[Madskp]

Guy wrote:

I had done limited testing of DVD1 to BL1611 here: https://beoworld.dev.idslogic.net/forums/topic/beolab-3500-and-1611-converter-settings/page/8/#post-14333 But I was trying to select using DVD command rather than CD, but in order to do the latter (and get sound) I would have to move the audio pins from 3&5 to 1&4. Of course I could just test control without audio.

Test without audio could be fine just to see if it does anything at all.

Seems like it didn’t respond to the DVD commands in the test you linked to. interesting to see if it could react to CD commands

[Madskp]

Guy wrote:

DVD1: Note: Madskp has just reminded me that I tried the following back in Jan 2021 as reported here: https://archivedforum2.beoworld.ouronlineserver.com/forums/p/45162/326789.aspx#326789 I then tried connecting my DVD1 (with modified SCART to 7-pin DIN) to the AUX socket. Witht the MCL2AV in L.OPT 1.X, the DVD1 could be selected using AV DVD (or AV SHIFT SAT on BL1000) and full control was possible to skip through CD tracks. It did however need a long press on the remote Off button to ensure that the DVD player went to stand-by. (Note: SHIFT RADIO 4 did not open the AUX input or start the DVD1 – I hadn’t tried this before).

@Guy: Just a thought. When you tried testing with the DVD1 did you ever try if it would react to the CD command?

[Guy]

Madskp wrote:

@Guy: Just a thought. When you tried testing with the DVD1 did you ever try if it would react to the CD command?

I can’t remember, but if I did then I didn’t note the result anywhere!! ?

Of course it won’t work if the DVD1 is connected to my BC9500 or BC2300 because they both have a CD built in, but next time I have the MCL2AV equipment out I will try it connected to the CD socket and see what happens.

It could be that the DVD1 only responds to AAL commands rather than Datalink commands?

[Guy]

So I just did another test of my DVD1 connected to the BL1611 AAL socket. I left the audio pins at 3&5 (video source) and the SCART ‘data’ pin 8 to AAL pin 6. I used BL3500 as link speaker, in L.OPT 6.

As before, selecting DVD did nothing, although (once manually started) a long press of the power button still turned the DVD1 off as before.

I then tried all other video and audio sources (including CD), and including those that had to be added to Beo4 using LIST. Most had no effect.

However, selecting either V.TAPE (A.MEM) or DVD2* would start the DVD1 playing Track 1, but further control (numbers, arrows or STOP/PAUSE) was impossible. A long press of the power button was still required to turned the DVD1 off.

* DVD2 is the same IR command as V.TAPE2, and displayed as such in my BL3500 display. It can also be access using [SHIFT] [V.TAPE] on the BL1000.

So, I seem to have demonstrated limited direct use of AAL data, albeit not very useful!

I will do further DVD1 experiments with MCL2AV when I can extract it from the box pile.

[Madskp]

Guy wrote:

However, selecting either V.TAPE (A.MEM) or DVD2* would start the DVD1 playing Track 1, but further control (numbers, arrows or STOP/PAUSE) was impossible. A long press of the power button was still required to turned the DVD1 off.

Interesting that it would react to V.Tape commands, but not to DVD, but might be an anomily because it’s another link protocol than its made for.

Guy wrote:

So, I seem to have demonstrated limited direct use of AAL data, albeit not very useful!

Agree, no great usecase there for now

Guy wrote:

I will do further DVD1 experiments with MCL2AV when I can extract it from the box pile.

The dreaded mountain of boxes … 🙂 Looking forward to the testing though

 

[Madskp]

I just aquired a working Beogram 2000 with some cosmetic issues, but none of the less working.

So I had to try it with the 1611 -MCL2AV combo

Setup:

BL3500 -ML – 1611 – datalink – MCL2AV – datalink – BG2000 (connected to CD input)

Control og the BG2000 was fully possible from the BL3500 with the use of CD command.

only issue was that I had to turn the volume to max as I still need a RIAA amplifier.

