BL3500 and the MCL/PL connector

[Guy]

Madskp wrote:

Do you also get sound in this setup? The beahaviour you see control wise is because the data signal is connected the same was as if you were using a ML-MCL converter to convert from powerlink to MCL

Yes, sound from both speakers.  Of course PL is a variable level output so there is a double volume control problem.  Whilst listening, if I adjust the volume on the BC2300 front panel I get a ‘pop’ from the speakers.

EDIT:  When I listen closely I can hear a high pitched whine from the right hand speaker – sounds like a grounding problem so something is not quite right.  Maybe polarity reversed on that channel – does that make any sense?

[Klaus Stoetzel]

You got me confused .. between “I can´t get it to trigger” to “sound from both speakers”

So some “untriggered” setup with working sound would be what we seek, no?

Only talking about the 5V injection for stand-alone 3500s obviously …

Powerlink would trigger on Pin4 with 5V, so seems curious-dreamer is spot-on?

Still wondering on his mk1 3500 behaving like a mk2 3500 tho

 

 

[Guy]

Klaus Stoetzel wrote:

You got me confused .. between “I can´t get it to trigger” to “sound from both speakers”

I mean that I can’t get it (the BL3500) to trigger (i.e turn on) by operating the front panel of the BC2300 (or by using the remote with BC2300 in A.OPT 2 and BL3500 in L.OPT 0).

Conversely, with the BC2300 in A.OPT 0 and BL3500 in L.OPT 2 or 6, I can get the system (BC and BL) to turn on and play through both L&R speakers using the remote, or by pressing MUTE on the BL3500 front panel (which plays the last played source.)

So the BL3500 will control the BC2300, but the BC2300 will not control the BL3500.

[Guy]

To be honest there are a number of other variables – all of which make thorough testing very difficult:

• Mk1 or Mk2 BL3500
• SW level of the BL3500
• Whether ML is turned ON or OFF on the BL3500 (I can’t think of anything else adjustable in BL3500 menu)
• Whether the timer is set to ‘ON’ on the BL3500
• What audiomaster is being used, and SW level (does it send PL trigger on pin 4?)
• Whether the PL cable is fully wired (mine is)
• Whether the BL3500 is fully working
• Whether the BL3500 has been modified

I did try lots of option settings, also tried ML ON and OFF, and with BL3500 timer both ON and OFF.

[Madskp]

Guy wrote:

Klaus Stoetzel wrote:

You got me confused .. between “I can´t get it to trigger” to “sound from both speakers”

I mean that I can’t get it (the BL3500) to trigger (i.e turn on) by operating the front panel of the BC2300 (or by using the remote with BC2300 in A.OPT 2 and BL3500 in L.OPT 0). Conversely, with the BC2300 in A.OPT 0 and BL3500 in L.OPT 2 or 6, I can get the system (BC and BL) to turn on and play through both L&R speakers using the remote, or by pressing MUTE on the BL3500 front panel (which plays the last played source.) So the BL3500 will control the BC2300, but the BC2300 will not control the BL3500.

That is also my experience from earlier testing. If a data signal is available on pin 6 the BL3500 can be activated with remote commands to its own IR receiver and put out sound. If I rember correctly the MK1 can be activated without the data signal, but will not put out sound.

[Guy]

Madskp wrote:

If I rember correctly the MK1 can be activated without the data signal, but will not put out sound.

I think mine is a Mk1 – it has the MCL socket marked as such.

[Madskp]

Guy wrote:

Madskp wrote:

If I rember correctly the MK1 can be activated without the data signal, but will not put out sound.

I think mine is a Mk1 – it has the MCL socket marked as such.

That is correct

[Klaus Stoetzel]

I thought from the serial numbers Guy had two mk2 units but I could be wrong

[Madskp]

I have done some testing now with  fully wired powerlink cable from BS Ouverture to BL3500. ML turned off in all instances.

MK1 SW 1.0: Speaker is not triggered when I play music on the BS Ouverture, but the BL3500 can join in with a press on the mute button or a source button on the remote. So same as Guy registred in his test.

MK1 SW1.2: No test. I had forgot that it was dead for some reason

MK1 SW 2.0  Same behaviour as SW 1.0, but the speaker died in the proces.

MK2 SW 3.1 Will not active at all. This corosponds fine with my testing with the wireless W1 where only the combination of the special data signal from the W1 and the trigger signal on pin 4 would activate it.

A note on the MK1:

I don’t think it would make sense for the trigger signal on pin 4 to with pin 2 as ground to do anything on a MK1 since pin2 is not connected and pin4 is a signal path for sound

Guy wrote:

When I listen closely I can hear a high pitched whine from the right hand speaker – sounds like a grounding problem so something is not quite right.  Maybe polarity reversed on that channel – does that make any sense?

Both reversed polarity of the sound signal, but also you are putting 5V trigger on pin 4 and 5-12V on pin 1 which are both part of the sound signal path. Also you only have the data shield as ground since pin 2 is not connected in the BL3500.

Klaus Stoetzel wrote:

I thought from the serial numbers Guy had two mk2 units but I could be wrong

MK1 is up to serial number 19343452 and has MCL engraved in the metal underneath the DIN connector. Also I belive they were never produced with higher software version than 2.1, but can be upgraded with the loss of MCL functionality.

 

[Guy]

Madskp wrote:

Both reversed polarity of the sound signal, but also you are putting 5V trigger on pin 4 and 5-12V on pin 1 which are both part of the sound signal path. Also you only have the data shield as ground since pin 2 is not connected in the BL3500.

Yes that makes sense – thanks fo explaining.

Madskp wrote:

MK1 is up to serial number 19343452 and has MCL engraved in the metal underneath the DIN connector. Also I belive they were never produced with higher software version than 2.1, but can be upgraded with the loss of MCL functionality.

Yes, my only BL3500 serial number starts 1497

[Klaus Stoetzel]

Based on your testing (thanks to both of you) I am asking Curious-dreamer to get in touch with the seller of the unit to ask what he modded and to please share it with us. Seems like 8 years ago so hopefully the guy still exists, has the same contact details and remembers what he did to the unit .. fingers crossed

[Klaus Stoetzel]

curious-dreamer emailed the seller asking for any modding done to the unit, now we need to wait for the feedback

[Klaus Stoetzel]

Unfortunately curious-dreamer is not getting any feedback yet from the seller of his BL3500 ..

I got two more BL3500 in the meantime (so four now, really) and would love to get this to work

[Madskp]

To bad. At one point I found a link to another type of modification in this post https://forum.beoworld.org/forums/topic/bl3500-and-the-mcl-pl-connector/page/3/#post-44590

I might be at some inspiration to how the BL3500 is activated even though this project replace the control part of the BL3500.

 

[Author]

Posts