Extron Crosspoint 32x32 Server Rack + 10x CRTs Setup

[Dochartaigh]

Slow day at work today, and I've never posted this here before so I thought I'd post my current setup with an Extron Crosspoint with 32 inputs, and 32 outputs, mounted in a server rack (which also houses my consoles), and 10x CRT's. My premise for this craziness was twofold:

To be able to display every console on it's own monitor. Besides having extra unused monitors I wanted to put to work, I've been doing game night at my house with a bunch of my cousins kids, so I'll put up a bunch of games we might play on the different screens, then let them choose which they want to play. We then usually turn off everything except the large 32" PVM, unless we're playing 2-player light gun games then I sometimes have two monitors going at once.

For the contents of the server rack, I wanted to be able to input and output every signal type known to retro-gaming-man (and woman): Composite, S-Video, RGBS, YPbPr, RGBHV/VGA, etc. to both MultiFormat (480p) BVM and PVM's, Standard Definition BVM/PVM's, and consumer TV's (which might only have Composite or S-Video) as well, so this literally required a wall full of equipment.

For more pics with captions, see my Imgur photo album: Extron Crosspoint 32x32 + 10x CRT Monitors

For a short video of everything in action (i.e. the full crazy effect), see this short 40-second video

Some teaser shots:

Server rack goodness


All monitors (don't mind the nasty wallpaper, this is one of the last rooms I need to renovate in my all-original 1958 house I bought a couple years ago)


Consoles (older pic)


Labels for Crosspoint


One of my favorite scanline shots (this is OG Xbox in 480p downscaled to 240p with a TVOne Corio2 downscaler)


A close-up of my setup diagram (to be able to keep everything straight)








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Tutorials / Posts: CRT-C® Crosspoint Responsive Touchscreen Control | Corio2 240p Downscaler Tutorial | Extron DSC 301 HD 480p Scaling | Crosspoint 32x32 w/ Consoles/Scalers

YouTube: 15x Consoles + 10x CRTs in 40-sec | 2018 Gameroom | 2022 Update | Server Rack Cable Mgmt | CRT-C w/ CENTERING (teaser)

Imgur Albums: Fightsticks, Old PC's, CRT Chassis Albums, Experiments, Projects, Builds, etc.)

Resources: Lineart Crosspoint/Console/CRT WIRING Diagram | Extron Crosspoint CONSOLE Button Labels | TONS of Logos in PNG and SVG

[nmalinoski]

This makes me want to turn my 27FV310 sideways. How are you keeping yours upright on its side like that, and did you have to do any recalibration after rotating it?

[Dochartaigh]

This makes me want to turn my 27FV310 sideways. How are you keeping yours upright on its side like that, and did you have to do any recalibration after rotating it?

I kayak a lot so I had some pretty dense nautical foam laying around and placed that underneath it. It's pretty non-slip too so it's been holding the weight well. Geometry isn't perfect on these to begin with but I didn't have to do anything special after rotating it besides turning it on which degausses it automatically.

[Ikaruga11]

Absolutely incredible setup. I love how neat and organized everything is. All components fit perfectly together and form this cohesive unity.

[bovined]

all this incredible CRT sexiness but the little labels in your eXtron are what I am most drawn too. Great work and godly setup btw!

[Dochartaigh]

Absolutely incredible setup. I love how neat and organized everything is. All components fit perfectly together and form this cohesive unity.

Thanks. This took about 10 revisions (and three Crosspoints which I kept maxing out their connections), and no kidding, about 1,000 zip ties. I seriously ran through that bag and ordered a bulk lot of 3,000 (which better last me at least a year dammit lol).

I'm about 2/3rds of the way through replacing the last of the Monoprice cabling with Extron at the moment - that's going to take quite a few more zip ties...

all this incredible CRT sexiness but the little labels in your eXtron are what I am most drawn too. Great work and godly setup btw!

If you want the labels, the link is below. Just print them out at 100% and cut them on the crop marks. Bring a Designer (graphic, web, ui, packaging, etc.) definitely came in handy with making those (and my layout document).

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Q2pYwa ... sp=sharing

[nmalinoski]

...about 1,000 zip ties. I seriously ran through that bag and ordered a bulk lot of 3,000 (which better last me at least a year dammit lol).

Ugh. I can't stand zip ties for cable management; if I want to run one more cable, or pull one out, I have to snip each zip tie in the run and then replace them all, and I'm screwed if I find later that I need a few more inches of slack. Not to mention the waste.

Personally, I try to go for the velcro/hook-and-loop strips. They certainly attract more cat hair, but they're easier for me to work with.

[Dochartaigh]

Ugh. I can't stand zip ties for cable management; if I want to run one more cable, or pull one out, I have to snip each zip tie in the run and then replace them all, and I'm screwed if I find later that I need a few more inches of slack. Not to mention the waste.

Personally, I try to go for the velcro/hook-and-loop strips. They certainly attract more cat hair, but they're easier for me to work with.