[Anonymous]

When power is connected, the 1611 automatically configures to a video- or audio-master. Could you trick the 1611 into reconfiguring, then detach your BC2300 and connect the second source? Making or breaking connections while electricity is applied, however, is risky.

[Guy]

Madskp wrote:

Setup: BL3500 -ML – 1611 – datalink – MCL2AV – datalink – BG2000 (connected to CD input) Control og the BG2000 was fully possible from the BL3500 with the use of CD command.

Excellent – a very useful configuration! I am sure that I will be making use of this in the future with my BG6500 (which of course already has built in RIAA/pre-amp). Out of interest, could you also control it using PHONO (N.RADIO)?

Also looking forward to seeing this connected to the BLC to the NL world beyond!

[Madskp]

Guy wrote:

Out of interest, could you also control it using PHONO (N.RADIO)?

It didn’t react to that no, which I already expected.

I think i have an idea why. Looking at the diagrams for the Beomaster 5500 there are 2 datalink lines from the microcomputer TP1 and TP2. The one is for tape and CD, and the other is for Tape2 and Phono (CD2?). I think that it’s only the IR commands that differs, but internally there are only tape and CD (or phono) commands. The microcomputer then register the correct IR code and open the datalink for the correct DIN connector. As the MCL2AV has fewer DIN connecters than a Beomaster, it might just have a reduced version of the Microcomputer with only one set of tape and CD commands. Just my thoughts without further insight to it.

Guy wrote:

Also looking forward to seeing this connected to the BLC to the NL world beyond!

Me too. Just taking deep breaths and preparing for a gigantic cable and settings mess 🙂

[Madskp]

Lesteraction wrote:

When power is connected, the 1611 automatically configures to a video- or audio-master. Could you trick the 1611 into reconfiguring, then detach your BC2300 and connect the second source? Making or breaking connections while electricity is applied, however, is risky.

I think that is not a nessecary thing. At the start of the thread it was belived that the 1611 would have audio input on the DIN connectors pin 3 and 5 for both audio and video, but it turned out that the audio input is on pin 1 and 4 and the video (audio) input is on pin 3 and 5. Matadors drawing in this post shows how it is connected https://beoworld.dev.idslogic.net/forums/topic/beolab-3500-and-1611-converter-settings/page/4/#post-14017

I think that the 1611 will adapt to being an audio and/or videomaster depending on what it is conencted to. When no audio and video master is connected it will function as both

[Guy]

A further thought:

For datalink, we had discovered that Tape and CD use pin 7, whereas Phono uses pin 6, unless RIAA is built in (to the Beogram) in which case it uses pin 7 also. We had also thought that the MCL2AV circuit diagram was incorrectly showing datalink to Tape/CD pin 6 instead of 7.

From the service manual, your BG2000 uses pin 6 for datalink.

So does this mean that pins 6 and 7 are connected inside the MCL2AV, or has your BG2000 been modified?

[Madskp]

Guy wrote:

A further thought: For datalink, we had discovered that Tape and CD use pin 7, whereas Phono uses pin 6, unless RIAA is built in (to the Beogram) in which case it uses pin 7 also. We had also thought that the MCL2AV circuit diagram was incorrectly showing datalink to Tape/CD pin 6 instead of 7. From the service manual, your BG2000 uses pin 6 for datalink. So does this mean that pins 6 and 7 are connected inside the MCL2AV, or has your BG2000 been modified?

Sorry. I forgot to mention that pin 6 and 7 on the CD connector on the MCL2AV is connected with a little piece of wire by a former owner. Therefore I could just connect the Beogram 2000 even though it has datalink on pin 6

[Guy]

Madskp wrote:

Sorry. I forgot to mention that pin 6 and 7 on the CD connector on the MCL2AV is connected with a little piece of wire by a former owner. Therefore I could just connect the Beogram 2000 even though it has datalink on pin 6

Makes sense – thanks for the clarification.

