to make or not to make db25 cables

[electric]

hi all,
have a new rosetta 800 on the way which uses db25 for analog IO instead of xlr's. i have made many xlr cables at my place but have no experience making db25's. it definitely would save me a couple of bucks to do it on my own.

should i try to make these on my own or should i have them made? for some cables it seems there may be a benefit from having a pro or machine put together for you.

it would be nice to be able to make them on your own because i think i will need to have several configurations and lengths. i dont use a patchbay right now but probably will have to go that route in the near future.

any advice?

regards,
electric

[Tim Farrant]

Soldering the DB25 connectors is very fine work, possible - but fiddly - and getting the cable into into the backshell can be tricky. Try and find the largest backshell you can and make sure the hole is big enough to fit the cable.

Tim.

[electric]

thanks tim,
that sounds like excellend advice. i also recently learned you need to insulate all of the grounds because they are so close together grudge. i may still just cave in and have the guys at redco make them. they do great work and i am starting to feel lazy again. (must be the cold mpls weather ) thanks again.

electric

[ulysses]

Originally posted by electric
have a new rosetta 800 on the way which uses db25 for analog IO instead of xlr's. i have made many xlr cables at my place but have no experience making db25's. it definitely would save me a couple of bucks to do it on my own.

should i try to make these on my own or should i have them made?

Howdy neighbor,
I'm generally a build it myself kind of guy but I haven't felt the need to build my own DB25 cables. They can be had for pretty cheap. Have, Inc has pretty good deals, and Guitar Center sells fairly decent ones for not too much. But if you want to make yourself a deal without excessive hassle, my suggestion is to buy a snake that has DB25's on both ends, and is twice as long as you need it. Cut it in half and put XLRs or TRS or whatever you need on the newly exposed ends. The price of a double-length snake is less than two shorter snakes, and snakes with DB25s generally cost less than snakes with single-channel connectors on them I think. If you do terminate your own DB25 ends, you'll be much happier if you bite the bullet and crimp them instead of soldering them.

[electric]

thanks justin,
i am probably going to have 2 cables made so i can use the box right away. however i will probably have to make specialty cables as i do not use a patchbay at this time. your idea is a great suggestion.

[electric]

i am guessing crimping the terminals requires some sort of a "crimping" tool? where does one get one of these?

[subspace]

I soldered up six DB25 snakes a little while ago, it's not too difficult. Just tin each wire and soldering cup first, then use a "third hand" to hold them in place while you work. I put shrink tube on all the + and - connections, leaving all the grounds uncovered. The connectors came from www.partsexpress.com. I used existing cable that was already soldered to my patchbays, making the job a bit easier...
HTH

[ToddF]

Good suggestion Justin. If you do need customs made I had this guy make some snakes for me and he did a great job fast and reasonable. Todd F. www.studiowiring.com

[Bob Olhsson]

My experience has been that machine-made D-connector cables tend to be a lot more reliable than hand soldered ones even by the very best technicians.

[Peter Gruden]

If you plan to install a patchbay, go and make the cables yourself . It is very convenient to use DB25 on the back of patch panels because many multichannel devices use Tascam wiring (Apogee, Digi, RME etc.) and you save on connectors.

I use thin profile audio cable (2.9mm OD) and metalic shells with screws, although 8 pair snakes with numbered cables are convenient. 8 cables fit into the shell tightly and don't need additional fixing. Solder hi and lo with isolation close to pins and only isolate grounds. I have a patch bay with 24 DB25 connectors which are used daily to connect various multitrack machines without problems.

I suggest to use male connectors on cables and female on chassis.

[Wally Joe]

Originally posted by Peter Gruden
I have a patch bay with 24 DB25 connectors which are used daily to connect various multitrack machines without problems.

Is this a custom patchbay or one that I could buy somewhere? thanx.

[Peter Gruden]

Originally posted by Wally Joe
Is this a custom patchbay or one that I could buy somewhere? thanx.

