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Post by rowmat on May 12, 2017 20:20:15 GMT -6
I have one of these. They're relatively cheap and a quick and easy method of checking cables on the fly especially after making/repairing cables or troubleshooting problems. I'm no longer surprised when a client turns up to record with faulty or miswired cables. "But it was working perfectly yesterday!" (Then I guess aliens mysteriously rewired pin 2 to ground overnight while you were sleeping!)  |
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Post by ragan on May 12, 2017 20:26:12 GMT -6
I have the little Behringer one. It's indispensable to me.
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Post by rowmat on May 12, 2017 20:44:43 GMT -6
I bought the cable tester after my studio partner purchased a new 20way XLR multicore from an eBay online store some years ago for use in the studio. He rarely used more than the first 10 inputs.
After I got involved I discovered that it not only had several channels phased reversed during manufacture but the insulation on the XLR conductors inside the backshells was stripped back up to 3/4 of an inch and had shorted out the phantom power in the console.
I removed all the XLR's and attempted to reterminated the wires only to discover the wire had oxidised (turned dull gray) and would not solder at all. Even stripping back the insulation a few inches still didn't reveal any non corroded conductors.
I also discover the contact sleeves of the female panel mount sockets at the stage box end had come loose and we're intermittent.
He admitted he bought this particular multicore because it was the cheapest he could find (about $200) and thought a Canare/Mogami/Neutrik multicore was too expensive.
Since then I have replaced the cable with a Gepco multicore and all the connectors with Neutriks.
The metal panel mount stagebox housing is the only original part left.
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Post by johneppstein on May 13, 2017 0:43:32 GMT -6
I have an Ebtech Swizz Army Knife. Indispensable. The "intermittents" indication is especially useful.
Also has a phantom indicator and a rudimentary signal generator.
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Post by drbill on May 13, 2017 0:52:24 GMT -6
I have the little Behringer one. It's indispensable to me. Agreed. I can't believe that I spent the better part of 25 years without one. What the $##@#$%$% was I thinking!!!!! |
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Post by aamicrophones on May 13, 2017 13:08:34 GMT -6
I have the little Behringer one. It's indispensable to me. Agreed. I can't believe that I spent the better part of 25 years without one. What the $##@#$%$% was I thinking!!!!! I also agree. I still have the one I built back in the 70's when no one was building them commercially. Its a very simple circuit, 3-switches, 3-LED's, 3-resistors, 2-XLR connectors, 2 1/4"-TRS connectors and a 9v battery. If you push one button and two LED's come on you have a short. If you push button 1 and LED 2 lights you have a phase problem. This one has gone to every live recording gig with me and is still working. I think its only on its 2nd or 3rd battery. I also built one with a 7 position Rotary switch and 7 LED's for testing our 7 pin microphone cables. It has 7 LED's that than line up with the rotary switch positions and go Red, Green, Red, Green, Red, Green and Red. So, its easy to see if they swapped a wire between one side of the 7 pin Neutriks to the other or if one wire is shorting to another. Its over in our new shipping, assembly and storage building as every tube microphone cable gets tested before it goes into the flight case. Cheers, Dave  |
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ericn
Temp
Balance Engineer
Posts: 16,107 
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Post by ericn on May 17, 2017 21:03:21 GMT -6
I have the little Behringer one. It's indispensable to me. Agreed. I can't believe that I spent the better part of 25 years without one. What the $##@#$%$% was I thinking!!!!! The Behringer and the Swiss Army are some of the few with TT/ Bantam! I buy Behringer's in bulk because they are well built by Behringer! Now I want a 25 pin Dsub cable tester! |
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Post by drbill on May 17, 2017 21:22:09 GMT -6
Agreed. I can't believe that I spent the better part of 25 years without one. What the $##@#$%$% was I thinking!!!!! The Behringer and the Swiss Army are some of the few with TT/ Bantam! I buy Behringer's in bulk because they are well built by Behringer! Now I want a 25 pin Dsub cable tester! That thing has saved me so much time - I go out TT, into patch bay, out Elco on Back, in Elco interconnect on one end, out interconnect on the other end, in on a different Elco quadrant of the bay and back to front patch of different TT - then back to tester. I can test 6 connections in one shot - 18 wire connections, in a couple of seconds and then move on. If there's a problem, it takes a bit more to track down because of the 6 connections, but the amount of time saved is unbelievable. I can test an entire TT bay, 2 24 pair Elco interconnects, and the rear elco's of the bay in about 10 minutes. Before it took hours. |
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