Autopatch - it's very cool

[v1rtu0s1ty]

hey IVB,

Thanks for the ideas you gave to me before about Autopatch. I bought one last week(Father's day) at ebay and got it for $40. :lol: woohoo! Autopatch told me that the module installed is just a standard video board. I also learned from them not to use the wideband videoboard for routing digital audio. They said, it will work but wb video board is at risk. The ideal board for routing digital audio is the standard video board. I'm lucky because I have it.

Finally, I had the strength and joy to test the box because I was down for almost 3 months. It was just yesterday that I got an offer from the house I'm selling.

So, I hooked up my simple singalong mic with video out to bnc port 1 on the input port, then hooked bnc output port 1 to the input one my tv. I turned on the mic and didn't get anything. I found out that the command I was using to route video was incorrect. Glad I had an email from Autopatch which contains examples of commands to route video only, audio only, and both.

I execute CL1I1O1T
BAM!
Transfered both wires, bnc input port 2, bnc output port 8
CL1I2O8T
BAM!

This piece of device is amazing! And i tried different output ports and I can see all of them at the same time. It's sending the signal to all the ports I have configured previously. What I have to do now is save money for the 4x4 or 8x8 wb video board. Oh, here is one more tip. When adding wb video board, the standard video board should be moved to slot 4.

Again, thanks for the tips you gave to me before. I wrote this to the channel because I know that it can give interest to other people who are looking for distributing video solution. Here is a pic of 1ydm in action

 

[IVB]

$40? Dang.

You know, if you really want to be whiz-bang excited about it, you should download the 30 day free CQC trial that has the autopatch driver, get one of ellisr63's templates to control it, then you wouldn't have to worry about those commands. You could even make pretty little buttons using his/ripper's images :lol:

 

[ellisr63]

Interesting about the wideband not being good for HD and Digital audio... When I called and told them what I planned to use it for they told me it would work fine or that. I do know that one of the requirements for digital coax is 75Ohm and that is the same requirement for HDTV. I have had mine up and running since about November last year with no problems at all.
Ron

 

[v1rtu0s1ty]

Interesting about the wideband not being good for HD and Digital audio... When I called and told them what I planned to use it for they told me it would work fine or that. I do know that one of the requirements for digital coax is 75Ohm and that is the same requirement for HDTV. I have had mine up and running since about November last year with no problems at all.
Ron

The wb video board are really nice for HD. They told me though that wb video board, as much as possible, not to be used for routing digital audio. It will still work.

 

[v1rtu0s1ty]

$40? Dang.

You know, if you really want to be whiz-bang excited about it, you should download the 30 day free CQC trial that has the autopatch driver, get one of ellisr63's templates to control it, then you wouldn't have to worry about those commands. You could even make pretty little buttons using his/ripper's images

I'll try it one of this days! :lol:

 

[elcano]

What is Autopatch? Actually, I know other type of Autopatch:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autopatch

 

[IVB]

It's a highly configurable matrix switcher that's RS232 controllable and can patch any of (n, based on # of boards) input sources to output sources.

As CQC has a driver for this, many folks are using it to do HD component & either analog or digital audio distribution in their house. That way you can have a single component video renderer [ie HTPC], and patch the results to any HDTV in your house, if you've got the right cables run.

Plus, as CQC has a solid front-end graphics designer as well as a solid back-end engine, you can accomplish this task through an attractive front-end, rather than issuing the raw commands as above, or using yet another remote.

 

[ellisr63]

Interesting about the wideband not being good for HD and Digital audio... When I called and told them what I planned to use it for they told me it would work fine or that. I do know that one of the requirements for digital coax is 75Ohm and that is the same requirement for HDTV. I have had mine up and running since about November last year with no problems at all.
Ron

The wb video board are really nice for HD. They told me though that wb video board, as much as possible, not to be used for routing digital audio. It will still work.

I wonder why? A freind of mine is an Electronics tech and he thought it would work no problem.

 

[v1rtu0s1ty]

Interesting about the wideband not being good for HD and Digital audio... When I called and told them what I planned to use it for they told me it would work fine or that. I do know that one of the requirements for digital coax is 75Ohm and that is the same requirement for HDTV. I have had mine up and running since about November last year with no problems at all.
Ron

The wb video board are really nice for HD. They told me though that wb video board, as much as possible, not to be used for routing digital audio. It will still work.

I wonder why? A freind of mine is an Electronics tech and he thought it would work no problem.

I have no idea why Autopatch engineer told me about it. They just told me to use my standard 8x8 video board to route digital audio signal. But if I still want to use the wb video board for routing digital audio, they don't care, it's up to me. They said, it'll work but lessen the life of it.

Contact the autopatch support engineer and ask them about this. Try mentioning my name(Ronneil) too and tell him that I have been informed with this information. This way we can match the info I got and yours.

 

[ellisr63]

This is a tech friend of mine says about it..

After reviewing this subject it occurs to me that there may be an issue with what is known to EEs as S.O.A. (Safe Operating Area)

This refers to a devices ability to withstand one aspect of a particular operating environment, or another, but not both. In many cases a device designed to handle greater bandwidth of its intended signal may be more failure prone when used for a slightly more demanding application in terms of voltage/current applied and power dissipated as heat than a lower bandwidth counterpart. The internal junctions (for BJT devices) or gates (for FETs) are more delicate in a device marked for greater bandwidth. In this case some characteristic of a digital audio signal may push the boundaries a bit harder than intended by HD video. I do not know what it would be about a SPDIF signal that should be of concern but if the creators of the HD board found themselves in the corner of their box as it were, juggling between things as budget, critical-path timing to market and available devices at the time pushed to their limits to begin with then I could see their claim. Also it seems I should follow my own advice a bit more strictly on the subject of when the creator of a device says application (x) could damage it, believe it. If they had spent the money to prevent it they should be proud to announce the capability.



On the other hand I suppose the conspiracist types may conclude that this claim is only to keep their SPDIF product “specialâ€.

Choose your poison.