JamesB

What is the difference between this new device and the original but now discontinued PDR? Is this just a rebranding with the auto muted headphone jack?

This has happened to me as well. Pulling the battery was the only solution. A hard reset button would be nice

When using their cable, the color layout is also important as one of the conductors for the microphone is individually shielded. Pin 1 - Red - Headphone LEFT Pin 2 - White - Headphone RIGHT Pin 3 - Black - Headphone COMMON Pin 4 - Ground - Tied to Shield - Microphone Ground - Microphone (-) Pin 5 - Yellow - Individually Shielded - Microphone (+)

Is there any reason NOT to install a switch for this jumper? Or rather two switches, one for each side?

I haven't had any issues with mine so far. If you were worried I'd think you could add some foil tape to back of the cap before glueing it down.

Agreed... which is why I am bothered by a few brokers implying I am not 100% covered all the time. If there is a problem with a productions insurance, I would hate to be SOL. Exchanged some emails with a broker from Insuremyequipment.com and he asked me "Does the revenue generated by renting your equipment exceed 25% of the total revenue generated by your use of the equipment?" That really just bothers me as its a different question then is on the website.... and I would say that 100% of the money I generate by use of my equipment is by renting it to the company that hires me... If he is asking about total revenue I make personally.... I easy make as much in gear rental as I do in hourly wages.... Its strange to me the abstract explanations I am getting from different brokers when I assume this is the common type of insurance folks like us need. Also, its really only been an issue because ONE broker mentioned it, and then when I started asking other brokers its became a *possible* issue.

I am looking for a new policy. I got referred to a broker from a friend in the sound world. This broker is offering good rates.... Around $800 for $85k in scheduled insurance ($500 deductable)... or $1300 for the same scheduled list as a "rental company"($1000 deductible). He explained to me that my current policy and the cheaper policy he offered will not cover the gear while it is being rented to a production. He recommended getting the more expensive policy as it would cover it all the time. Most companies I work for are definitely gonna be covered, and I assume wouldn't give me a hard time making a claim, but it seems nice to be always covered. Are you guys covered by your own insurance while out on the job? I've looked at some other quotes to get unscheduled insurance, with a lower total, as I would doubt 100% loss. But its hard to tell if they would cover me while its being "rented to a production". Insuremyequipment.com specifically asks if "I verify that the policyholder I am applying for is NOT primarily in the business to lease and/or rent out equipment to the sole custody of others (i.e. similar to a Rental House). "Primarily" means majority or over 50% of the policyholder's business operations." Thoughts on this are appreciated.

A lot of times cables don't actually become undone at the solder point, but damaged at a flex point, where they come out of the XLR. This happens a lot less with a complete XLR as it has a lot of strain relief to protect it. The K-Tek low profile XLRs fail at the entry point, and I would imagine these DIY version would have the same issue. You can see here how I add the outer jacket from another cable to take some strain off the flex point. ----- For my DIY right angles, I use a hacksaw to cut my XLR so it limits the heat. I haven't had any deformation myself. ----- I love the idea of trimming down the solder points, I haven't ever done that, but I image it does make a lot more space to work with. ----- I make my own caps from epoxy, and colorant. A little goes a long way to achieve a solid color. Black colorant is fairly cheap, the brighter more fun colors cost quite a bit more.. but you can cheat and color the epoxy with acrylic paint. Sharpie will yield a translucent tint. bottle tops have the perfect mold for the caps. The flexible rubber lining inside the cap will not stick to cured epoxy, and happens to match the diameter of the XLR. I let the caps cure for a few hours until they pop off the bottle tops easy.... I don't want to fill in the entire connector with epoxy. I want it to be serviceable. I think its even more important to protect the serviceability of you connecters when making snakes. I use a toothpick to make a small drop of epoxy inside the housing to keep the plastic core from sliding inward... as well as a small amount to the cable jacket just inside the drilled hole to act as a strain relief. This is all small enough to allow it to be cut out and re-soldered once that becomes necessary. Then I glue on the cap with bead of epoxy around the perimeter of the opening on the XLR. The set time is fast enough with 5 minute epoxy that I can hold it down with my thumb while I clean up the cast-off with some acetone. Once you assemble the XLR you can put it to use within about 30 minutes with the 5 minute epoxy. This one here was to replace the XLR on the end of one of my boom poles

Yes... this is what I do with the K-Tek low profile.... along with adding the jacket from a larger cable to it. Helps a lot. Avoid CA glue as I see a lot of places use, as it makes the jacket completely brittle and fractures quickly. Shoe Goo is amazing stuff.

