# What is this?: Patch panel two-for-one



## SteveB (Jan 10, 2011)

And how is it used? 

I built it so know the answer, so really a question more for the younger members.



IMAG0110.jpg | Flickr - Photo Sharing!


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## firewater88 (Jan 10, 2011)

SteveB said:


> And how is it used?
> 
> I built it so know the answer, so really a question more for the younger members.
> 
> IMAG0110.jpg | Flickr - Photo Sharing!


 
About 8-10 years ago I probably could have used one of those! Then we upgraded and never looked back! Only memories left....


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## derekleffew (Jan 10, 2011)

I've never had the need, nor seen one before. A properly designed <thing that it is to be used with> should never require such a contraption.


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## LXPlot (Jan 10, 2011)

Umm...it looks like a really ghetto voltage tester...maybe a home made soldering iron? Regardless, those two are my guesses.


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## rochem (Jan 10, 2011)

My guess would be a pin-patch twofer type thing? More specifically, a nicely labeled 20A pin-patch twofer type thing.


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## DuckJordan (Jan 10, 2011)

What ever it is, it looks way to dangerous to let anyone without proper knowledge to use.

I want to say its a hot pin twofer for either stage pin or old stage plug connectors.


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## gafftapegreenia (Jan 10, 2011)

I'd say its a spaghetti patch board two-fer.


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## SteveB (Jan 10, 2011)

Derek

Let me know when I should provide the answer.


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## derekleffew (Jan 10, 2011)

SteveB said:


> Let me know when I should provide the answer.


As soon as the foaming subsides but before the milk solids begin to burn. No wait, that's butter. 

Answer whenever you want: either once the correct answer is given, after one week, never, or anything in between.


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## metti (Jan 11, 2011)

I'm going to guess some sort of patch panel two-fer. I hope I never run into one though.


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## SteveB (Jan 11, 2011)

SteveB said:


> Derek
> 
> Let me know when I should provide the answer.



End of today then


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## JohnHartman (Jan 11, 2011)

What is it?

scary!


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## mstaylor (Jan 11, 2011)

I know what it is, I'm not sure why. Make sure you explain the application that caused you to build it.


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## nd925a (Jan 11, 2011)

It looks like some sort of splitter, but I've never seen a connector like that before


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## STEVETERRY (Jan 11, 2011)

SteveB said:


> And how is it used?
> 
> I built it so know the answer, so really a question more for the younger members.
> 
> IMAG0110.jpg | Flickr - Photo Sharing!


 
It seems to be missing the UL label. 

ST


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## Dionysus (Jan 11, 2011)

The highschool I went to STILL has its original lighting system in one of the gym/auditorium spaces (actually the big one) with it's spaghetti patch system and all. I used to have photos of it, but not anymore since my external harddrive was stolen.
It's still used, if only occasionally. One of the ten dimmers nolonger works however.

Yes this looks like a patchbay twofer (already suggested), which in a properly setup system would not be needed in general.


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## SteveB (Jan 11, 2011)

Well, many have guessed correctly, so I'll answer now.

Yes it's a patch panel two-fer.

Is it UL Listed ?. Ummm..... Yeah,.....the labels...... on the other side, somewhere.....

Seriously, I have no idea if it's code compliant or not. I built 3 of these things to deal with poorly designed patch panels. When I started at BC in '81, I had 3 such patch panels with the 3rd and final unit just this month being taken out of service as the theater starts renovation, thus am now, or will be a complete Dimmer-Per-Circuit facility. 

I have to say that these things came in very handy when you only had 4 patch receptacles for a 7200w dimmer, with a need to patch more then 5 circuits, yet were still below the capacity of the dimmer. They saved the ass of many a design student, as well as visiting LD's whom struggled with the concept of Channel - Dimmer - CIRCUIT. 

They were also used when you wanted to patch all the circuits to a dimmer that had a re-patch - I.E. an "A" patch for Act I and a "B" patch for Act II, as example. You could patch all the circuits, avoiding errors and then label the breakers. 

In truth, they didn't get a whole lot of use, but when they were needed they were very useful.


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## derekleffew (Jan 11, 2011)

SteveB said:


> ...I have to say that these things came in very handy when you only had 4 patch receptacles for a 7200w dimmer, with a need to patch more then 5 circuits, yet were still below the capacity of the dimmer. ...


Only four holes on a 7.2kW dimmer? Yeah, that's bad. Kliegl's standard, IIRC, was four holes for a 3kW, and six holes for a 7kW.

Interesting that yours is labeled "20amps MAX." as it looks like a 50A plug. I always thought it was excessive that, if there were any 50A circuits (and most systems had only a few), ALL plugs and jacks had to be 50A.


