Part One : What is a patch bay? 

In the movie By Dawn's Early Light, James Earl Jones asks to be patched through to the E-4 plane carrying the President. At home you might not be doing this ( unless you are seriously into Air Force nuclear war cosplay, and who isn't? ) but you might just need a patch bay and not know it.

Many of us love digging into the wires behind the racks or the furniture, plugging things in and making a maze of wires do our bidding. Every time some new gadget comes home or a friend wants to plug something in we dive into the back into a maze of wires and connectors that is a playground of its own. Don't forget the stickers! ¹

Many of us either do not like this, or have to face the wrath of our parents, partners or friends screaming about the mess and try to hide it all behind a potted plant. How can you get back there then? Upending the entire living room just to plug in the classic Nintendo? 

The solution is a device called a patch bay. This lets us have all the connectors everywhere in one location so we can plug, unplug and configure to our hearts content while making the room look as tidy as a spaceship. Without having to pull, push or uninstall anything we can match our outputs to our inputs with the east of a engineering wizard! Inputs and outputs are run from the devices to the back of the patch bay, and into special "barrel" plugs that allow you to match things up as you need them. 

There are as many kinds of patch bays as there are connectors out there. They are mostly commonly seen in recording studios, television stations, radio stations and my living room. There are digital ones that can be programmed from a keypad or analog ones requiring cables to make the connections. They can range from hundreds of dollars to the DIY geek-on-the-cheap that I will be showing you here. 

So, forget about that wire monster behind the entertainment center. Get out all that old gear and let's make a patch panel so that you can show off everything you have and as all wizards do , amaze your friends and family!

Huzzah!

¹ The sticker rundown!

• Radio Wabos : Old / defunct web radio station.
• NYCGOTH.NET : Old defunct NYC Gothic website. Schiit Audio : Awesome high end audio gear.
• Becca Makes Buttons : Awesome human being and maker of buttons! 
• Destiny City Comics : Awesome comic shop full of awesome people that carry my awesome comics!
• Ultrazone : Laser Tag Arena where I once dominated!
• Mina Olen Noiduttu : The name of my graphic novel! Free to read on the net! 

A quick note about compatibility & sourcing 

Not all Keystone parts are made the same. Things you buy via Amazon may be different than Monoprice , Ali Express and so on. While I was making this project I found that there were some Keystone jacks that could not fit next to each other in a rack mount. While I will point out parts that have worked for me, the cheaper or more readily available versions may not fit properly. Buy small, test first then go in bulk if you have any doubts. 

While I do my level best to source things from Adafruit First, sometimes you have to buy from other places. This project is one of those times. The thing is building up your home lab and making it friendly and fun sometimes means going outside of the comfort zone to get what you need. For example this patch bay made it easy for me to test my Pi Touchscreen Environmental Sound Generator without pulling apart my stereo and facing the wire monster. Just be careful out there as not everyone puts the care and effort into their products that Adafruit does. 

I fully endorse and support Adafruit as a company and source for all things geeky fun and technologically delicious while being socially responsible as well as ethically sound. Adafruit First! 

Part Two : The Planning

Just like "Measure twice, cut once" stands as an axiom for woodworkers, when setting forth on an electronic project like this one you need to plan and prepare before you go wild buying parts. As this project is designed to help you plug things in and out of your equipment you need to take a moment and survey thet ports and the required connectors needed. Make a list of all of the inputs and outputs and what type they are so that you can order exactly what you need. For example let's say you have a TV/Monitor, a stereo amplifier, two video game systems , a DVD player and an old school VCR.  

Part Three : The Parts!

In this project you will be using a series of parts known in the industry as "Keystone" jacks and panels.  Keystone refers to a technology of connectors designed to allow easy wiring and installation of modular wall plates. If you want to know more in depth about what Keystone parts are and how they are used check out THIS article at able Matters. 

So for this project I will be using two rack mount 24 port Keystone patch panels, and making them into a patch bay. After some searching about I found these to be the most reasonable ones.

Next you will need the Keystone jacks to build out your patch bay. Using the spreadsheet you made head on out there and get what you need! The parts listed here are for reference, but keep in my the previous warning about making sure thy fit properly side by side! 

Up next you will need the connection cables to connect your devices to the patch bay. I suggest you measure first before buying, and always add a little bit more than what you need to future planning. Not everyone has a rack ready to hold all their gear or maybe a rack doesn't match your astatic. Just make sure to get quality cables for better signals. These are common so I will not give examples. 

Optional : Keystone "Blanks" to fill in any ports in the Keystone panel that you are not using right now. 

Finally you will need the jumper cables to go between the two patch bays. These should be measured for the distance between your Keystone panels and any wiring control you have. As always, shorter is better, and add just a little extra length. 

Here's what a completed patch bay looks like using RCA jumpers. 

Part Four : Design!

The next part is to design how your ports will be placed in the two racks, A basic rule of thumb is to put outputs on top, inputs on the bottom, but get as creative as you like!

As to the designing, I suggest using the free software Designio to map things out before you start wiring. Using our example spreadsheet from above, let's make a diagram of the two patch panels. 

Part Five : Putting it together!

Let the fun begin! For each port on your devices , plug one end of the connecting cable into the device, the other into the appropriate Keystone port, then snap that keystone port into the Keystone panel where your design indicates.

Lather, rinse repeat ... until everything is plugged in.  

Part Six : Patch it up!

Using the shorter patch cables, patch between the two Keystone panels as you have designed! 

Here's a few scenarios : 

Video Game System #1 Out ---> TV Composite In
Video Game System #2 out ---> TV HDMI #1
DVD Player out ---> TV HDMI #2

Easy enough!

Scenario One : 

Scenario Two :

Now as you are happily playing video games, a friend comes over with a surprise for you! 
"Remember that birthday party we had at Chuck-E-Cheese? I found the VHS tape we made of it!"
Do you have to go digging behind your TV? Wrestling the wire monster?
Oh no you don't! You have a patch bay! 

Scenario Three : 

You have been saving up all year to get that new surround sound stereo system with all the bells and whistles included. Today is the day! The smell of fresh electronics fills the air as you open the box to find .....

Your new stereo has a built in switcher! Now you can go from HDMI out on your gaming system to HDMI in on your stereo and take on the demons in your life in full surround sound! The HDMI out on the stereo connects to the TV and that means ... hold on a minute... this doesn't quite work with your patch bay, does it? 

Oh yes it does! You have 24 ports in each patch panel! Now all you have to do is snap in more Keystone plugs, add some wires and you are not only back in business, but better than ever! 

Conclusion: 

You now have a a patch bay that is far below the $300 mark, keeps the wire monster at bay, and lets you change the way your systems are configured without having to pull out any furniture, racks, or climbing under anything. 

Happy geeking! 

-- Delchi