Mister Mac | Black Science Industries» Weblog

DIY: Custom Cue Stick

Scotty Mac — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 17:54:53 +0000

DIY: Custom Cue Sticks

AKA: “Stick”, “Monophone”, “Lollipop”, etc.

My old cue stick was worn out, so I just got done making a couple of new ones. Thought some of you who use this type of conversion might dig the final results.

Cup: Sony MDR-V700

Driver: 50mm, 5,000mW, 24Ohm

Grip: 180mm long x 24mm diameter O.D. steel with 22.5º bend, MDCC foam

Switch: Switchcraft 3-position

Socket: Switchcraft XLR

Jacks: Neutrik 90º XLR and 90º TRS

Cable: Canare Star Quad 21AWG

LED: 5mm SuperBright

Resistors: 24Ohm x 2

Parts

Cup: Sony MDR-V700 or whatever make/model you desire. The MDR-V700 is one of the best headphones for this type of modification because it is a uni-directional design.

Grip: .875″-1″ diameter steel or aluminum pipe cut to whatever length you desire. If you want a curve you will need to have the pipe properly bent to whatever angle(s) you desire.

Grip Covering: Medium-density closed-cell foam cut approximately .5″ longer than whatever total length the pipe is and in whatever color you desire. For a professional cosmetic touch you may wish to have the ends of the foam re-shaped with a nice rounded contour along outside edge.

Micro-switch: Switchcraft 56313L2. NOTE: A switch isn’t required, but I added one so I can toggle between left, right, and left+right modes. This is so I can verify both left and right channels independently when setting up at a gig in case the venue’s mixer doesn’t happen to have a balance control or separate left/right level indicators.

Male XLR Socket: Switchcraft B3M (nickel finish), or B3MB (black finish)

Female XLR Plug: Neutrik NC3FXX (nickel finish), or NC3FXX-B (black finish), or NC3FRX (90º nickel finish), or NC3FRX-B (90º black finish)

Male .25″ 3-pole TRS Plug: Neutrik NP3X (nickel finish), or NP3X-B (black finish), or NP3RX (90º nickel finish), or NP3RX-B (90º black finish)

Cable: Canare Star Quad Microphone 21AWG cut to whatever length you desire and in whatever color you desire (black, white, grey, red, blue, orange, green, yellow, purple, or brown)

LED: 5mm SuperBright with mounting bezel in whatever color you desire (white, blue, green, aqua, red, yellow, orange, or violet). NOTE: A LED isn’t required, but I added one so I can have a quick visual reference that both left and right channels are being fed into headphone.

Resistors: 24Ohm, .5W (X2). This specification is for the MDR-V700. If you choose another headphone you will need to verify the impedance and wattage of that particular driver and use the appropriate resistors.

Construction

Carefully disassemble standard headphone (or in the case of the MDR-V700 it will most likely conveniently already be disassembled for you – lol). Carefully cut factory leads as long as possible and detach the earcups from the headband.

If you are going to add the optional LED then mount it to the back opening the cup and drilling .25″ hole where you want it on the back of the cup and securing it with the snap-in mounting bezel. Carefully solder the LED’s +lead to the driver’s +terminal and the -lead to the -terminal. Be sure to insulate both leads from each other and any other conductive areas inside cup.

Extend the two leads about 3″ longer than the total length of the pipe grip by carefully soldering extensions. Be sure to apply heat shrink at solder joints and wrap leads in protective casing such as TechFlex.

Depending on make/model of headphone, you will need to fabricate a mounting method for securing the cup’s bracket to the pipe. How to do this should become apparent once you have the two pieces in front of you, but with the MDR-V700 I simply used a drill press to bore a hole directly through the center of pipe where it aligns with the cup bracket when inserted and attached it with a flush mounted machine bolt/nut.

Feed leads down through center of pipe so they exit at bottom.

Sum the +left and +right leads by connecting and soldering them together with the two resistors at one end only.

Connect the ground lead to the XLR socket’s pin #1.

Connect the +left lead to the XLR socket’s pin #2.

Connect the +right lead to the XLR socket’s pin #3.

At this point test everything by using multimeter and a test audio source. If all checks good, move on.

Be sure to apply heat shrink at all solder joints and wrap leads in protective casing such as TechFlex.

Slide excess length of leads up into pipe and mount XLR socket to end of pipe by drilling a hole in the center of pipe where it meets the center of socket case and secure with a flush mounted set screw.