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## Footer (Jan 11, 2011)

derekleffew said:


> Only four holes on a 7.2kW dimmer? Yeah, that's bad. Kliegl's standard, IIRC, was four holes for a 3kW, and six holes for a 7kW.
> 
> Interesting that yours is labeled "20amps MAX." as it looks like a 50A plug. I always thought it was excessive that, if there were any 50A circuits (and most systems had only a few), ALL plugs and jacks had to be 50A.


 
Mrs. Footer's space still has the old telephone patch in working order. Her 6ks have 4 plugs and 12ks have 8. I have thought about building one of these once or twice but have no clue how to land my hands on the parts. They would be useful especially when we have to build complete systems out of specials/spares. I have also seen the same thing built for ETC pin patches.


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## mstaylor (Jan 11, 2011)

I have an old Kliegl system with the phone patch system in one of the buildings I work in. I could see setting up a second patch using these to make it quicker with less mistakes. I wish I had thought of it when I was doing repatches at the local college. When I started doing shows there one theatre had the phone paych system, the other had an autotransformer.


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## dramatech (Jan 11, 2011)

On the Ariel Davis system that I used in high school, (1957-1959) we had a very interesting patch panel that had chassis mounted male and female connectors, that were a single pin or socket about 3/8" in diameter. To patch you would use a cable that had a male connector that also had a female connector on the back of the male connector. It had a cord coming out the side of this multigender connector, and at the end of that cord was a female connector. The dimmer outputs were the chassis female connector and the load circuits were the male chassis connectors. You would plug the cable into the dimmer output and run the cable to the load circuit. Then you could piggy back as many cords as you like on the back of each other, running each cable to a circuit. But then again, the lighting instruments were plugged into "Stagejacks" the predecessor of the stage pin. Also we had plano-convex fixtures instead of Fresnel. OK, old timers, I am waiting for I remember older systems than that.

Tom Johnson


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## STEVETERRY (Jan 13, 2011)

dramatech said:


> On the Ariel Davis system that I used in high school, (1957-1959) we had a very interesting patch panel that had chassis mounted male and female connectors, that were a single pin or socket about 3/8" in diameter.
> Tom Johnson


 
I'm so glad there is someone older than me on CB. 

ST


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## sk8rsdad (Jan 13, 2011)

A venue I worked in used to have an Ariel-Davis slider patch panel. It sure made it easy to two-fer. Too easy. It could result in major dimmer overloads as the slider passed through an active circuit on it's way to a new patch.


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## MPowers (Mar 1, 2011)

My first "patch Panel" was the jumper cable size alligator clips on the portable salt water dimmer system that I ran for my mother's March of Dimes presentations for Polio circa '54 - '55. The "dimmers" were 1 quart, long neck, milk bottles in a wooden case 'kinda like a one sided beer or pop 6-pack. The Web/handle on one side became the "back" of the unit. The web had vertical slots in line with each bottle. A wood peg with a bolt and a captive spring slid up and down in the slot. The end of the bolt had a bare copper wire that could be dipped in and out of the bottle. Each bottle had a small copper plate at the bottom and an insulated wire connecting it to the power. The closer the wire to the plate, the brighter the light. The Alligator clips went to the lights and I don't remember how the circuit was connected back to ground or neutral. I was very young then and did not know the terms hot - neutral - ground etc, just plug it in here and put the clips here and move the sliders. Different world then. Can you imagine a mother today letting her kid run bare wire electrical stuff? Back then, nobody thought a thing about it. Course then we didn't have child seats, seat belts, bike or cycle helmets, fall protection or outriggers on Geni lifts. Different World.


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## Morydd (Mar 2, 2011)

Here's the one at the Athenaeum theater in Chicago. It's still in use.


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## NickVon (Mar 16, 2011)

Morydd said:


> Here's the one at the Athenaeum theater in Chicago. It's still in use.


 
Late coming to this thread, my old college theatre had a patch panel like that. Recognized teh plug and device you built right away


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## DMXpro (Mar 25, 2012)

Late to the thread, I know...
Anyways, I know of these "telephone" type dimmer patch plugs, but never really understood how they work. It looks like the plug has a brass tip, but shouldn't it have two connections for hot and neutral, almost like a 1/4'' mono audio plug? (aka "guitar plug")


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## derekleffew (Mar 25, 2012)

DMXpro said:


> ...It looks like the plug has a brass tip, but shouldn't it have two connections for hot and neutral, almost like a 1/4'' mono audio plug? (aka "guitar plug")


The plug only patches the "Hot" wire. All the neutrals are already tied together, whether used or not, so they're already patched where they're supposed to be.


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## JD (Apr 27, 2012)

Morydd said:


> Here's the one at the Athenaeum theater in Chicago. It's still in use.



I love the toasted area at the lower left! A reminder that patching is only to be done when the dimmers are down. Almost every patch bay I've seen had a few "user scars" on it  Somewhere in my back shed lies an old patch bay. As for the 20 amp limitation, many of those old connectors could only fit a number 12.


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