R/E/P Community

Please login or register.

Login with username, password and session length
Advanced search  

Pages: [1]   Go Down

Author Topic: zeta 3 mm1200  (Read 3184 times)

amorris

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 1029
zeta 3 mm1200
« on: January 06, 2009, 08:59:49 AM »

Hey guys, I am having a fine time trying to syncronize an ampexx mm1200 with a adams smith zeta 3. the mm1200 has a modified dsub connector that has the shorting pins and I can run the transport from this cable simply shorting the pins. but when I hook up the zeta via a cable, I dont get any action. here is the document I have been working from:

http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g184/amorrisfullsail/zeta1200.jpg

My question is, are which connections are required to get basic functions running. (Ill worry about sync after I get something to work) I assume the capstan connects, the play and stop lines and cmd ground.

Also does anyone know how the zeta functions specifically? Im assuming open collector where the mm1200 supplies the operating voltage to the zeta open collectors but Its been a long time since Ive dealt with syncing a tape machine. (I get +14volts as the inital mm1200 HI state on all the transport function pins, is this too much? the cable doesnt ask for a pull down resistor.)

I have the zeta remote and it runs the midi fine, master and slave enables work and I can run generator into master and it seems to be working. And I have the mm12000 constants loaded.

yours truly, "sync-less in Orlando".
Logged

Larrchild

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 3972
Re: zeta 3 mm1200
« Reply #1 on: January 06, 2009, 05:50:12 PM »

You should be able to see the pull-downs of the Zeta's optos working by using an ohmeter in diode check. Assuming manual manipulation with a jumper wire on those pins on the Zeta DB-25 end of cable produces results.
Also, try both master and slave ports loaded with MM 1200.
And make sure the serial port isn't mapped to that port instead.
Logged
Larry Janus
http://2ubes.net

amorris

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 1029
Re: zeta 3 mm1200
« Reply #2 on: January 08, 2009, 08:43:36 AM »

thanks Larr, it was the command ground over 1 pin.....using the cables far end to manipulate made it evident immediately.

Logged

amorris

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 1029
Re: zeta 3 mm1200
« Reply #3 on: January 18, 2009, 02:27:48 PM »

we have lock!...and it was good.

finally got back over there (client has been in and out of town for a while) and the map we were given also had a pin wrong.

we had a dead shcmidmt trigger output on the tach. we have a broken wire from ff to the outside world, seems to be just flown right off the remote ff and it makes it to the transport pwa, but thats it. had to run a wire to our sync interface.

so now we are locked and its great.

just thought Id let you know.
Logged

Larrchild

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 3972
Re: zeta 3 mm1200
« Reply #4 on: January 18, 2009, 07:37:09 PM »

Synchronicity!
Does it rough-locate by tach and park by SMPTE?
Logged
Larry Janus
http://2ubes.net

amorris

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 1029
Re: zeta 3 mm1200
« Reply #5 on: January 19, 2009, 08:43:57 AM »

absolutely! and when chasing again, its never more than 10 frames off by the time smpte reads again.

we had a question of how tight the lock is. the tach error signal out of the zeta seems pretty all-or-none. not much of a ramp up or down. with just a scope on it and not a freq counter, cant tell how precise its error correction is, but it jumps to "speed up" then right on pretty dramatically. stays locked quite solidly, and Im just wondering how precise it really is. I guess well know when we start doing the transfers.

any memories of how tight the resolve is?
Logged

ssltech

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 4780
Re: zeta 3 mm1200
« Reply #6 on: January 19, 2009, 11:21:46 AM »

LTC allows for
Logged
MDM (maxdimario) wrote on Fri, 16 November 2007 21:36

I have the feeling that I have more experience in my little finger than you do in your whole body about audio electronics..

