BlueClone - The Blue Room's Own Comms System

[2184]

Hi, does anyone have a PSU and 3 belt pack boards they would like to sell. Alex

[Hieronymus]

 

Hi,

 

In one of my previous posts I mentioned a improvement on the LED's used.

 

 

 

• I found them quite hard to mount with the loose spacer.
• They also didn't look very subtile in the panel.
• They are quite big and can bend back or damage easily

 

 

So I looked for these circuit board mount types. I ordered a bunch of these:

 

http://nl.farnell.co...jsp?sku=2373386 (red)

 

http://nl.farnell.co...jsp?sku=2373383 (green)

 

I selected them on size (they sit flush with the edge of the board) and on luminousity. They fit perfectly on the original spot (nice!)

 

I've swaped them in today. Here are the results:

 

 

 

• They are easily put in place (I cut the two plastic front 'legs' of with a sidecutter).
• They are smaller (3mm) so look nice and subtile
• They don't pertrude the panel so won't take any damage
• They fit the budget
• I haven't done the math, but the seem to line up with the Original holes very nicely. (these panels are handmade, so the hole for the green LED is a bit to far to the left anyway)

Here are a few pics:

 

https://dl.dropboxus...icator_test.jpg

 

https://dl.dropboxus...d_indicator.jpg

 

https://dl.dropboxus...dicator_off.jpg

 

https://dl.dropboxus...ndicator_on.jpg

Edited August 10, 2014 by Hieronymus

[dmxlights]

Hi

 

Does anyone have boards for the belt pack for sale I am looking for 5 and 1 of the power supply. I have send rob_p a PM and have not got any reply from him as he did seem to have some spare boards

[Rob_P]

Sorry - I had someone who was keen on having the boards but I haven't heard back from him. I will double check how many I have left and let you know!

[dmxlights]

Sorry - I had someone who was keen on having the boards but I haven't heard back from him. I will double check how many I have left and let you know!

 

Hi Rob_P,

 

That will be grand.

[antlear]

Hi

 

I work for a school and would love to get some of these built but do not have the time. Would anyone be able to potentially build me 2-4 packs. or does anyone have any I can hire / borrow please.

 

I am located in Hertfordshire.

 

Thanks

[Hieronymus]

Hi

 

I work for a school and would love to get some of these built but do not have the time. Would anyone be able to potentially build me 2-4 packs. or does anyone have any I can hire / borrow please.

 

I am located in Hertfordshire.

 

Thanks

 

Hi,

 

If you can wait untill the Christmas holidays, I might have some time to figure out my parts. I do have the boards for sure, Those I can sell you anyway. I live in the Netherlands, so the whole thing will include extra shipping costs. Let me know if you're interested.

 

 

 

 

Jeroen

 

 

 

 

 

[boatman]

I was having a clear-out and came across six version 1.1 Power Unit PCBs and four version 1 Power Unit panels. They have all had minor surgery but will work OK. These boards and panels are available for only £5 each + £2.50 postage (within the UK) for any number. Photos below. Click on any picture for a larger version.

 

http://mydesk.myzen.co.uk/_Useful/BlueCom/BluecomPsu1_1a_wee.jpg http://mydesk.myzen.co.uk/_Useful/BlueCom/BluecomPsu1_1b_wee.jpg http://mydesk.myzen.co.uk/_Useful/BlueCom/BluecomPsu1_1c_wee.jpg

 

P.S. One PCB already has SK1, D1 & D2 fitted.

Edited November 16, 2014 by boatman

[ddproduction]

Seems to me it might be an idea to start a new thread for Buying/Selling parts, just to separate them from the technical discussion?

[kevinmcdonough]

hi there

 

While I've flicked onto the Blue Room a few times over the years I'm mostly a Speakerplans user, but was put onto this thread and am very interested in these belt packs.

 

While I don't do a huge amount of theatre work and its mostly live music, during the few bits I do I'm always a little frustrated that as the sound engineer I can't keep the comms headset on and be in touch with everyone else, as I need to be able to hear whats going on. I can pull it on if it's something urgent but its always a bit of a faff pulling on and off both the comms hedset and the mixing desk cans at various times while for the most part trying to keep my ears free to hear whats actually happening in the show.

 

For a while now I've had in my head the idea of trying out a set of jawbone vibration headphones to see if these would help. Originally based on technology that was designed for the military so that soldiers could hear communications and still be aware of sounds in the environment around them, the idea is that rather than a set of earphones that go in your ears, little vibration pads sit just in front of your ears and transmit the sound by vibration through your cheek/jaw bones into your ears. More recently, a couple of companies have adopted this technology and put it into consumer products designed for cyclists/joggers etc who want to listen to music but still be aware of traffic etc around them, and I thought this may also be a good solution for comms in sound. In theory I should be able to leave it set at a low volume and be able to gently hear cues being called and whatever chat is going on, but still have my ears free to do the sound. Being designed to work with iPods and mobile phones and things, many also have a mic on the cable for answering calls so if that could be made to work as well even better.

 

Having purchased a pair of these..... Aftershokz M3 to try it is quite an unusual sensation hearing the music but still the general background noise of a room.

 

Anyway, they're on a 4 pin minijack just as all of these things generally are, and my plan was initially to just see if soldering a little adapter with a matching 4 pin cable socket to convert them to a 4 pin XLR would work just hooked into a standard Tecpro or Granite beltpack. I will still try it probably this week but suspect the differences between the impedences/microphones/designs of all of these small headphones designed for mobile phones etc and proper comms headsets will mean it wont be as simple as that.

