{"id":2508,"date":"2024-11-29T12:31:29","date_gmt":"2024-11-29T17:31:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/syner-g.no-ip.biz\/mymusic\/?p=2508"},"modified":"2026-03-29T20:05:06","modified_gmt":"2026-03-30T00:05:06","slug":"snake-extension-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/syner-g.no-ip.biz\/mymusic\/snake-extension-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Snake Extension #2"},"content":{"rendered":"

November 12, 2024<\/p>\n

A few months ago I made a small snake that allowed me to have 4 of the 16 channels from the Mackie mixer available to me much closer to where I was playing.\u00a0 While having 4 of the 16 inputs available to me at a location closer to where I was playing was truly a strong improvement, I noticed a couple of things that would improve things further.<\/p>\n

How about if I had ALL 16 INPUTS<\/strong> available to me for ultimate flexibility and control.\u00a0 Also how about if I changed the XLR inputs to COMBO-jacks, so that I would have both XLR and line inputs available for all 16 channels?<\/p>\n

Lofty specifications indeed, but it sounded like something that I could DIY, so I decided to implement the project.<\/p>\n

Step one:\u00a0 I’d need a bigger “box”, one that could hold 16 inputs, and I found that though wood was light and very cheap, a composite plastic would be much stronger and better suited, AND if it had a removable bottom, all the better to protect and access the internals.\u00a0 A quick stop at my local electronics parts store and this was easy to solve, as a matter of fact, measuring a perfect 8.5″ by 5″, I purchased two of them. Not too big to fit on a busy desk and not to small to fit 16 connectors!<\/p>\n

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The next step was making a template… the goal to spread out 16 inputs evenly:<\/p>\n

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Next was to punch out small dimples to see where the holes would go:<\/p>\n

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The holes have to be 1″ in size and I have a tool that will get me to at least 7\/8th of an inch for this job:<\/p>\n

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I picked up some NEUTRIK Combi-jacks for the task:<\/p>\n

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Next is to use the tool and drill me some holes in the top of the box and test fit all the combo connectors:<\/p>\n

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Sweet!\u00a0 Now it’s starting to look like something!<\/p>\n

Next I will need to purchase the right kind of screws, drill out the holes and secure the connectors to the head of the snake box… and THEN comes the hard part… extending all 16 channels with 4 strands of CAT-6e \u201cShielded Twisted Pair\u201d or STP cabling, wiring up all the combo-jacks and then connecting 16 extensions that connect to the back of the Mackie mixer.\u00a0 Not to be too ambitions, but don’t forget, channels 1-5 are used with the Neewer mic and 4-track cassette recorder, and since I don’t want to start pulling plugs or swapping cables, wire things up so that I don’t need to change anything to accommodate these channels because they are used on the other side of the room closest to the mixer (as opposed to where I want to place my snake end point, on the far side of the room, closer to the green screen) .<\/p>\n

I’m starting to understand why snakes are so freaking expensive, they are a LOT of work to do properly.\u00a0 <\/strong><\/em>Even The near $700 snakes were “just” basic XLR plugs and I found none that were COMBO-Jacks.\u00a0 I bet that if I had one custom-built to my specifications, it would be well in to the $1000-$1300 range!<\/p>\n

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But that’s not the best part… by me doing all the work, I will have the perfect sized custom snake for my exact needs… for<\/strong> well under $200<\/strong>!<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

In the last blog post about a snake, I mentioned the possibility of a 2nd box in a 2nd location, but I’ve made the decision to leave that 2nd box either out completely. \u00a0A long enough snake that can reach from my green screen area to near my desk area where I may need it while at my computer should be enough to handle all my needs.\u00a0 After all, I am only one person and can be in one place at a time, right?<\/p>\n

March 29, 2026<\/h2>\n

Everything comes in it’s own time.\u00a0 With the Mackie 1640i mixer it turned out I was perfectly happy with “Snake V1”, and just those 4 remote inputs were all that I needed.\u00a0 Well, this is now 2026 and I have a NEW toy coming (post on that will be coming soon!).\u00a0 This one can really take advantage of a remote 16-input COMBO-PLUG Snake, and so it is one more step closer to full completion:<\/p>\n

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Below here we have all the Neutcombo jacks aligned and screwed in:<\/p>\n

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Here we have the 4 strips of CAT-6e STP:<\/p>\n

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More to come as I advance on this project!<\/p>\n

Enjoy!<\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The story of a new and improved wired extension\/smake for my mixer.. … Continue readingSnake Extension #2<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_editorskit_title_hidden":false,"_editorskit_reading_time":0,"_editorskit_is_block_options_detached":false,"_editorskit_block_options_position":"{}","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2508","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-stories","category-technical"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/syner-g.no-ip.biz\/mymusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2508","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/syner-g.no-ip.biz\/mymusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/syner-g.no-ip.biz\/mymusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/syner-g.no-ip.biz\/mymusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/syner-g.no-ip.biz\/mymusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2508"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/syner-g.no-ip.biz\/mymusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2508\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/syner-g.no-ip.biz\/mymusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2508"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/syner-g.no-ip.biz\/mymusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2508"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/syner-g.no-ip.biz\/mymusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2508"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}