amorris

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 1029
Re: zeta 3 mm1200
« Reply #7 on: January 19, 2009, 11:50:07 AM »

we are chasing it to the tc generator in the zeta. later to have the PT run via the midi portion of the zeta and have the ability to transfer from tape to the PT 8 tracks at a time.(client/buddy borrows an HD1 system at home and mixes on an HD3 system somewhere else)
Logged

amorris

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 1029
Re: zeta 3 mm1200
« Reply #8 on: January 19, 2009, 11:54:01 AM »

also, the 10 frame error was the most I saw during the dozen or so times we saw lock while I was there. It did many times start with no visible difference in tc, (its park would always say it was right on but I did see it correct a few times. hence the 10 frame admission.)
Logged

ssltech

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 4780
Re: zeta 3 mm1200
« Reply #9 on: January 19, 2009, 12:05:30 PM »

amorris wrote on Mon, 19 January 2009 11:50

we are chasing it to the tc generator in the zeta. later to have the PT run via the midi portion of the zeta and have the ability to transfer from tape to the PT 8 tracks at a time.(client/buddy borrows an HD1 system at home and mixes on an HD3 system somewhere else)


Transfer tracks 1-8 on pass one. Monitor tracks 1-8.

Transfer tracks 9-16 on pass two, but monitor the sum of previously-recorded tracks 1-8 AND the analog machine's tracks 1-8 ONLY. You should hear a non-cyclic flanging 'swish' which NEVER goes "deeper" than 1kHz in its 'center'.

Transfer tracks 17-23 on pass three, while monitoring the sum of previously-recorded tracks 1-16 AND the analog machine's tracks 9-16 ONLY. Again, the same approximate 'sweep' range should be noted, though it will be more confused if you monitor all 16 than if you monitor only 1-8 OR 9-16 (both analog and previously-recorded outputs summed).

After pass three, you should be able to go back and test all 23-tracks for clean transfer at will.

Keith
Logged
MDM (maxdimario) wrote on Fri, 16 November 2007 21:36

I have the feeling that I have more experience in my little finger than you do in your whole body about audio electronics..

Larrchild

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 3972
Re: zeta 3 mm1200
« Reply #10 on: January 20, 2009, 06:19:03 PM »

Of course, if you have stereo material on 8-9 or 16-17, dub them together.
Logged
Larry Janus
http://2ubes.net

ssltech

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 4780
Re: zeta 3 mm1200
« Reply #11 on: January 21, 2009, 10:03:42 AM »

Of course... Silly of me to not mention it, but NEVER split a stereo pair between passes. -Or any other set of phase-critical 'grouped' signals.

When I was at Town House studios in the early 1980's, one of the techs told me that they were recording the first 'ASIA' album there, and the backing tracks were 48-track from the get-go.

For some reason, the overheads ended up being recorded on the slave machine, and the rest of the kit on the master...

...swish-swish-swish-swish...

Keith
Logged
MDM (maxdimario) wrote on Fri, 16 November 2007 21:36

I have the feeling that I have more experience in my little finger than you do in your whole body about audio electronics..

amorris

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 1029
Re: zeta 3 mm1200
« Reply #12 on: January 21, 2009, 02:15:24 PM »

Yes, I cant tell you how many times before I left I explained this. I kinda anoyed him with it....

also, (and this is what Ive been waiting for), I said to him to listen and try to notice how much more consistent and solid all of his recordings will be, and the next day he said he noticed a track that was off! (from before lock) I said "thats it!!!" He said it felt like he was sitting down to a nice meal everytime rather than standing over the sink eating!(he has the zeta remote, before which he had to locate by ear/counter!)

we are in need of a "Viking" 24 pin circular connector:
page 4, 24 contacts
http://www.vikingconnectors.com/images/thorkomcatalog.pdf

If anyone has one sitting around, they want a minimum of 25 peice order ($5x25). not gonna happen. its a very flimsy part that had several pins broken, Ive repaired brutally and need to "tidy-up". We'd pay for it.
Logged
Pages: [1]   Go Up
 

Site Hosted By Ashdown Technologies, Inc.

Page created in 0.026 seconds with 14 queries.