My Newest Toy - Velleman VTTEST15 Cable Tester

radiorich wrote:

Wow that is a really nice tester !

Richard -

I bought it last spring for that studio build, and equipped it with adapters for the equipment I was working with there. It has proven useful enough that it is now part of my regular field equipment.

Hello Dale,
Wow that is a really nice tester !
Sincerely Richard

Sounds good Dale.....
Hey, I was just looking at your website. Very nice ! You've really done a great job with it. 
Some fine projects there along with useful information......You do nice work.
Paul

thebeavt wrote:

Good luck on your project at the station there !

Thanks - it is a project that I hadn't expected to lead. I also hadn't expected to take on a major studio build for a cluster of six stations this late in life.

The Velleman is working out very well. I don't have to ring out anywhere near as many leads as you once did - everything I am working with is eight leads or less. In addition to connectors for testing the usual suspects in cables (IHF, XLR 3 & 5 pins, 1/4" and 1/8" TRS, mini DIN, 4 and 8 pin Speakon) the Velleman has a pair of 8 pin DIN jacks. That has allowed me to make a series of DIN-to-mating connector adapter cables to ring out cables with a variety of specialized connectors such as Molex and Euroblock on their ends.

Boy, that's a great item for those that have a use for it.
When I was a kid, I worked for a time at an aircraft gauge rebuilder, calibrator, repair facility. I put together cables for test equipment, some having as many as 80 pins. It sure was time consuming running through those plugs with a continuity tester.
Good luck on your project at the station there !

I am currently the lead engineer in building a new studio facility for a cluster of six radio stations. Because of the illness of the man who was scheduled to be the lead engineer and a deadline for moving out of the old building the initial temporary facilities that I built in the new building were done pretty hastily. Now I am building the permanent facilities and need to make a boatload of audio and data cables. I bought a cable tester to ring out the cables that I am making to ensure that they are correct. More than a decade ago I saw a very nice cable tester at a local parts jobber but was not willing to part with the over $100 price for it. The inventory of that jobber has changed in recent years and that cable tester had been marked down to $50. I bought it because I now have a need for it. I am now the owner of a Velleman VTTEST15 cable tester:

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This German-made tester is solidly built in a steel case and handles a lot of the connectors that I am working with (see the VTTEST15 manual). Even if the connectors on the ends of a cable are of two different types it is possible to plug both ends into the Velleman, step through the switch positions, and see which pin on one end is connected to which pin on the other end.

There are a number of connectors in this build which the Velleman is not equipped with, such as Molex and Euroblock, but it has an 8-pin DIN jack on each side and I have built a few adapters with a DIN plug to connect to the Velleman and a Molex or Euroblock connector to mate with a cable end. When you consider that I am working with a few hundred cables in this build the time saving in being able to ring out cables is substantial.