I have had these little guys fall apart as well. You need to line up the metal shell to the plastic nub.. and then that nub lines up with the red dot. It wont insert all the way unless you line it up, and unfortunately there is no guide track for insertion like you'd find on an XLR for example. I think a bit of threadlock is nice addition to the barrel to keep it from loosening

Marc- Nice video, thanks for posting this. I far prefer the built in sound report over taking notes in different app where I have to constantly enter all the data. It also frees you up to be able to provide the same reports whether or not you are on a cart, or in a bag. I have been using the iPad with camera kit and Dropbox for a while now. I use an applescript on my home computer, that watches a specific folder in DropBox for the Sound_Report.CSV file. In then formats the incoming CSV file in excel and then creates a job folder (if one does not exist) and puts the PDF right back into Dropbox. I can then email the report directly to production from any device. Dropbox has proven to be a really nice system for organizing sound reports for me, as I then have access to all my reports on all of my devices where ever I am. The beauty of doing it via the iPad (of course requiring jailbreak) is that Dropbox.app doesnt try to download any content, it just synchronizes a list of files. I have had the problem of doing this on my laptop at work, once I connect to wifi, my laptop wants to sync 500mb of files instead of just the CVS and PDF. Getting Excel to format the PDF can be complicated depending on what you want to display. I prefer only to show when track names change and to draw arrows much like movie slate does. That requires a ton of IF statements in a row. It was tedious to setup the spreadsheet and the applescript, but its a great system once its up.

The schematic I posted is unfortunately the the correct wiring diagram for a Sanken CUB-01 - I must have placed it in the wrong bag waiting to install. *facepalm* I will switch over to universal wiring for my COS-11s until I am exclusively using SM tx. I will head to another forum to discuss the d.i.y. removal of my foot from my mouth.

Thanks for the detailed explanation Larry, this is really helpful. Looking forward to discussing this at the shop. More so then doing me the favor of explaining it, this is helpful to the shop to stop them from selling it. James

Wow. Glad I asked. Thanks so much for your response Larry. I must say I am surprised, as this is not from a small shop... I'll have to talk with him about your knowledge on the subject. He gave me the feeling he built many wires like this. He was even bold enough to say he didn't know why everyone didn't just use it this way. Out of curiosity, what problems would you expect from wiring in this method. It sounded like the holy grail of mic wiring. I don't like the sound of universal on my SMs.

*(update - drawing is for the CUB-01)* In the search to wire up all of my COS-11 for both SM and UM Tx's I was given a schematic from a repair technician at my local shop. He called it a 2-Wire wiring, and said it would sound just as good and work on all my Tx's. He mentioned that it *might* reverse phase of the mic. Before I go ahead an experiment with it, and of course spend the time doing the soldering I wanted to get some feedback from some not so random people on the net. Basically his drawing is: SHIELD - (1) BLACK - (2) WHITE - 560 ohm Resistor - (3) 470pF Cap between (1) and (3) Drawing he gave me is attached.

For those of you interesting in watching any of the event. The video source used for the live stream is available here: http://player.vimeo.com/video/66978941 It was shot and mixed by student volunteers, so the quality isn't great.... Paul and I figured it was worth salvaging for those that could not attend.

I had not, thanks

Thanks Larry. I'll try to take you up on the offer. James

Thanks Larry- I appreciate your offer to help, but I am afraid I am not expecting to be able to part with them anytime soon! Anyway I can test that locally and report back to you? --- Battery Eliminator with a DCA in-line? Might be able to get Mike Paul and LSC to play with them on my day off. What do you expect them to pull? 575-625mA @ 100mW?

Yes Larry, I was running them until they completely shutoff. Any reason I should expect a longer run on a different block? I'd assume not... but cant explain why my 21s run longer then my 25s

Before I owned CUB-01 mics I would use COS-11... if they are being placed against a soft surface, adding a reflective surface behind the mic, like a credit card or other small plastic square can help with the high end response. You need to play with the space between the reflective surface and the mic, I found a small amount of space sounded better then taped directly to it. The CUB-01 is hemisphere cardiod... basically half of the cardiod pattern, which I find can be very helpful when doing automotive micing.

I will see if I can find a friend with one..... I was surprised that the my newer batteries perform as well as my old ones.... I guess thats rather good news for how well they hold up over the years. I've mainly been using them for my slate, so pretty light discharge rate, and I try to soft charge when I can. I have also used the conditioning charge twice since purchase. I have been told that the batteries perform best after a couple cycles. I wonder if you will see an improvement once you've used them a couple times. I will test mine on 250mw and see what I get, but I'd guess based on my prior tests that I will end up below the listed specs. My units are the backlit models, not sure if they dont perform as well...

Yea... I tried searching yielded zero results... I will try google. dmitri- You seem to be beating the listed specs with those batteries... wow. I have not done any tests at 250mw

What batteries did you use?

Lectrosonics user manual claims 4 hours with a 2500mA NiMH on an SMV and 8.5 hours on an SMQV. I did some testing with mine, as I would love to rely more on rechargeable cells. After a couple of cycles on some PowerEx "2700" I found that I couldn't reach those times. I have some two year old cells and some that are just a couple months old. They both get similar times. All of my units have silver compound on them.... for some reason my 21's got about 20 minutes further then my 25s SMV "2700" @ 100mw 3:22-3:41 - The SMQV with one battery would fall in the same range SMV "2000" (Duracell DX1500) @ 100mw 3:08-3:12 SMQV with 2x"2700" @ 100mw 7:10 SMV "2700" @ 50mw 3:38-3:56 Anyone had any success getting the times listed in the manual?