I love those velcro ties for bundles of UNUSED cables, but for something like this they're impossible to use in a lot of areas, and just not practical for me. You literally don't have enough clearance in many spots to wrap the tie around the wires (or my fingers are fat or something). With zipties, I can sneak them in pretty much anywhere. I can bend the zip tie so it's in a U-shape and it'll poke back out the front of the wire bundle so I can grab it and zip it.

Velcro ties also won't fit through the screw holes of a server rack so running wires down the side (and across the bottom, the top, on a shelf where there's convenient ~3/8" holes pre-drilled, etc.) - it just doesn't work. Zip ties fit in all those areas perfectly.

Velcro also has a REALLY hard time attaching just a couple small/thin wires together - it just doesn't get tight enough and slips when I'm trying to tighten it, or the little pull-through part tears apart (and this is on Velcro® brand ones). Actually, one of the larger benefits of zip ties is it lets you get things nice and snug so they can't move at all (and that's how I want it, otherwise cables move, get slack in areas I don't want to have slack, and doesn't let me run the wires EXACTLY where I need them to go). I can't get straight lines/rows with velcro since the cables can always move around in them a little bit.

Even undoing velcro ties is painful (trying to find where the velcro tie ends to peel up that spot can be hard). Undoing zip ties is a million times easier - simply take a wire cutter (I like the side cutting type so I don't knick the cables), and cut the couple which is holding the bundle together in literally 3-4 seconds (about the time it takes me to unwrap ONE velcro tie). I have all of the Crosspoints wires bundled together per-row of BNC's so I only have to undo 4 when I need to move/switch/whatever a wire.

For areas I know I'm going to be running cables again from time to time, I'll use the releasable type of zip ties which just barely fit through the holes on the server rack, and allow me to quickly (much quicker than velcro) release a bundle of wires.

Velcro ties also don't do load-bearing well. Mine are rated to something like 40 pounds, and I commonly use them to string wires across the side of the server rack to tuck the rolls of excess wire into (which gets heavy - especially all those SCART to BNC adapters). Hell, since the Toro is such a pain and sticks out like 8" straight back from my Dreamcast with a non-flexible wire, I even have a kinda shelf built there from zip ties so it doesn't flop around (those are notorious for the weak/crappy cable connections). The rolls of excess Retro-Access coaxial cable for each consoles RGB cable are literally defying gravity because of zip ties and keeps everything nice and tidy - all things that velcro wouldn't be stiff enough for.

For price, even a 'small' 1,000 pack of zipties is about 2 cents each (much cheaper for my 3k order). The 100 packs of Velcro ones I get are $0.10/each (and although those are reusable, I do have a long-haired cat and a dog, and commonly throw these out instead of picking all that nasty hair off them lol).

Anyway, there's my 5,000 words on my love for zip ties and how/why I choose to use them lol.

[xga]

I'm about 2/3rds of the way through replacing the last of the Monoprice cabling with Extron at the moment - that's going to take quite a few more zip ties...

Absolutely epic setup, Dochartaigh!

What do you mean by replacing Monoprice cables with Extron cables? Are you talking about RGB cables made by Retro Access for use with Extron Crosspoint's or the genuine Extron Crosspoint cables with the long runs for each BNC lead?

Also, how do you rate the PVM-3230 monitor?

[Syntax]

Got any spare channel stickers?
They look awesome

[Dochartaigh]

Absolutely epic setup, Dochartaigh!

What do you mean by replacing Monoprice cables with Extron cables? Are you talking about RGB cables made by Retro Access for use with Extron Crosspoint's or the genuine Extron Crosspoint cables with the long runs for each BNC lead?

Also, how do you rate the PVM-3230 monitor?

I was using a bunch of 25' Monoprice 5BNC to 5BNC cables to run to my CRT's. Got a good deal on 25' Extron (like one of THE best cable manufacturers) VGA to BNC, then Extron 6' BNC to VGA Extron Cables so the Monoprice cheaper cables are being replaced. So it goes 6' Crosspoint BNC > VGA, then 25' VGA > 5BNC which plugs into the CRT's. What I like about this is I can max out my outputs, and only have the 6' BNC (from the Crosspoint) cable hanging off the back of the rack (instead of a 25' cable), then use only the cables I want for my setup-of-the-moment (I'm always changing what monitors I use and their configuration). Also makes moving the rack super easy since I can quickly detach those 25' cables (leaving just the 6' leads off the back which don't even touch the floor), unplug the rack from the electrical outlet, then move it anywhere I want (oh, the rack is on casters/wheels BTW).

I also had shorter VGA to BNC and BNC to BNC cables from Monoprice running from the rack to all the different transcoders and whatnow, and I've been phasing those out with a bunch of Extron (and Liberty, another high-quality cable manufacturer) 3', 4', and 6' lengths which REALLY helps with cable management (less cables to have to coil up the extra streamlines the setup).



