MC8

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Vincenzo

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Hi Guys, I use morningstar MC8 as a footswitch for FM3 and I have a problem when I change scene there is a crazy delay, I state that I use the same channel as the same amp and cab as a rig, when I change scene with the FM3 switches there is no delay with MC8 yes, did it happen to you? Thanks.
 

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Hi,

What pedal board do you have there. I am considering an MC6 or MC8 but don't know who I'm going to put them on the board. It's a shame they can't be powered from the MIDI
 
mferrand said:
Hi,

What pedal board do you have there. I am considering an MC6 or MC8 but don't know who I'm going to put them on the board. It's a shame they can't be powered from the MIDI
Click to expand...

Sure they can. I power my MC6 through a 7 pin midi cable with a 12VDC power supply (from left over computer routers in the shop).
The FM3 doesn't have the pass through phantom power jack, if that's what you mean by 'shame'. I have a midi cable with the 'pigtail' for the power supply at the FM3 end of the cable.
The input voltage to run an MC6 is quite wide.

From James at Morningstar:
For Phantom power on pins 6&7, technically it's meant for 9-12v AC power so the polarity doesn't matter. You can use DC as well and polarity will not matter either.
 
For the gigs I do, I don't use a pedal board. I got the FM3 on the floor, the MC6 and two EV2 pedals on the right side and a single two button switch on the left. I got velcro on the bottom of the MC6 and the two button switch. The place I play most often has carpet on the stage so, even though I just place my floor gear directly on the floor, they don't slide around because the velcro grabs the carpet.
 
northtrader said:
Sure they can. I power my MC6 through a 7 pin midi cable with a 12VDC power supply (from left over computer routers in the shop).
The FM3 doesn't have the pass through phantom power jack, if that's what you mean by 'shame'. I have a midi cable with the 'pigtail' for the power supply at the FM3 end of the cable.
The input voltage to run an MC6 is quite wide.

From James at Morningstar:
For Phantom power on pins 6&7, technically it's meant for 9-12v AC power so the polarity doesn't matter. You can use DC as well and polarity will not matter either.
Click to expand...
That's great to know. Are you using the Rocktron RDMH900 Cable? If so, I'm wondering if you know what barrel size on the power supply will work with this. Thank you for any info you may have to offer.
 
Den said:
That's great to know. Are you using the Rocktron RDMH900 Cable? If so, I'm wondering if you know what barrel size on the power supply will work with this. Thank you for any info you may have to offer.
Click to expand...

I actually made my own cable. Usually, phantom power supply over a 7 pin MIDI connector is assumed to be AC instead of DC. With that in mind, I would think the barrel/pin sizes of a purchased cable would be the standard AC sizes. I recall the AC pin spec is 2.5mm but I don't recall the barrel diameter for the AC spec.

Last night I modded my cable to incorporate a standard male XLR connector to plug into the FASlink port and tap into the 12V power present in the FASlink port. From the FASlink port, on a standard XLR connector, pin 2 is positive 12V and pin 1 is the negative.
 

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I'm impressed. You're one handy dude! That's a great idea on tapping into the FASlink port. I think I'm going to tackle the same thing. Thank you for the inspiration and details on that. Happy New Year!
 
@Den
You're welcome. If you're handy with a soldering iron it's an easy build. I originally made my power injection 'MIDI' cable years ago when I had the Fractal Ultra and MIDIMate controller so, when I got the FM3, I still had the connectors in my bag of electronics parts. Here's a run down on what I used:

The cable mount MIDI connectors came from REDCO Audio. Pics of today's pricing are included.
5 pin: https://www.redco.com/Rean-Neutrik-NYS322.html
7 pin: https://www.redco.com/Rean-Neutrik-NYS323.html

The 'cable' I used is a CAT5 ethernet cable.
My cable is short - only 2 feet (0.6m for the metric guys) - so the voltage drop on the 24AWG CAT5 single conductor for a 1 amp rating is only 0.1 volts. I have not measured how much the MC6 draws, but I'm sure it's pretty small (even if it drew 250mA, the drop would only be .02 V). Needless to say, for my needs the CAT5 24AWG single conductor is just fine.
Only 4 pins of the 5 pin end of the MIDI cable are needed, so technically, I could have 'doubled up' my power wires and used two conductors for the positive and two conductors for the negative. That would have utilized all 8 conductors in the CAT5 cable - 4 for the MIDI and 4 (2x2) for the phantom power.
Here's a link to a voltage drop calculator in case you're curious: https://www.calculator.net/voltage-drop-calculator.html

The XLR end is from some parts I salvaged from defunct balancing transformers (the infamous ARCHER/Radio Shack 274-017 - loved them). In my build, I decided to fore-go the full blown male XLR housing because that would stand off from the back of the FM3 too far for my tastes. Instead, I just soldered my two conductors to the connector and heat shrunk a 'cover' over the conductors.

The 5 pin MIDI connector is at the FM3 end of the cable - and obviously, the 7 pin on the MC6 end.

Maybe others will find this modification useful.
 

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Those foot switches look close to each other. Are they a problem when trying to use them during a performance? Maybe hitting 2 at once.
 
boz52 said:
Those foot switches look close to each other. Are they a problem when trying to use them during a performance? Maybe hitting 2 at once.
Click to expand...

Been there, done that during a performance on my MC6. Hit two switches and accidentally activated a 'bank down' maneuver.
I've deactivated the double button command after that. I've also rearranged my button commands so most of IA I use during performance are the corner buttons. The center buttons are set to do 'between songs' navigation.
 
Thank you again @northtrader for the detailed info, including the photos! I was wondering what you had done with that XLR connector. I have some Neutrik's laying around that I can use, my trusty soldering gun and lots of cable of various sorts. What's funny is that I was online searching up voltage drop just last night. I've done a lot of those calculations over the years for higher voltage runs, but not 12v.

Thanks again for your thoughtful guidance!
 
I understand the switch spacing on the MC8 is a bit greater than the MC6. Has anyone here compared them?
 
My MC6 switches are spaced 2.25" (57mm) apart horizontally (center to center) and 2.75" (70mm) apart vertically (center to center).

For comparison - the FM3 switches are 3" (76mm) apart.
 
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I have the MC8 for my FM3 and would also like to have a connector come out of the XLR/FASlink and allow a USB power or something that I could plug direct to the MC8.
 
Just a heads up on the MIDI pinouts.
1609529970495.png
MIDI is a current loop and requires two wires for the data, hence data+(pin 4) and data- (pin 5).
You really only need pin 4 and pin 5 for the MIDI communication.

In my pics I show pins 1 and 3 soldered because I used to use this cable on my AxeFX II and MFC-101 where Pins 1 and 3 were used for bidirectional communication between the MFC-101 and the AxeFX II

If I were to make this 'cable' again, I wouldn't bother soldering any conductors to pins 1 and 3 on either MIDI connector.
This would only require a 4 conductor cable instead of the 8 conductor CAT5 that I used.

In case someone wants to know - I have the FASlink positive (XLR pin 2) wired to pin 6 on MIDI connector. The FASlink negative (XLR pin 1) is wired to pin 7 on the MIDI connector. Works just fine on my MC6.
1609531239419.png
 
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