reddawnman
Member
Hey all:
Love the forum. After reading the intercom design pdf and taking off a couple cover plates, i figured I'd post something here.
I am dealing with a school that has hard-wired intercom lines in the walls that are 6-pin XLR ports that I think were originally supposed to be part of a 2-channel telex system. For whatever reason the school never bought the transmitter hardware and have a bunch of 6-pin male receptacles just sitting in the wall / floor / backstage panels that should be able to be used for intercom ports hanging in a bunch of convenient places around the theatre, as they should be. This system is also wired into the TV production studio upstairs (about 150' away) so if needed they could use it for live shoots and such. As far as I know, they've never used the wall outlets for lack of transmitter hardware and / or 6-pin xlr ends.
Trouble is, the 6-pin xlr system doesn't work, and never has to anyone's knowledge because the guys that did the wiring were never called back. so, they have a porta-com (Theoretically clear-com compatible) 3-pin XLR intercom system that is jerry-rigged in to plug into the patch panel and a field microphone input. So, to have intercoms backstage you have to take a precious microphone input backstage and patch it into the patch panel to the intercom system.
Ive looked at the pinouts for 6-pin xlr, and after unscrewing some wall plates, I've determined that the plates are wired up, and it looks as though the grounds et al are wired in correctly - we should have continuity.
I then got a 6-pin female and soldered the pins out (according to standards in the intercom systems pdf) to 2 3-pin XLR's. Plugged it into my clearcom base station, into the wall, then went to another one of the wall plates and plugged in another one of my 6 to 2x3 xlr adapters to a clearcom headset. I heard a pop when connecting the xlr, so I know at least I was getting power. However, no audio or ability to talk out.
I know that ideally you need to have a pro come in and check out connectivity on all the plates in the house, and that it really should use the same 6-pin IC headset system that was supposed to be spec'd originally. However, this is a cheap high school (reading this board it seems to be a common theme) and there's no way they are paying anyone for this. This is just kind of a side project that would be nice to get working.
I'll see if i can get into the school on monday and post some pictures. They also have nice things like a 25lb pig hanging by aircraft cable and duct tape keeping tension on aircraft cable that was originally hooked onto a cyc batten extension. We tell people not to stand under it... *sigh*
Love the forum. After reading the intercom design pdf and taking off a couple cover plates, i figured I'd post something here.
I am dealing with a school that has hard-wired intercom lines in the walls that are 6-pin XLR ports that I think were originally supposed to be part of a 2-channel telex system. For whatever reason the school never bought the transmitter hardware and have a bunch of 6-pin male receptacles just sitting in the wall / floor / backstage panels that should be able to be used for intercom ports hanging in a bunch of convenient places around the theatre, as they should be. This system is also wired into the TV production studio upstairs (about 150' away) so if needed they could use it for live shoots and such. As far as I know, they've never used the wall outlets for lack of transmitter hardware and / or 6-pin xlr ends.
Trouble is, the 6-pin xlr system doesn't work, and never has to anyone's knowledge because the guys that did the wiring were never called back. so, they have a porta-com (Theoretically clear-com compatible) 3-pin XLR intercom system that is jerry-rigged in to plug into the patch panel and a field microphone input. So, to have intercoms backstage you have to take a precious microphone input backstage and patch it into the patch panel to the intercom system.
Ive looked at the pinouts for 6-pin xlr, and after unscrewing some wall plates, I've determined that the plates are wired up, and it looks as though the grounds et al are wired in correctly - we should have continuity.
I then got a 6-pin female and soldered the pins out (according to standards in the intercom systems pdf) to 2 3-pin XLR's. Plugged it into my clearcom base station, into the wall, then went to another one of the wall plates and plugged in another one of my 6 to 2x3 xlr adapters to a clearcom headset. I heard a pop when connecting the xlr, so I know at least I was getting power. However, no audio or ability to talk out.
I know that ideally you need to have a pro come in and check out connectivity on all the plates in the house, and that it really should use the same 6-pin IC headset system that was supposed to be spec'd originally. However, this is a cheap high school (reading this board it seems to be a common theme) and there's no way they are paying anyone for this. This is just kind of a side project that would be nice to get working.
I'll see if i can get into the school on monday and post some pictures. They also have nice things like a 25lb pig hanging by aircraft cable and duct tape keeping tension on aircraft cable that was originally hooked onto a cyc batten extension. We tell people not to stand under it... *sigh*