[Madskp]

Madskp wrote:

I don’t have a BLC 1615 myself (yet), but will try if this is possible with the BLC 1611. Might not work the same way though as the BLC 1611 is not a link room product the same way as the 1615.

Just did a test with the BLC 1611, and that dit work.

The connection between the BLC 1611 AAL connector and the MCL2AV screw terminal is as follows:

BLC1611 pin 2 – > MCL2AV Brown GND R, Grey GND L, Shield GND

BLC1611 pin 1 – > MCl2AV Yellow L

BLC1611 pin 4 – > MCL2AV Green R

BLC 1611 pin 6 – > MCL2AV White Data

The MCL2AV set to option 1,5 for activating the PL connectors. I cannot comment on sound quality as I used a pair of headphones as PL speakers

As audiomaster on the ML side I used my Beoport with no IR eye connected to make sure that the IR signals was from the MCL2AV only.

Now it’s going to be exciting to see if it will also work with the BLC 1615 as that combination could make a ML link room with local datalink inputs

 

[Madskp]

Guy wrote:

Yes I suppose that both the BL1615’s AAL socket and the MCL2AV’s AUX/TV socket are expecting to communicate directly with a TV, hence cannot pass commands to each other. It’s a shame that the stand-alone BL1615 can’t be used to extract the audio from masterlink. Looking at the circuit diagram, there seems to be a couple of points where the ML ON/OFF could be by-passed, but I think that the TV would still need some sort of data command to turn its ML output on (even when the TV is already turned on).

A new thought regarding the use of the BLC 1615. In Guy’s test the connection was between the BL1615’s AAL socket and the MCL2AV’s AUX/TV socket, but as he noted this is not the way the communication is intended to be as for both sockets a TV is expected to be connected.

But then I came to think that a TV connected to a BLC 1615 can be compared to a link room speaker (which can only get audio and video sound from the A and V masters) which connect to Masterlink via the BLC1615.

The MCL2AV is seen from the MCL side also a link room speaker (although not with integrated speakers) with the same limitations in regards to only getting sound from the A and V masters. So maybe a connection between the MCL2AV’s MCL screw terminal connection and the AAL connector on the BLC 1615 could make sense to try.

In one of my other tests I have verified that the MCL2AV will accept Line level signals on the MCL screw terminal connector, so this should not be a limitation.

 

I don’t have a BLC 1615 myself (yet), but will try if this is possible with the BLC 1611. Might not work the same way though as the BLC 1611 is not a link room product the same way as the 1615.

[Guy]

I just wanted to let you know that I am still following this thread with interest, although I am no closer to digging out the equipment to repeat your experiment with a BL1615. Our Grandson keeps coming to stay and taking up valuable space in my study/workshop! The recent BL1000 restoration had to take place spread across the kitchen surfaces whilst my wife was out – this gave the added bonus of trialling many different kitchen degreasers to clean parts of the remotes!

[Madskp]

Guy wrote:

I just wanted to let you know that I am still following this thread with interest, although I am no closer to digging out the equipment to repeat your experiment with a BL1615. Our Grandson keeps coming to stay and taking up valuable space in my study/workshop! The recent BL1000 restoration had to take place spread across the kitchen surfaces whilst my wife was out – this gave the added bonus of trialling many different kitchen degreasers to clean parts of the remotes!

I know the feeling of limited space for experimenting, though I may have a little better space than you.

we’ll get to the 1615 when possible. I am looking at a pile (19) of 1610, 1614 and 1615 converters though, but not sure if I want to buy that many black boxes…

[Madskp]

This might be getting out of hand…

from left to right 1614, 1615 and 1610 some of them without official labels, and some in different software revisions.

I might sell some of them to get a more manageable collection of black boxes

 

 

[matador]

Oh goddamnit, you caught the Warwickshire flu! ;-D

[Madskp]

matador wrote:

Oh goddamnit, you caught the Warwickshire flu! ;-D

or just the Beo(blackbox)virus ?

[Author]

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