Diarmuid said:
When making 3 pin
XLR cables, if you have red, blue and earth wires, which pin does each colour/
wire go to at the
connector?
Thanks
I am just going to expand on what fosstech has already stated and say that in reality, it doesn't matter what colour
wire you use for the hot or cold signal, as long as you connect the
shield/earth to pin one.
Depending upon what brand of cable you buy, the coloured wires will often be different between manufacturers. Most of the cable I use has red and white wires.
What is important in that you ensure that what you soldered to pin 2 on one end you solder to pin 2 on the other end, and likewise for pin 3.
Most cables that you will make will be wired straight through. In other words, pin 1 to pin 1, pin 2 to pin 2 and so on. When it changes is if you make adaptors, headers or cross-over cables. However, these should be marked so that people know that they are not straight through cables.
Best thing to do is check your cables with a multimeter once you have made them or make yourself a little tester that you simply
plug your cable into and then press a
button to check each pin. If you
wire up the LEDs correctly you can use it to show up crossed over connections. Any newly built or repaired cable should be tested using low
voltage (including
power cables) for
safety reasons.
Below is a cut down version of the schematic for the cable tester that I built. I have simplified it back to just a tester for 5 pin and 3 pin
XLR. Note that the second male 3 pin
XLR is for testing
speaker cables. The full version I have tests several other plugs as well and because each bank is wired in series, it will test between
plug types as well. If you wish to add more sockets, simply add them to each bank.
I have also added the diagram for the switches that I used. These are
PCB mounted
momentary action switches that have the
LED built in. However, if you don’t use these, the main schematic will show you how to wired your switches and LEDs.