Footswitch Cable - will Midi extension cable work?

[john525]

What I'd like to do is just use a short (1') male-female cable permanently attached at the amp and then plug in to this with the main footswitch cable. Now although the connectors are the same as 5-pin Midi cable, MB told me that unlike midi, all the conductors are used for switching, including the ground.
Anybody know if a standard Midi cable extension will work for this?
Cheers

 

[mtodd6]

I tried the only midi cable I had & it would not work. After that I checked the pin-out on the mesa-supplied footswitch cable & it was one-to-one, pin-to-pin, like the midi cable, so my midi cable must be bad. Haven't another to try.

You do have to make sure the ground "clip" on the foot switch makes contact with the outer ring/ground of the midi cable. I had to bend the clip down a bit to make sure it always connected.

 

[john525]

Thanks for the feedback!
I just remembered I have the response I got from MB regarding the cable:
Me: "The footswitch cable for the Express, is it simply a 5 pin MIDI cable?"
Response from Kris at Mesa:
"Well the cable is a 5pin DIN cable but a simple MIDI cable will not work properly. With a MIDI cable only 3 of the 5 pins are active and with our cables all 5 pins are active plus the metal ring around the pins Thanks
Kris"

So mtodd6, perhaps you should check the metal ring as well...

Sounds like I might have to place an order at Mouser

 

[tmac]

Yeah, the metal ring must be connected, which it is not on a MIDI cable, at least not mine.

I learnt that when making my own footswitch for this amp, using a computer network cable and a DIN-5 plug I had lying around.

 

[john525]

I actually just ordered a pair of Neutrik male and female 6-pin XLR connectors from Mouser to do this. I figure I'll cut the existing cable about 2' from one end and then attach the XLRs. Eventually I might replace the PCB mounted DIN Jack on the footswitch with a panel mounted XLR so it's a much more rugged connection.