Here's an update to a few questions. As always, safe harbor as this is unproven technology and no manufacturer warranty or guarantee implied. These items are not necessarily available for purchase (at least not through me) and all equipment has been customized for personal use only. Should this spur a community driven KCY PFA solution that is scalable, I won't complain. Jon should be able to take care of you on all of your KC5 needs and he gets all the credit! This is just my hack attempt to put a nice touch on an already amazing product.
can someone help me out with the pin assignments of my existing hacked kc5 cables. I need to give that info to Jon at Naiant so he can build me some pfa's. Thanks.
That's a TA4M, so it looks like it's:
1-Ground
2-Green (60v)
3-Brown (6v)
4-White (Signal)
Hopefully I didn't get that backwards. I wired mine a bit differently (to 4pin binders) to more closely match the 5pin vms layout:
1-Ground
2-White (Signal)
3-Brown(6v)
4-Green(60v)
For reference, the KCY pinout is:
1-Ground
2-White(L Signal)
3-Yellow(R Signal)
4-Brown(6v)
5-Green(60v)
according to Naiant the PFA's supply 42V polarization to the capsules...
Assuming I probably have no idea what I am actually doing, the KC polarization measurement I took was 39v. This drops due to the current draw of the FET in the MK connector and the active circuitry of the PFA.
do all kcy pfa's need a junction box? i think that i remember jon saying that due to cable size??..
More of less. Binder 711 connectors, used on the KCY cables, only support 3-5mm cables. Each cable connecting the XLR and the Binder must be 3-conductor + shield and while there might exist a cable with o.d. of 2.5mm and the necessary number of conductors, it's going to be tinsel thin.
The junction box is a really nice solution, but that part is not available in quantity. I do not know if it is custom made or a rebranded part, but it is extremely well made. It provides perfect strain relief when used with 4mm cables via ridges that compress the extremely durable, kevlar reinforced outer sleeve of the Colette and microphone cable. The entire box is shielded on the interior and there is a custom, removable pcb board that is pre-tinned. It's a really nice part to work with.
I'd like to think that there are other more cost effective junction box solutions that I am simply not aware of because there are all kinds of really good 3-4 conductor cables produces in larger diameters.
What is the cost to put one of these [KCY/Nbox PFA] together??
The million dollar question. It took me about 5 hours to make the first PFA (pictured), plotting carefully and working slowly, and I'm not really sure how to factor that in. The KCY PFA, which I built over the weekend and isn't pictured, took about 3 and was overall a cleaner build. It's probably a 45 minute job with practice and better skills and equipment than have.
As for the parts, I have got to think that there is a more cost efficient solution. Splitting two single channel cables into a single dual channel cable is not a new problem, yet I haven't really found any obviously available parts that do this job well. I am hoping someone can provide input on that.