Somebody made it for me because I found nothing like that on the market at that time. The front looks similar to the link below:
******//www.canford.co.uk/commerce/it...8_2000656.aspx

It is a grounded closed box, so I could use flat cable and crimping connectors inside, to connect pairs of connectors for pass thru. It is only 4 inches deep and mounted on the back of the rack with easy access, close to multitracks and ADDA converters. We use it to patch over 100 tracks of audio to only 48 channel desk.

But I might have a better idea. Why not just buy the panel only and mount double female DB25 connectors on it? On the front you could have audio sources and on the back audio destinations. No soldering, very cheap and easy to do.

[Paul Gold]

Originally posted by electric
i am guessing crimping the terminals requires some sort of a "crimping" tool? where does one get one of these?

If you already have a ratchet tool like a Palladin you can buy a die for it. If not you can get a barrel crimp tool. If you look in a catalog like Mouser, Digi-Key, Allied, Newark ect. you will see a tool on the same page as the connectors. Try AMP connectors. They make good metal shells.

[Buddhaman]

I guess this is a semi pro answer but....

about six months ago I had to connect a tascam mx2424 with a 16 channel Yamaha PM1000 desk.

I bought a 16 channel Mogami snake off of Ebay with the XLR males I needed but nothing on the other end.

Then I went to RADIO SHACK and bought 2 DB25 connectors (male) and the crimping tool ($15 total) and 2 hours later I had a 16 channel DB25 to XLR male snake, has worked great no problems.

I got the Pinout from the download section of the Tascam website.

Buddhaman

[electric]

hi ,
i recently received my da converter. it uses db25 for the break out. i dont have any cables yet for the unit. (however some are on the way in about 7 days) the unit is used and i would like to test it asap to make sure it works. (you have to be up front when saying used gear is not working). guitar center says they do not carry db25 cables except for special order. so...

i have some old computer db25-db25 parallel port cables. could i use one just to test each of the da outputs to make sure the unit is working? (ie use some banana clips and test the pins). or is this just a bad idea?

just wondering. if i need to wait i will wait.

regards,
electric

[Tim Farrant]

You may find the computor cables are not wired with all the pins connected, and in some cases they are crossed wired, not pin for pin - might not be a good idea. You could just tack on some wire to a db25 temporarily to check the device on a couple of in/outs, that's what I would do !!

Cheers
Tim.

[MIKEHARRIS]

i do believe apogee's pinout to be different from Tascam

[electric]

thanks guys,

good feedback. i'll take your advice.

regards,
electric

[Peter Gruden]

Originally posted by MIKEHARRIS
i do believe apogee's pinout to be different from Tascam

Actualy no, Apogee uses Tascam pinout.

[Max]

We use Tascam pinout for analog, Yamaha pinout for digital.

[ulysses]

Originally posted by electric
guitar center says they do not carry db25 cables except for special order. so...

Last time I was in there, both the Roseville and Edina stores had a stack of DB25-XLR and DB25-TRS snakes about four feet high.

i have some old computer db25-db25 parallel port cables. could i use one just to test each of the da outputs to make sure the unit is working? (ie use some banana clips and test the pins). or is this just a bad idea?

It's a bad idea to use computer cables for audio because you won't have shielding between the different audio pairs. It'll be susceptible to noise and the crosstalk will be terrible. But it should pass audio, so it will work to check functionality of the box. As for using banana clips, I think you'd be better off just connecting it to another unit that has DB25's instead. It's really hard to get little clips to stay on a connector pin without popping off or shorting against an adjacent pin.

Go back to GC and ask again.

[scott h.]

Originally Posted by ToddF

Good suggestion Justin. If you do need customs made I had this guy make some snakes for me and he did a great job fast and reasonable. Todd F. www.studiowiring.com

hey todd, thanks for the mention . . . if anyone is still reading this string. . .

. . . patchbays are easier to solder than db 25's , so just build bay to db25 with longer snakes, and get the extra connector out of the system . . . point to point . . .

[amorris]

check out these patchbays:

Switchcraft

we have a very large facility so we do dozens of installs at a time so this is the only way for us.

just one room, can be a different story. too much extra length from store boughts can suck, so can too short. that would be the main consideration if it were me. one appogee is almost nothing to wire up. and you could have the perfect lenghts.