All bare connections in the control panel are soldered up, all screws tightened and all M/F joints are squeezed. Also replaced the sketchy home-made ATO fuse holder with a $3 automotive unit for peace of mind. The unit is sealed with screws, and lifted & shaken before the overall circuitry is tested. Test consists of continuity / LEDs lighting up when circuits closed (and off when open) on all four cues over all five sets, and 'ignite' (current spike) for all twenty combinations as well. Additionally, the charging circuit is tested, but not before adding a diode facing toward the battery (so current can NEVER flow to the speaker terminals on the panel). Everything bench-tests positively.
A plank of 1 x 8 is cut to about 14". Using a jigsaw, a hole is cut to allow an old dual CAT5 receptacle to be flush mounted.
The jx box is attached to the reverse side of the plank. 2 holes are drilled through the back of the box to line up with the receptacle. 12" pieces of RJ45 cable are pulled through and stripped to 3", inside the dual CAT5 receptacle. Each of the 16 individual wires are punched into their proper locations.
A mild annoyance with the project is that it would have been much easier if it were a 4x4 (16 cue) system; there are four pairs of wire in RJ45, and it seems most of my available accessories are tailored to it. Alas 16 cues is too few.
The four coloured pairs are connected to one side of a four-post electrical strip connector. The strip is then bolted to the jx box. These connections will be negative ground (set) wires, each individually returning power from whatever slat is selected in the five-position panel switch. They are labelled according to their set position. The CAT5 female receptacles do not need labeling since the positive power is supplied in four pairs controlled by the ignite switches - doesn't matter where they are plugged in. That said, it is critical the negative return wires are connected to the correct strip post!
The jx box is completely wired up and ready to close. Note the hole drilled beside the strip connector - Must make room for the fifth set's negative return wire, that will be run to the control unit (since there are only four pairs in RJ45).
Two additional planks are nailed in to the double sided junction, shown here in a field check. Cosmetics / finishing will occur shortly now that testing was positive. The plan is to cover it with another piece of wood to protect if from ground zero fallout and (God forbid) light rain.
Some stenciling is added on key areas of the panel. All that could be obtained within my budget (already blown, but $2) and timeline was the old Microsoft standby Times New Roman, in too large a font size. Other choices were "Princess" and something resembling the dreaded Comic Sans.
The on/off switch is already labeled, and the key switch seems obvious. Not sure much more can be applied without it looking too cluttered, so it is likely done.
Not much left on this project until the speaker terminals are received. After that it will need a full field test of all twenty cues, so I'm totally confident using this thing in the big show. Until then, the coming days will see some attention paid to securing items to racks. The goal is to be done everything except visco connection and ignition system wire-up by Canada Day, a mere 10 days.
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