It seems like the cables and ends for our 3.5mm (laptop) connections are constantly giving us problems. It’s a pretty challenging environment for them – getting plugged and unplugged many times a day. Because of the way our board is wired, it’s not always as easy as plugging in a new cable. A new custom cable has to be made, ends have to be ordered, and someone has to actually do the soldering to make it work.
Our solution to this problem is to put all the complicated wiring and soldering behind a panel. All the delicate cabling in front will be easy to get and fairly inexpensive. Parts are on order to build a custom patch panel and they should arrive in a week or two. What you will see is something like this photo except that instead of the XLR connectors there’ll be four RCA connectors and a bunch of empty spots.
The RCA connectors look like the photo to the left and bolt into the holes in the panel. The sensitive wiring behind is soldered in place and should never need to be disturbed.
Once that infrastructure is in place then all we need is a handful of 3.5mm to RCA patch cables to plug into the ports at the front of the panel. I’ve found a source for good quality patch cords at a great price so we can have lots of spares for when they inevitably wear out.
I know it’s frustrating to show up to the studio and have something not work; it happened to me today. But please bear with us for another week or two. I think that this will be a great solution to a longstanding problem. Thanks to everyone who did research to come up with this solution, and to everyone who kept it all going up until now.