MACKIE HDR24/96 - Manual (Page 212)

HDR 24/96
Connector Pin-out
We strongly recommend that you purchase a pre-made AES/EBU snake for your PDI-8 card.
Suggested sources are listed in the Operation Guide. If you want to roll your own, be aware that
digital signal transmission, because of the high frequencies involved (up to about 15 MHz when
operating at 96 kHz sample rate) behaves more like radio signals than audio signals. Using cable
with the proper 110 ohm characteristic impedance (a function of its physical construction), is
important to minimize clock jitter. Use cable that’s designed specifically for AES/EBU data
transmission. Belden 1800A is a good quality cable which is small enough so that you can fit
eight pieces of it in the connector shell. Belden 1805A is an 8-pair version of that cable for
building your own snakes.
The pin-out of the connector on the PDI-8 is substantially different than that of the AIO-8. An
analog XLR snake won’t work, even with turn-around adapters on half of the XLR connectors.
In fact, the wiring is such that if you inadvertently plug the D-sub end of an analog snake into the
PDI-8, you won’t feed the digital signal into your analog inputs, which could cause some damage.
Since the PDI-8 has both inputs and outputs on the same connector, the outboard end will have
four male and four female XLRs. That’s a quick way to identify the correct type of cable.
Pin Signal Pin Signal
1 Ch 1-2 In Hot 14 Ch 1-2 In Cold
2 Ch 3-4 In Hot 15 Ch 3-4 In Cold
3 Ch 5-6 In Hot 16 Ch 5-6 In Cold
4 Ch 7-8 In Hot 17 Ch 7-8 In Cold
5 Ch 1-2 Out Hot 18 Ch 1-2 Out Cold
6 Ch 3-4 Out Hot 19 Ch 3-4 Out Cold
7 Ch 5-6 Out Hot 20 Ch 5-6 Out Cold
8 Ch 7-8 Out Hot 21 Ch 7-8 Out Cold
9 NC 22 Ground
10 Ground 23 NC
11 NC 24 Ground
12 Ground 25 Ground
13 NC
DIO-8 Combination ADAT Lightpipe and TDIF Digital I/O
The DIO-8 is a dual port 8-channel interface, providing both ADAT and TDIF inputs and outputs.
Input and output format is selectable from the Setup Digital I/O menu, and they need not be the same,
but all eight inputs or outputs must be the same format. There is also a format converter mode, for
digital copying between an ADAT and a DTRS recorder.
This is a legacy card. It was introduced as the original digital I/O card for the Mackie d8b console
back in the day when digital interfacing was still fairly new, as were affordable modular digital
multitrack recorders. Because it was designed to be compatible with the original ADAT recorder,
providing the same polarity on tape when feeding an ADAT from a d8b analog input as would be
recorded when feeding the ADAT’ directly from an analog source, it can be a bit quirky to use with
today’s systems. We suggest that you reserve this card for legacy applications and, when planning a
new system, plan it around the ADAT Lightpipe digital interface and use OPT-8 cards instead.
Mackie has no plans to further update the DIO-8.
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