Ashly Protea DSP480 Operating Manual - Page 12

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Operating Manual - PROTEA™ DSP480 and DSP360 System Processors

5 . INTERCONNECT FEATURES

All Protea audio connections use three pin XLR jacks, with pin 2 (+), pin 3 (-), and pin 1(G). Inputs and outputs are

electronically precision balanced. If an unbalanced signal is fed to an input, the signal should be on the (+) connection (pin 2)

and pin 3 must be tied to ground, or significant signal loss will result. In other words, never float pin 2 or pin 3. It is strongly

recommended that balanced signals be used whenever possible.

A Note About Input Signal Levels:

There are no analog gain trim adjustments on the Protea DSP unit, therefore all the processing (including gain) is done

in the digital domain. As a consequence of this design philosophy, it is important to feed the Protea processor with the proper

nominal signal level to achieve good signal to noise performance as well as headroom before clipping. This unit is designed to

clip at signal levels above +20dBu (7.75Vrms), which places the noise floor lower than -92dBu. The optimum input signal level

which should be fed into the Protea processor is 0dBu = .775Vrms. This input level will allow 20dB of headroom while giving

a nominal signal that is >92dB above the noise floor.

There are two USB ports on the unit, one on the front and one on the back panel. They both serve the

same function, but a front panel USB connection will always override the back panel USB port if both are being

used simultaneously. A six foot USB-A to USB-B cable is provided with every unit to connect to a computer

running Ashly Protea NE software.

5 .3 RS-232 Data Connections

Several third party controllers use RS-232 for control of other devices which may include the Protea

DSP processors. For detailed information regarding the implementation of RS-232 control, contact the Ashly

service department. Note: Protea NE software will not work with a DSP480 or DSP360 processor using RS-232.

The computer connection must use a USB port.

Loading the software

Ashly Protea Control Software is available at no cost, and must be downloaded from the Ashly Website before running

on your Windows PC. Ashly no longer includes a software CD-ROM with new units. Download and install the software on

your PC. Note that a firewall exception may need to be added to your Windows security settings as you install the software.

Connect the DSP processor

The control connection is made using a standard USB-A to USB-B cable, provided by Ashly with each unit.

Identify the processor in software

Once the software is loaded to the computer and the data connection has been made to the DSP480 or DSP360, all

installed NE software compatible Ashly products will be automatically detected and shown in the active device listing on the

left side of the Protea NE software startup canvas. Note: In the event of multiple processors of the same model on the network,

the user can find a single physical unit by right clicking over the unit's name in the drop down menu, and then click <Identify>,

which will flash the Com LED on that unit's face panel for two seconds.

The software scans for active devices on power-up, but the user can manually scan at any time as well with <Scan For

Devices> at the bottom of the network device listing. All Ashly devices continuously broadcast their availability to the software.

All currently connected and active products are highlighted in green, while units which may be or have been formerly installed

but are currently off-line or unavailable show up in red. Individual products can be dragged onto the project canvas to simulate

physical rack installation groups, but editing each product can be done from either the product list or the image on the canvas.