Decimator USB guard
A guard for the SDI end of a Decimator MD-LX, so a tug on the USB-C lead doesn't lever the port.
What it does
The MD-LX keeps its USB-C power socket on the SDI end, beside the BNCs, which is a fine place for it right up until somebody walks through the lead.
This guard is a plate over the SDI end with a tower round the USB-C plug. It's held on by the MD-LX's own two end screws, so there's nothing extra to buy. The plug can't back out or be levered about, and a tug on the lead ends up in the screws rather than the socket.
The MD-LX's SDI lock LED is on its top face, beside the SDI INPUT LOCK label, so nothing here covers it.
Where it stands
v0.1, test-fitted on a real MD-LX. The steps below were written from the model before that fit. If anything in them doesn't match what you find, tell me and I'll fix the page.
Print your own
Fitting it
You'll need
- A screwdriver that fits the MD-LX's end screws
- The USB-C lead you'll be using with it
- Plug the USB-C lead into the MD-LX.
- Take out the two screws at the ends of the SDI end panel. Keep them: they go back in through the guard.
- Slide the guard down over the BNCs and the plug, so the cable comes up through the open top of the tower and the plate sits flat on the panel.
- Put the two screws back in through the guard. Their heads sit flush in its countersinks. Tighten them until they're snug and stop there: the countersinks are plastic.
How it holds
Two lips at the tower's open end close in over the near end of the plug body, and the back wall leans in over its far end, so the plug can't back out. The walls hold it on three sides and the lips on the fourth, so it can't be levered either.
The BNC holes
The BNC flanges on an MD-LX are only about 1.3 mm apart, which leaves no room for a web between two separate holes. So the guard has two round holes that overlap at a waist, each 16.7 mm across and 1.2 mm clear of its flange all round.
Their positions came from a photo of the SDI end taken at an angle, which is good to about half a millimetre, and the clearance covers that. If the guard fouls a BNC, that photo is the measurement that was off.
Will your leads fit?
| USB-C plug moulding | Up to 11.7 × 7.0 mm across |
|---|---|
| Plug pocket | 11.7 × 7.0 mm, 15.3 mm tall |
The pocket is sized for the cable used with the part its numbers were measured from (see below), not for one particular make, so try yours before relying on it.
Taking it off
- Take out the two screws.
- Slide the guard off the BNCs and the plug.
- Put the screws back in the MD-LX.
What's been checked
The first item is from the test fit. The rest were checked in software, against the model, before it.
test fit Test-fitted on a real MD-LX, BNC holes included, which came from a photo.
in software Nothing comes within 0.9 mm of either BNC flange, up to 12 mm off the panel.
in software Both screw heads, and a screwdriver above them, have room.
in software There's at least as much room for the plug and cable as in the part the numbers were measured from, everywhere up to 22.5 mm off the panel.
not yet Whether USB-C leads other than the one it was fitted with go in the pocket.
Where the numbers came from
The screw holes and their countersinks, the plug pocket, the lips and the lean of the back wall were measured from joren's Decimator MD-LX USB-C Protector on Printables, and the BNC positions from a photo of the SDI end, scaled by the two end screws. Everything else is my own design, written from scratch, and the test fit is what proved the numbers on a real MD-LX.
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Fitted one?
Tell me how it went
If you've put one on a real MD-LX, I'd like to hear about it, good or bad: whether it seated, whether your plug went in, and anything that got in the way.