Cadac Full Line Brochure

When the stagebox is connected to the CDC four:m or a CDC four, two extra “layer” buttons are enabled allowing access to the extra channels.

Can 48 channels be controlled from the CDC four:m and CDC four?

The CDC four and CDC four:m can have an additional 32 mic / line analogue inputs with the addition of a CDC I/O 3216 stagebox. The stagebox also allows the 16 line outputs to be on stage. To connect the stagebox to the CDC four or CDC four:m it must have a MegaCOMMS card fitted.

How do I expand the channel count on my CDC four:m or CDC four?

As standard the CDC five, CDC six, CDC seven, CDC seven-s and CDC eight have 2 pairs of MegaCOMMS connectors on the rear. This will allow up to 2 MegaCOMMS compatible units to be connected to the console. However if the console is connected to a CDC MC Router this allows the console to be connected to further 11 MegaCOMMS devices.

How many I/O boxes can I connect to the CDC five, CDC six, CDC seven, CDC eight or CDC seven-s?

The linked PDF document provides a recommendation for a PIC programming tool that is needed to upgrade the PICS on Cadac products.

Click to open: DOC02- PIC programming tool – Issue D – July 2019

Recommended PIC programming tool

It is highly likely that the ID or “Rack Number” for the stage box / MegaCOMMS unit is not set correctly.

On the unit there is small dial called “Rack Number” with “0 to 9 / A to F” labelled around it.

If the units are connect directly to a console then they will need to be set to “2” this will then appear as “Rack 1” on the console, a second unit will then have to be set to “3” and this will be “Rack 2” on the console.

If the units are being connect to a Router then they must all be set to “1”.

Use a small screw driver inserted in the slot in the middle and turn the pointer to the appropriate number.

The MegaCOMMS lights are showing green on my stage box but I don’t have any audio?

To update the CDC I/O 3216 you will need to connect it to a Windows PC via a USB cable.

But first, if you do not already have it installed, you will need to download and install the CDC I/O 3216 FPGA Loader App on to you PC before you can update the firmware on the stage box.

Below are the instructions on how to install the FPGA Loader on the PC:

Download the the CDC I/O 3216 update package from the Cadac Ftp site
Unzip IO3216 FPGA Loader App into a suitable folder on your PC
To install the program CDC I/O 3216 FPGA Loader App double click on setup.exe in the folder.
If you have Windows 10 you will need to follow the steps below inorder for the Drivers to be installed:
Click over the START button (bottom left) and then click on the Power selection
Hold down the Shift key on the keyboard and click on Restart
This presents a screen titled Choose an Option, select Troubleshoot
In the next screen select Advanced Options
In the next screen select Start-up Settings
In the next screen click on Restart

Your PC will re-boot and present a screen titled Startup Settings, press F7 (or 7) to disable driver signing enforcement.

When the PC has finished re-booting you will be able to connect the CDC I/O 3216 via the USB port on the rear of the unit to your PC with a suitable USB cable.

Plug the CDC I/O 3216 into a free USB port on your PC
Windows will ask for a Driver Disk, point it at the Driver and INF folder that has been unzipped from the IO3216 FPGA Loader App.zip

Run the StageBox Audio Mixer program from the icon installed on your desktop. This should give you a program Window that looks like the one below:

Note the box in the upper right is GREEN and reporting that the Device is plugged in. If there is any problem this box will be RED.
Click the Browse button and find the rbf file: IO3216 MegaCOMMS FPGA/FMW-19116-A10 IO3216 MegaCOMMS FPGA/fmw19116a10.rbf that you have downloaded from the link at the beginning of this document
When the file has loaded, the Program Flash button becomes active. Click this and watch the messages in the Output Terminal window. When the message reaches 100% the the file has bee updated.
The stage-box will take itself off-line and the box in the upper right will go RED
Close the program by clicking the Exit Application button
Finally turn the stage-box OFF and then ON again

You should now have the latest firmware version on the CDC I/O 3216.

Upgrading the Firmware on a CDC I/O 3216

The login details for the customer repository are:
Login: customer
Password: cadac1968

What are the login details for the Cadac customer repository?

MegaCOMMS is Cadac’s proprietary digital audio protocol.

MegaCOMMS is a robust, TDM (time division multiplex) system. Control data is embedded within the data stream, so that no audio channels have to be sacrificed for this purpose. The high bandwidth available means that the current implementation of MegaCOMMS can carry 128 channels of 24-bit, 96 kHz audio, plus control data, plus clock, bi-directionally, up to 150 metres via a pair of RG6 coaxial cables.

What is MegaCOMMS?

Cadac specify RG6 3G 75 Ohm 18 AWG solid bare copper, super high-resolution coaxial to ensure that the cable is capable of handling over 4 times the data required for MADI.

What spec of coaxial cable should I use for MegaCOMMS?

The CDC four:m has the addition of a 6 x 4 matrix, combining the 4 group outputs and the LR master into a further four outputs.

These outputs are part of the extended outputs from the CDC four:m which are only available if you use an I/O stagebox with more than 16 outputs (CDC I/O 6448, CDC MC MADI, CDC MC Dante etc.).

Select the CDC four:m output layer and press Function Button 3, labelled Assign socket. The Matrix outputs, M1 to M4, are assigned to sockets 25 to 28.

If you are using the CDC four:m with a CDC I/O 3216 stagebox these outputs may be reassigned to one of the 16 sockets available but this will entail giving up the outputs that are currently using them.

Where are the Matrix outputs on a CDC four:m?

The glowing connectors on the rear of the console and on the rack mount units are MegaCOMMS ports.

The red – Rx – connectors are the receive or “in” ports and the blue – Tx – connectors are the transmit or “out” ports.

Why are there red and blue glowing coaxial connectors on the consoles and rack units?

RG6 is a very robust cable and the BNC connectors used are professional grade connectors and we are not limited to 100m runs of Ethernet technology – MegaCOMMS will easily run up to 150m on coaxial.

Why does Cadac use RG6 coaxial cables rather than Ethernet?

No – unless the cables you are using are RG6 3G 75 Ohm 18 AWG solid bare copper, super high-resolution coaxial.

MegaCOMMS requires a cable that is capable of handling over 4 times the data needed for MADI.