A common cable that can be used for creating a connection from the FLEX-3000, FLEX-1500 or Maestro microphone connector to external audio hardware or to a custom microphone connector is the ubiquitous 10 and 100BaseT Ethernet cables. These cables are usually Category 3 or greater twisted pair and well suited for audio applications.
When you cut off then end of one of these cables, you will find four (4) sets of two (2) wires twisted together. Each one of these sets of wires is referred to as a "twisted pair" and they are color coded. Each pair has a solid color wire and a stripped colored wire that is the same as the solid color, but has white on it in a "barber pole" or a stripped line geometry. In an Ethernet cable the 100 ohm balanced twisted pairs will always be:
- Orange and White/Orange
- Green and White/Green
- Blue and White/Blue
- Brown and White/Brown
To make things good and confusing, the twisted pairs are not connected to pins 1-8 on the RJ-45 connector in sequential order. To add insult to injury, there are two different wiring standards that determine which color of wire is connected to what pin in the RJ-45 connector. These standards are known as the T-568A and T-568B and they define the pin-out, or order of connections, for wires in 8P8C (also referred to as RJ45) eight-pin modular connector.
By far, the most popular wiring configuration is T-568B definition which superseded the T-568A definition. Under most circumstances, this is way the connector is wired and it is usually printed on the jacket of the cable itself to indicate how it is wired.
Below are two diagrams of the two 568 wiring standards.
| Pin Number |
T-568A Color | T-568B Color |
Pins on plug face (socket is reversed) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | White/Green stripe |
White/Orange stripe |
|
| 2 | Green solid |
Orange solid |
|
| 3 | White/Orange stripe |
White/Green stripe |
|
| 4 | Blue solid |
Blue solid |
|
| 5 | White/Blue stripe |
White/Blue stripe |
|
| 6 | Orange solid |
Green solid |
|
| 7 | White/Brown stripe |
White/Brown stripe |
|
| 8 | Brown solid |
Brown solid |
Below is the Microphone Pin-outs for the Maestro, FLEX-3000 and FLEX-1500
| Maestro /FLEX-3000 / FLEX-1500 Microphone Pinout Configuration |
|
| Pin Number | Function |
| 1 | Not Used - Reserved for future use |
| 2 | Not Used - Reserved for future use |
| 3 | Vcc (+5 VDC) |
| 4 | Microphone Ground (mic -) |
| 5 | Microphone In (mic +) |
| 6 | PTT (PTT +) |
| 7 | PTT Ground (PTT -) |
| 8 | Not Used - Reserved for future use |