Apply a few drops of dishwashing liquid to outside of pipe and cover entire surface by smearing it around. Quickly apply small amount of water to inside of foam grip carefully slide all the way onto pipe until bottom end meets flush along edge of XLR socket’s mounting flange. Wipe off excess dish washing liquid and water and let air dry.

Make the connecting cable by soldering and attaching the chosen XLR and TRS plugs to desired length of microphone cable.

Plug in and Go to Work

DIY: Custom Console

Scotty Mac — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 05:03:36 +0000

DIY: Custom Console

Organized Workstation And Storage Solution For Home/Studio

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DIY: Custom Flight Cases

Scotty Mac — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 05:01:36 +0000

DIY: Custom Flight Cases

Simple Modifications For Simple Setup/Teardown

Hey all – I’ve received a number of inquiries about the modification I did to my turntable flight cases, so here’s a thread outlining what was done.

It was a real simple mod that has many advantages:
• Cables aren’t wound up and kinked inside case were they can be damaged due to stress
• Power plug and RCA connectors aren’t inside cases where they can move around and scratch TT’s finish during transport
• External cables can be quickly swapped out in case one got damaged
• Since factory cables no longer drape over edge of case, lids can be quickly clamped on/off at a gig should area be needed during another DJs set (ie: CD decks)
• All cable lengths minimized
• Ground cables eliminated
• Decreased setup time
• Improved aesthetics

Before I did this mod, I upgraded the factory Technics RCA cables to high-grade cables, shortened length, and used high-grade female terminations instead of male. I chose female so that if I ever found myself in a situation where I had to use the TTs out of their cases or if the custom external cables couldn’t be used, I would be able to simply plug on a set of standard RCA cables any length needed and run to a mixer. I also eliminated the pesky external ground wires by grounding them inside the TTs.

Power receptacle: Switchcraft EAC309
XLR receptacle: Switchcraft C3M

Inside the case, underneath the TTs, the power and XLR receptacles are each wired with short pigtails that plug into the TTs’ cables via appropriate M/F terminations. This way TTs can quickly and easily be unplugged and removed from cases if ever required.

Lastly, I made a set of custom XLR to RCA cables that are just the right length for plugging into either my mixer or DVS interface.

Hope this helps for all who may be interested.

Turntable Clamps

Scotty Mac — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 04:42:42 +0000

Turntable Clamps

Weighted Stabilizers For Reduced Vibration, Increased Sonic Performance And Cupped Vinyl

Denon DNH-HC1000S

Scotty Mac — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 03:51:38 +0000

Denon DNH-HC1000S

Dedicated Serato ScratchLive MIDI Subcontroller

AIAIAI TMA-1

Scotty Mac — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 21:08:49 +0000

AIAIAI TMA-1

Stereo Headphones

Ikea Expedit

Scotty Mac — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 18:22:33 +0000

Ikea Expedit

Low-Cost Vinyl Storage Solution

The Crane Stand

Scotty Mac — Mon, 30 Apr 2007 22:05:00 +0000

The Crane Stand

Articulating Laptop/Controller Stand

RIP: Technics Turntables

Scotty Mac — Thu, 20 Jan 2005 15:40:38 +0000

Mister Mac | Black Science Industries» Weblog

DIY: Custom Cue Stick

DIY: Custom Cue Sticks

AKA: “Stick”, “Monophone”, “Lollipop”, etc.

Parts

Construction

Plug in and Go to Work

DIY: Custom Console

DIY: Custom Console

Organized Workstation And Storage Solution For Home/Studio

DIY: Custom Flight Cases

DIY: Custom Flight Cases

Simple Modifications For Simple Setup/Teardown

Turntable Clamps

Turntable Clamps

Weighted Stabilizers For Reduced Vibration, Increased Sonic Performance And Cupped Vinyl

Denon DNH-HC1000S

Denon DNH-HC1000S

Dedicated Serato ScratchLive MIDI Subcontroller

AIAIAI TMA-1

AIAIAI TMA-1

Stereo Headphones

Ikea Expedit

Ikea Expedit

Low-Cost Vinyl Storage Solution

The Crane Stand

The Crane Stand

Articulating Laptop/Controller Stand

RIP: Technics Turntables

RIP: Technics Turntables

End Of An Era: 1972-2010