Patchbay question

Tplesko

Inspired
Hi, hopefully a simple one here - I wish to put in a simple patchbay in the back of my case so I am not always plugging in directly to the Axe III but the patch panel,so it takes the abuse. I know these can be customized but can it be as simple as putting in a small patch cable in between - for instance - the output 1 of the the axe and into a connector? Or will they Always need to be soldered?

The ones I have seen all need customer soldering. It would be excellent to get a 1’ XLR to run from the axe to tube patch panel, no soldering, and simply use the other side of the patch connector to go to the board.

Let me know if I am talking moonshine here,

Thanks,
 
The soldering is pretty straightforward and will help reduce the weight of the case if that’s a concern. Plus you have more control over the lengths of the cables.

True, but with pass through jacks you can freely change out the type of connectors, like if you wanted xlr and then needed 1/4th it’s just 2 screws and swap it out, or if you want longer cables you go from 1 foot to 3 foot etc

Soldering is easy enough and cheaper parts wise but you are kind of stuck with the way it comes if you have someone else solder it
 
The trouble with the pass-through approach is not all connection types are available in the format.
 
Power-Con
7-Pin MIDI
SPDIF Coax


Trick with midi is to get just a basic female/female barrel style connector, like you’d use to join to midi cables together. Then buy an empty d-sub style jack, dremel or otherwise sand the hole a little bigger to just fit your midi plug, squirt some epoxy or hot glue etc into the gaps around it and let it dry. You’ve now got a midi pass thru style connector, and it’s a lot easier than trying to keep all the midi pins straight and soldering them. You could easily do the same with a SPDIF connector.

Powercon there is no getting around, however there are Powercon jacks that just have you insert the 3 wides from a cord, and then tighten a screw on each terminal. Basically get an extension cord, cut off the end, strip the 3 inner wires, insert into the correct terminals, and your done, again no soldering

My patch panel has XLR, 1/4th”, USB, Ethercon, Midi, and Powercon jacks and I didn’t solder a single one. Little more work than just 2 screws, but still solder free

IMG_0760.jpg
 
Has anyone ever "worn out" the jacks on a Fractal unit ? Don't get me wrong, I built a panel and I get the point of it, and to be honest, mine was largely just to fill in rack space and look cool, since I'm essentially a home player these days and don't really ever unplug anything...

That said, I'd certainly expect being able to plug in/out of the Axe jacks for years, night in/night out, and still have them work. I don't think I've ever worn out a jack on anything I've owned. As such, are these panels we all know and love really doing that much to protect our Axe's from wear and tear ?

Is a buyer down the road going to really be concerned if you plugged directly into the unit, or if you used patch bay ??

I think they can be practical in getting connections to the front, which is probably the "best" need for one, but I like the aesthetics of a "clean" front panel, so I but panels in the rear, ironically, just a few inches away from the very same jacks on the Axe itself
 
What would one need 4, 5 etc pin XLR for ? I'm not entirely up to date with what the industry is doing these days, but aren't those typically used for things like lighting controllers, and not audio applications ?
Mastermind uses them in place in 5-pin and 7-pin MIDI cables. More durable.
 


Very cool. So I guess if one wants to use an RJM controller, and one wants to also have a patch bay, one needs to learn to solder (or pay someone to solder) lol.

For the majority though, I'd wager a $5.99 XLR passthru, a standard 3 pin XLR patch cable, and then a longer 3 pin XLR of required length, connected to a FAC6 or 12, would be the easier way to go for plug and play.
 
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