which will confuse many receivers. Caution: before connecting new control equipment to an older Colortran dimmer, first ensure that no power supply voltages are present on pins 4 or 5. ...

Originally Posted by STEVETERRY

The simple conversion from CMX to DMX involves:
1. The installation of a 4 MHz crystal to allow the UART to run at 250 kbps.
2. Changing one resistor value

Steve Short at Lite-Trol should be able to help.

BTW, another post mentioned that CMX anticipated/supported alternate start codes. This is not true--alternate start codes were introduced during the creation of the DMX512 standard in 1986 by a proposal from Matt Deakin, then of Celco. Colortran gear always had a zero start byte, but never considered alternate start codes. Colortran dimmer control modules were pure hardware implementations with no processor--just a TTL state machine connected to a UART and a ramp-and-comparator firing scheme.

Also, there is some mythology about the actual bit rate of CMX. It has always been 153.6 kbps.

Finally, people's confusion over the name CMX is understandable. The was no "CMX" until after 1986 when DMX512 was introduced. Then the Colortran marketing department created "CMX" instead of the prior "Colortran Protocol".