[Madskp]

Recently got a Beomaster 4500 and is trying some things.

When I tried to enter option settings to option 2 I noticed that it displays OPT 2.5

This made me a little curious as I have only seen that notation of option settings on the MCL2AV before.

Looking at the user manual for Beosystem 4500 I found some interesting stuff about both an option 3 to use if an other MCL unit is placed close to the Beosystem 4500 and option 4 (for the Beosystem) if it is placed in the same room as a MCL2 unit.

 

I am not sure what option 3 does if it will lower the IR sensetivity or what? Or has it something to do with 2 way communication?

Option 4 is normaly used to put a unit in a mode where it only responds to Link + command. But this isn’t mentioned in the user manual. Trying to set the BM4500 option 4 it responds to normal commands, so also here I am a little confused.

Option 5 and 6 apperently indicates if it is a Master or a slave in a MCL 2 system. However the manual mention that option 6 is for future use and must not be selected.

I wonder how the BM4500 should be able to work as a slave in a MCL2 system connection wise as it does not have the MCL input as the MCL2AV has? It sees wierd to be mentioned in the manual if the product is not hardware wise ready for it.

Any insights are welcome. I will of course try to dive a little deeper in to this rabbit hole

 

[Madskp]

Madskp wrote:

I wonder how the BM4500 should be able to work as a slave in a MCL2 system connection wise as it does not have the MCL input as the MCL2AV has? It sees wierd to be mentioned in the manual if the product is not hardware wise ready for it.

A quick test to see what happens when using option 1.6 or 2.6.

When the BM4500 is in option 1.5 or 2.6 it will not react to Link + audio commands.

But when I set it to option 1.6 or 2.6 all Link + Audio commands activate AUX on the BM4500.

Further more the schematics in the service manuals show the data pins on the AUX socket and the speakerlink (MCL2) sockets are connected so all signals are passed between these two sockets.

So my guess is that to use the BM4500 as a slave unit it should be conencted to a Master unit via the AUX socket. However a normal Audio Aux cable can not be used as this will connect Audio in to Audio in and Audio out to Audio out.

I have to make a crossed cable and do some more testing. update will follow

[Rolf2]

I currently operate a BM 4500 with sw 2.2. It is a 2-way terminal and I can set it to options 0, 1, 2, 3 and 4. In Option 3 it reacts to the remote. I cannot remember what it is for, it is not mentioned in the option setting list. Maybe I can find something in my archive.

You may check the sw version of your BM. Talking about options 5 and 6, those were only available in earlier 1-way versions. 1-way function only had been included in the BM 4500 with a sw version below 2.1.

 

[Rolf2]

Madskp wrote:

I am not sure what option 3 does if it will lower the IR sensetivity or what? Or has it something to do with 2 way communication?

Considering the above, the manual seems to describe the option setting of a 1-way only BM 4500. Hence, it will have no connection to a 2-way functionality.

[Madskp]

Rolf2 wrote:

You may check the sw version of your BM. Talking about options 5 and 6, those were only available in earlier 1-way versions. 1-way function only had been included in the BM 4500 with a sw version below 2.1.

Thanks for responding. I was not aware that the BM4500 also had been in a one way version initially. Interesting.

Mine is labeled SW 1.6 on the back, and looking at old forum post I can see that when the 2 way communication was introduced in SW 2.1 the ability for the BM4500 to act as a ML slave was removed. Thus I’m pretty sure mine is a software 1.x even if it has had a software upgrade along the way.

This fits me fine as I have no 2 way remotes, and for my use case it could be great to have it act as a link room in the setup.

Jus to see that this function actually worked I connected it to a BS Ouverture via a Beolink 1611 converter. With the BM4500 in option 1.6 and the Ouverture in option 1 I cold start the sources on the BS Ouverture from the BM4500 with the use of link + Audio commands while both units would still use local sources with normal audio commands. Great 🙂

 

[Madskp]

Madskp wrote:

So my guess is that to use the BM4500 as a slave unit it should be conencted to a Master unit via the AUX socket. However a normal Audio Aux cable can not be used as this will connect Audio in to Audio in and Audio out to Audio out. I have to make a crossed cable and do some more testing. update will follow

Finally got some time on my hands to make a Crossed Audio Aux cable to be able to test the BM4500 as a slave with another non Masterlink Beomaster.

The cable pinout looks like this:

The inputs and the output are switching places whereas the data and the ground pins all connects to the corrosponding pins on the other connector

I used a Beocenter 9300 as the Master unit (set to option 1) and the Beomaster 4500 as the slave unit (set to option 1.6).

A picture of the setup

And it works :-). I can control the radio channels on the BC9300 from the BM4500 when I use Link + commands.

Next up I wonder how it will work if MCL2 link rooms are connected to the speaker 2 connectors on the BM4500. I guess there must be some kind of limiting factor somewhere since B&O says that option 6 must no be used.

 

[Madskp]

Madskp wrote:

Next up I wonder how it will work if MCL2 link rooms are connected to the speaker 2 connectors on the BM4500. I guess there must be some kind of limiting factor somewhere since B&O says that option 6 must no be used.

Have now tried this with the BC9300 as master and the BM4500 as slave still connected via the 7 pin crossed Audio Aux Cable, and a Beolab 3500 MK1 connected to the speaker 2 on the BM4500 with MCL speakerlink cable. The BC9300 in option 1, BM4500 in option 1.6, and the Beolab 3500 in option 6.

Activating radio from the Beolab 3500 will start radio on the BC9300 as the data signal is passed through the BM4500, but the BM4500 amplifier is not activated, and therefor no sound is passed through to the Beolab3500.

If the Beolab 3500 is connected directly to the speaker 2 connectors on the BC9300 everything works as expected. This also applies on the BM4500 if set to option 1.5.

 

[Madskp]

So to conclude, MCL link rooms can not be extended from the BM4500 while in slave/link room mode.

 

[Author]

Posts