 

However as I said, when I mentioned this idea on Speakerplans someone put me onto your beltpack design and it seems like with the various options it provides and the fact that it already has a 4 pin kack socket it would be perfect for me. Long term I'd love to put one together and have it with me to just plug into comms systems where I'm working.

 

So with that said, I know that Heironymus had suggested removing the 4 pin socket and replacing it with a dual 3 pin one but I would ask if it could be left on after all for future board runs? If there were other modifications that could make his pc style dual jacks connection easier to implement then definitely include them, but hopefully the 4 pin one will stay on as well.

 

edit: the other suggesion would be would it be possible to swap the r2 and sleeve connections on this? While traditionally the way you have it wired is correct, Apple being Apple swapped the ground and mic pins to try and make everyone buy specific apple approved headsets for their devices. So now the sleeve is the mic + signal and R2 is the ground. All other manufacturers, wanting to be comparable and not wanting to have to make two different runs of their devices or headphones, seem to have adapted this as well now. If it's too much hassle on the board obviously a simple pin swap adapter cable will work, but just a suggestion.

 

k

Edited November 29, 2014 by kevinmcdonough

[boatman]

To get a higher level than a standard comms beltpack, the current design uses a bridge output amp which works fine with standard headsets. The 4-pole jack socket is just paralleled with the XLR headset connector but, as I didn't have any compatible headsets, I never tested it. It might need a large electrolytic capacitor (~100uF) to isolate the DC component of the bridge output from the 4-pole jack. Board space is limited so it wouldn't be easy to change the layout to accommodate such a capacitor. If you have a better way of connecting the 4-pole jack socket I'll see if it's possible to modify the PCB.

 

The Blue-Room marketing department don't currently stock blank PCBs for this project so if you want to build one you'll have to get boards made (or ask here to see if anyone has some left over).

[andrew.p.r]

Has anyone had any joy using the 4pole 3.5mm jack with a headset yet?

 

I just plugged in a phone headset I had kicking around and it burnt out R8 as soon as it was plugged in.

 

Thanks

 

Andrew

[kevinmcdonough]

<br />Has anyone had any joy using the 4pole 3.5mm jack with a headset yet?<br /><br />I just plugged in a phone headset I had kicking around and it burnt out R8 as soon as it was plugged in.<br /><br />Thanks<br /><br />Andrew<br />

<br /><br /><br />

 

From reading the other thread where there is a dedicated discussion on PC headsets (that I found after posting on this one), what I gathered was that it seems to be a wiring problem that causes the burnout of the resistor.

 

The 4 pin socket on the beltpack is wired to the + and - side of the bridged amp on pins 1 and 2, but the headsets don't really work that way. Pin 1 feeds left and pin 2 feeds right, and they (along with the mic) all have a common ground.

 

The suggestion was to use a little adaptor to connect both the left and right sides of the headset to the amp + (tip of the socket) and ignore the - side of the amp and accept a little drop in level. As the other user who has made these (Heironymus) has used PC headsets with his system (granted through two TRS jacks rather than the TRRS, but with the same type of wiring as I've described) and it seems to have worked OK for him, I assume this is the best way?

 

Also, while you're making the adaptor as I said on the other post you will have to watch out for pins 3 and 4, the beltpack is wired the traditional way with mic on pin 3 (the second ring) and ground on pin 4. But Apple seem to have changed that and almost all headsets now have have these two reversed.

 

k

[boatman]

Has anyone had any joy using the 4pole 3.5mm jack with a headset yet?

 

I just plugged in a phone headset I had kicking around and it burnt out R8 as soon as it was plugged in.

 

Thanks

Andrew

 

From reading the other thread where there is a dedicated discussion on PC headsets (that I found after posting on this one), what I gathered was that it seems to be a wiring problem that causes the burnout of the resistor.

 

The 4 pin socket on the beltpack is wired to the + and - side of the bridged amp on pins 1 and 2, but the headsets don't really work that way. Pin 1 feeds left and pin 2 feeds right, and they (along with the mic) all have a common ground.

 

The suggestion was to use a little adaptor to connect both the left and right sides of the headset to the amp + (tip of the socket) and ignore the - side of the amp and accept a little drop in level. As the other user who has made these (Heironymus) has used PC headsets with his system (granted through two TRS jacks rather than the TRRS, but with the same type of wiring as I've described) and it seems to have worked OK for him, I assume this is the best way?

 

Also, while you're making the adaptor as I said on the other post you will have to watch out for pins 3 and 4, the beltpack is wired the traditional way with mic on pin 3 (the second ring) and ground on pin 4. But Apple seem to have changed that and almost all headsets now have have these two reversed.

 

k

 

If anyone can give me a definitive schematic of how that socket should be wired, I'll create version 1.3 and generate a set of Gerber files for PCB manufacture.

[boatman]

I have received a good suggestion from someone who has built a set of beltpacks and used them successfully for a panto season. The idea is to bring the pins of the 4-pole front panel connector to a header so that they can be internally wired as needed. All the pins would be isolated from any other connection and the user would have to decide how best to connect them.

 

It seems like the ideal solution to me as it diverts the responsibility for making the 4-pole jack socket work to somebody else (I'm getting too old to worry about this sort of stuff)!

 

I will investigate, see what can be done and maybe there will be a set of Gerber files for version 1.3 soon.