Anyone ever networked two MTP AV's? I need some help

[part12studios]

Hi everyone,

I have two MTP AV's. One is USB and the other is pre-usb (serial) unit. I've read they can be networked together, but i've had difficulty finding the right cable.

I believe i've found the right cable (appletalk crossover cable) but i'm just curious if there is anything that happens visuably on the AV units to know they are talking.

Does Freemidi recognize them as networked? is there a special thing i have to do in freemidi to get it to update and see the 2nd device?

As it is freemidi detects the USB AV.. but that's all it see. i'm not sure if it "just sees it" or if i must do something to initiate it?

Thanks in advance for any advise / insight on this. I'm running DP3 + Freemidi that came with it.

Thanks,
Caleb

[part12studios]

ok found the cable that works!

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Mini-Din-Minidi ... xykUZTjJdS

so yes you connect them / follow the instructions in the manual / then in freemidi (1.48) do a scan of devices.. the 1-8 devices you see in the configuration expands to become 1-16 as one unit.. not seen as two.

[dewdman42]

This is replying a few years later, but did this cable work for you? I notice that this cable is a "crossover" 8 pin cable and I want to make sure that is the right one for this application.

So is a male-to-male 8 pin crossover, the correct generic spec that matches the apple "localtalk printer cable" spec?

[part12studios]

Yes it should work. It did for me and still does

[dewdman42]

thanks a lot for following up on this old thread! I will definitely grab one for $8 and try it out then.

How did you figure out that you needed a crossover 8pin din cable?

[part12studios]

I would advise you to purchase two of them. Just in case they disappear off of eBay

[dewdman42]

Definitely not a bad idea, I also like that it’s only 3ft cable! But I’m really curious how you figured out that it needs to be a crossover cable?

[part12studios]

i found out when i used a normal cable and it didn't work.. digging around i realized there was a special cable that was included with the MTC.. somehow in my digging around i came across mention that it was a null cable (or maybe not null, i forget).. i tried making my own crossover but that didn't go well and thankfully the signals sent are not power level because i might have zorched one or both if there was.. made weird things happen.. anywho.. i kept digging, even bought a few promising cables that were not right and this one turned out to be the right kind.. i emailed the vendor to make sure.. and it worked.. when it did i bought a 2nd one.

[dewdman42]

Thanks a lot for that explanation. I will order a second one also.

[James Steele]

Hmmmm. That's interesting. I thought I used just a regular cable for mine... not a crossover. I must be mistaken.

[mikehalloran]

The Apple printer cable was a crossover. The modem cable was not as common but it was straight through—I rep’d a modem company for awhile and had to carry both.

You could buy switch boxes that allowed the printer cables to be used for modems. For Macs with modem ports, a printer cable was used.

[dewdman42]

Motu support basically told me to get an Apple LocalTalk printer cable, if I can find one. So that all makes sense now. The source on eBay above is a source that makes these crossover cables custom and claims on the ad that it’s needed for protocols and some other hardware out there. Apparently the MTP is also on that list. He has some in longer lengths as well.

So in summary for anyone down the road that is trying to accomplish this, the answer is either try to find a LocalTalk printer cable, preferably a genuine Apple one to be sure it’s actually what it says it is. An AppleTalk 8pin networking cable or modem cable, etc I guess would not work, you need the actual LocalTalk printer cable( which we now know to be crossover); or find a generic crossover 8pin din cable as described in the ad above.

[part12studios]

you got it

[Henry Robinett]

I used to network two all the time. Probably will again, although I don’t really need that many ports any more, I don’t think. One of the few devices that hasn’t gone quite so obsolete.


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