Rules and Guidelines
Want to participate in the discussions? Please read our Community Rules and Guidelines. Need some help? Visit Support and Answers.

  • State Suggested Answer
  • Locked Locked
  • Replies 28 replies
  • Helpful Answers 1 Helpful answer
  • Subscribers 40 subscribers
  • Views 3995 views
  • Users 0 members are here
Options
You may also be interested in
This discussion has been locked.
You can no longer post new replies to this discussion. If you have a question you can start a new discussion

Unidentified device next to 13A sockets

Harry Macdonald

I have been investigating a church organ that suddenly stopped working. This was rebuilt about 20 years ago using a data cable between the keyboard and the pipe section.

I have found two 13A sockets unused which are live and, just above them, two more which are not. All the electronic equipment is plugged in into the two which are not. Between the two is a box with the device small device in it

Can anyone identify it and advise its purpose. I am thinking some sort of surge protection but cannot identify any similar photos on google of find any identifying marks.

I'll post a photo when I can find out how. Copy/paste, drag n drop and insert don't work. It seems to want a URL but my photos don't have URLs.

Harry

  • 0

    Ethernet uses 4 wires of 8 in a Cat5 (or whatever) cable

    Only for the older versions of Ethernet - from gigabit Ethernet (1000BASE-T) onwards (introduced circa 1999) all fours pairs (8 wires) are used.

       - Andy.

  • 0 in reply to AJJewsbury

    Thanks to all for your encouragement. Access needs a ladder 2 rungs longer than I have so I don't go there more often that I have to!

    To start at the beginning, the keyboard section is on wheels and the only cables to it are the 13A supply and an ethernet type cable. It stopped working suddenly but when I first investigated, I could hear the fan start when the keyboard was switched on so I deduced that there was some sort of signal going up the comms cable and that this was still working. 

    I am sure that it is a MIDI connection so it seems that there are spare cores that can be used for this.

    I have not found exactly where this MIDI cable is connected in the pipe section but what I have found is a huge (5ft square) panel on the wall with a box at the top. This box has the 13A power input plugged into the socket that seems to be fed through the SSR and also a 5V output to the SSR. Clearly that is not going to work so there must be something else going on.

    I will try to get back there in the next day or two.

  • 0 in reply to David Stone

    That should say Midi not Madi! Madi is multichannel digital audio, but the acronyms get a bit mixed up, there are now so many (hundreds).

  • 0 in reply to Harry Macdonald

    Harry, It will work just fine if the control for the SSR comes from the console, which is very likely. Andy, the chance that an organ console uses 1000baseT is minute, it needs a few kbytes / second! Also the other cores are probably used as I suggested above. Simplicity is the order of the day. Assuming I am correct, the most likely fault is a damaged network cable or connector, so a careful inspection will probably find the problem without difficult access. Remember KISS!

  • 0 in reply to David Stone

    Join the the society for the removal of acronyms. Have Acronyms Terminally Extracted. (H.A.T.E.).

  • 0 in reply to David Stone

    Note that MIDI (at least the 5 Pin DIN version) does provide a steady 5V out to operate opto- couplers and so on, though on newer models it  can be 3V. also seen on stereo jack plugs with the data and the power on the tip and the ring, and 0V on the body

    It would make sense if they had used the 5V out from the organist console to provide a start-up enable the mains to the rest of it to give a single point switch on.
    (MIDI pinout here)

    The 3-30V type SSRs take about 10mA on the input side and can be turned on by a 9V battery and series resistor to test the SSR function in isolation (or if you are lucky the multi- meter on the ohms range might put out enough voltage to act as a test source and fire the thing, but I'd not like to bank on that.)

    Mike

  • 0

    Quite possibly something to do with the church mouse.

  • 0 in reply to Chris Pearson

    Lol....The cleaner plugged them into another socket.....

Community Rules & Guidelines