Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: SDDS DFP-3000 DB-25 breakout cables

This is topic SDDS DFP-3000 DB-25 breakout cables in forum Film Handlers' Forum at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

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Posted by Mike Blasko (Member # 3968) on 11-30-2011, 09:24 PM:

Hello -

I'm about ready to throw this thing out the window. After exhaustive searching, I compared the pin-out from the manual of a DFP-3000 to a what I think was the Tascam standard of DB-25 to XLR.

Sounds easy right ?

Order the cable (didn't meter it out), only the two surround channels work. Ugh.

Did amazon send me the "other standard," or do I need a custom cable for this ? I know the output is working, as I had a DB-25 to DB-25 cable connection to my old processor. Now, i'm using the 3000 for both analog and digital, so this isn't needed.

Thoughts ?

Mike

Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 12-01-2011, 12:54 AM:

You want this manual page 36.

It is the THX wiring pinout.

Assuming the Tascam pinout you speak of is
this...nope, it is not the same. You will probably need to build your own custom cable.

What is your intended purpose for the DFP-3000? There may be a better processor for your intended purpose. When they die, that's it! (That being said I'm looking for a few spares for my screening room for "that day" when mine dies.)

Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 12-01-2011, 05:35 AM:

Actually I have found that when a 3000 dies it is almost always capacitors. I have a place in Burbank that I send Sony boards to be recapped... they are not an audio repair shop, video in fact but they'll do it for 2 bucks a cap. Sony is uber famous in the broadcast world for their stinking crappy caps! We can only hope they used lots of these same caps in their D-Cinema projectors. Still I agree that unless it absolutely HAS TO BE FIXED it's best to just trash the thing and get something in that is servicable.

Posted by Mike Blasko (Member # 3968) on 12-01-2011, 11:52 AM:

Originally, I was using only the analog portion of the system for a red reader and feeding it straight DB-25 to a 2000, for which I had a digital reader for.

After finding some 3000 readers, I now have the unit all in one. I'm actually a huge fan of it. Perhaps as prices fall, a Dolby unit is better, but as it stands, I do like this system.

Everything works great, but since the 3000 doesn't have XLR outs, I'm in search of this cable. Everything from the headphone jack is working ok, i'll check the pin out again with this link Brad, thank you. There are some commercially available pinouts out there - maybe one lines up out there.

I actually meant the Yamaha pinout, which does seem to line up (surrounds are unbalanced ?):

http://www.switchcraft.com/productsummary.aspx?Parent=649

Maybe they just sent me the wrong cable ?

From automation systems, I have plenty of DB-25 to screw terminals, so that would work as well, but this seems much cleaner.

Curiously, what do other theaters do in this situation ? Make their own ?

Thank You,

Mike

Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 12-01-2011, 12:54 PM:

How about sharing the love, Mark?

Posted by Louis Bornwasser (Member # 3063) on 12-01-2011, 02:02 PM:

Mike; other theatres removed the SONY> Louis

Posted by Bill Duelly (Member # 3612) on 12-13-2011, 08:12 PM:

I ended up making my own for my screening room:

Took a DB25 cable, cut the end off, stripped all wires, identified them pin by pin and soldered RCA connectors on them (for a Yamaha 6 channel home stereo amp). PITA, but it works.

Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 12-13-2011, 11:07 PM:

quote: Brad Miller
How about sharing the love, Mark?

Yeah Mark, what he said.

Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 12-13-2011, 11:21 PM:

I have no idea why I looked in to this thread, but replacing capacitors can be done by anyone with soldering skill and knowledge of electronics (ie: capacitor values and orientation). Just buy a bunch of proper capacitors in bulk and you'll be spending maybe 5 cents on each. Replacing them isn't difficult. I replaced all of the capacitors on my 22-year old Sega Genesis last year for shits and giggles. If you only want to replace the bad capacitor, that will take a bit more knowledge than I have (though still, anyone familiar with electronics should have the tools to do this).

If a computer repair shop wants some extra business or someone is good at modding old game consoles, then likely you have a candidate.

Posted by Sean Weitzel (Member # 244) on 12-13-2011, 11:52 PM:

Many many electronic PC components throughout the late 90's into the 00's were plagued with bad capacitors because of what is known as the capacitor plague http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capacitor_plague and the Sony gear falls right into that time frame confirming Mark's observations.

While the concept of replacing radial or axial capacitors is trivial, some of these more modern electronics contain surface mount capacitors which require more skill and sometimes specialized equipment (like a hot air soldering station) to do it correctly. But again, as stated, the concept is simple. remove the suspect component and replace with a new component of the same value. For capacitor work I would recommend investing in a good ESR meter to test the component before blindly replacing it.

Back to the DFP-3000 I have heard simply hot plugging the reader to a powered processor will simply kill the processor dead. I don't know exactly what happens to the processor itself, but I suspect in that circumstance bad capacitors are not the issue.

Posted by Marin Zorica (Member # 1716) on 12-16-2011, 05:04 PM:

Sure hot plugging reader to powered processor can kill it.....there are two reasons, first unlike dolby readers, sony readers are way more complex and whole ccd scaning and data processing are done inside reader, in fact reader itself can do self aligment and itself can communicate with rs232 port which is buil inside reader, so reader and processor needs to be powered at same time, which is done by powering processor since reader is powered via processor 24V, and data adress between them needs to be inicialized by that, and worst thing is probably power surge if you would plug in reader to powered processor, since DC/DC converter on reader will suck more current and that can kill processor power supply or in case surge can do other demage, but in end......whyyyyyy there will be any need to hot plug reader?

last thing about cables, there are schematic of cables in manual section, which is same as cp650 or 750 DB25 pinouts, just take balanced wires and solder one side to DB25 and other to xlr, 6,3mm jack or else which will feed power amps.