For the PVM-3230, it's from 1995 I believe, so maybe 8-10 years older than my 20" PVM/BVM's, and definitely needs a recap of the deflection area (geometry - which is totally passable and looks fine in-game: pic below shows curvature on the top and bottom because it's a much more curved screen than my newer Sony's), but I just LOVE the look of it. It has an absolutely huge AG/dot-pitch, something like 0.9mm I believe, but the colors and nice and crisp and it looks amazing to me (and that large mm size means it's a very bright CRT as well). Still need to tune it more, but the massive size just makes up for it's age most definitely.

Got any spare channel stickers?
They look awesome

The link to the art is above - just print it to 100% scale and cut them out. If you're talking about the numbers for each channel themselves, like #1-32 - they're in that document too (and if you want I can take out the black square outline if you're missing some numbers and want something to replace them - they're a near-matching font and around the same size as the originals I think).

[mvsfan]

Nice setup.

they do make reusable zip ties. they have a small tab on them so you can unlock them again and slide them apart.

[Dochartaigh]

Nice setup.

they do make reusable zip ties. they have a small tab on them so you can unlock them again and slide them apart.

I don't know what madness you're talking about...

For areas I know I'm going to be running cables again from time to time, I'll use the releasable type of zip ties which just barely fit through the holes on the server rack, and allow me to quickly (much quicker than velcro) release a bundle of wires.

[bms]

OMG You are my idol. Incredible setup. But what for these small screens?

[svensonson]

Don`t get me wrong man but I think there is one major thing missing in all this.
What`s the point of having such a "video distribution server rack setup" like somewhere in porn valley and 10 (mostly tiny) crts without any proper audio distribution? Do you also have nearly that many speakers setup as monitors in order to (reasonably) enjoy playing on all this?
Or are you really exclusivly using the tiny crts and massive 25U of video equipment just for choosing and deciding which game you want to play on the bigger PVM screen?

I also love to tinker with all kind of equipment lately more than actually playing some games but I don`t see any purpose of such a setup.
I´m sure it still was fun and kind of satisfying doing clean and organized cabling for all this

[Dochartaigh]

Don`t get me wrong man but I think there is one major thing missing in all this.
What`s the point of having such a "video distribution server rack setup" like somewhere in porn valley and 10 (mostly tiny) crts without any proper audio distribution? Do you also have nearly that many speakers setup as monitors in order to (reasonably) enjoy playing on all this?
Or are you really exclusivly using the tiny crts and massive 25U of video equipment just for choosing and deciding which game you want to play on the bigger PVM screen?

I also love to tinker with all kind of equipment lately more than actually playing some games but I don`t see any purpose of such a setup.
I´m sure it still was fun and kind of satisfying doing clean and organized cabling for all this

So a 32" PVM, a 20" BVM, and a 27" FV310 aren't enough larg(er) monitors for you? lol. (I've added another 14", a 10" Panasonic AG-500R + a pro VCR since these photos This is purely a stop-gap setup in the smallest of the 4 bedrooms of my house (which honestly, is my reloading mancave/room with a Dillon 650 XL press in the other half of the room). They will stay here until I finish renovating the back addition (which will be a combo/open-floorplan dining room w/ fireplace and bar, then the game room which I'll probably wall off), and that's where all this will eventually go with a lot more room.

If you take a look at my diagrams in the Imgur album link, you'll see there's three separate play areas which will be setup for a couple people per station (each of which will have a normal and a TATE monitor, along with separate audio) + a retro computer game setup (just built a Pentium III PC last night with Win 98 SE). This will make use of the 2x other 27FV310's, PVM-20L5, BVM-20F1U, PVM-20M4U, and a 20" Sony CPD-520GS PC Monitor (making it 5x 20", 2x 27", and a 32" PVM). Might make a little 3x3 video wall from the leftover 8" PVM's or something. Still deciding how I'm going to integrate a flatscreen in with all of this (been researching affordable rotate-able TV mounts for some TATE action on that lately).

For Audio, now that my living room is finally completed, I moved the 65" TCL in there along with the Focal/Denon system. That'll leave the really old (but still bangin' to be honest) Bose Acoustimass, the BNIB Sony APM-X5A speakers I got with the PVM-3230, and a pair of Bose Companion computer speakers (for the Win98 PC). Also can't forget about the FV310's with their built in subwoofers (small, but still totally adequate for retro gaming). I honestly don't know how I'll feel about three competing sound setups in the same room but I guess I'll find out. Right now it's mainly the X5A's as we're only playing one system at a time, but I do also have the FV310 wired for sound, along with the computer speakers. I'm not going to mess with surround sound in the game room so stereo through RCA (going in/out of the Crosspoint, which can be independently switchable from the video) is just fine for me.

P.S. This is also just simply fun to set everything up and watch the insaneness unfold with all these monitors running. I even have a preset saved on the Crosspoint for when I run all the systems at once to make it easy. Anyway, I had all these extra 5" and 8" RGB PVM's laying around, along with cables by the spool-load, so why not? Otherwise they would just be sitting in boxes in storage having zero fun.