Tally between Ross Video Carbonite+ and Studio Fiber Conv.

Hi,

Is anybody here who solved the connection (tally) between switcher from other manufacturer and BMD Studio Fiber Converter?
Because there is a little problem. Both of products are passive (it's mean that both of them are waiting for voltage to close the circuit).

Info from BMD - The tally connection is a passive interface that detects 5-24Vdc.
Info from Ross Video - Carbonite tally is also passive - Carbonite tally is a programmable relay closure that is used to switch an external signal (not exceeding 24 Vac or 40 Vdc).

Any advice?

Thank you.

Kind regards,
Jan Vencalek

The BMD Studio Fiber Converter requires that you supply a voltage, Carbonite only closes a circuit.
You need to built a circuit, or possibly a more usefull option, if you have multiple cameras, is to get the Arduino SDI Shield, that way a single SDI return feed can provide tally to each camera, and possible send camera commands also. There is a sample project in the Shield software package that will make this work.

Are you sure that the tally connections of the Ross Carbonite are passive? It seems like the switcher has to do the signaling, so I'm not sure how it can just passively wait for signals from another device.

Looking at the Ross Carbonite documentation it seems like the tally port just works using contact closures, so the individual tally pins are connected to the common pins when the tally is active and disconnected otherwise. Many of the Sony CCU units work with a simple contact closure input so they could probably be wired directly to the Carbonite's tally output.

Since the Studio Fiber Converter expects a 5-24V input to indicate when tally is active, you'll probably have to provide a voltage source in this range to get things to work (along with a pull-up or pull-down resistor depending on how you wire things).

It seems like most of the Carbonite switchers also have GPIO ports that are separate from the dedicated tally outputs. I believe the GPIO pins can be configured to output tally information with a high level of 5V and low of 0V, so it's possible you could use this as an alternative to the dedicated tally port.

The BMD Studio Fiber Converter requires that you supply a voltage, Carbonite only closes a circuit.
You need to built a circuit, or possibly a more usefull option, if you have multiple cameras, is to get the Arduino SDI Shield, that way a single SDI return feed can provide tally to each camera, and possible send camera commands also. There is a sample project in the Shield software package that will make this work.

Will not work Denny,
Due too a BUG in the Fiber converter it does not accept signals coming from the SDI shield..

If you read down to the bottom of the following link Gary Adams states that there must be video present on the 1st input of the fibre converter even if you are not using an Atem. Apparently the fiber converter piggybacks the tally (and com) data on the ANC data portion of this signal for camera control.

viewtopic.php?f=4&t=94515

Not to say that the GPIO doesn't need to be configured correctly so here are those links.

http://help.rossvideo.com/carbonite-02/ ... m/GPI.html
http://help.rossvideo.com/carbonite-02/ ... Setup.html
http://help.rossvideo.com/carbonite-02/ ... Table.html

Beyond that the On-Air status of each input must be correctly configured so that it sends voltage when it's supposed to. Tally can be a a real pain to troubleshoot because it can be connected correctly but the logic isn't correct so it doesn't trigger. Ross is like Grass in that tally is usually configured across several different sub-menus on different pages, the "Tally" menu is only one of them.

The Carbonite supports TSL and UMD as well and those can be configured from the add device menu.

Good Luck

Hi,

we "can't" use the GPIO port because we already use it for another intercom solution (Unity intercom) and in this case we can't setup the settings in other way. So, we need to find solution with tally port ...

Jan V.

And another info. We also use the ATEM switcher to transfer information from the CCU panel (ATEM Camera Control Panel) to cameras (URSA Broadcast). But only for this.

If all 34 GPIOs are busy opening and closing com channels you may have to look elsewhere, check out Tallyman, they've got a solution for certain.

Hi,

but why we are talking about GPIO port on Carbonite? It's used, so we can't use it for tally. That's it. There is a tally port. Question is how to use it together with BMD Studio Fiber Converter.
Anybody?

Jan V.

Basic electronics. Just add 12V to it.

But consult an electrical engineer to check your work before you short or blow out anything.

Basically you say the Ross has a Relay output for the Tally out. And the Studio Fiber has a 5 - 24V input to run Tally.

So when the relay closes on the ross it should complete the circuit with the power source.

Put already way to many time in it. But here: Again consult an electrical engineer to check your work before powering it. Connecting it wrong can lead to damaged equipment! I'm not responsible for your craftywork.

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