Control-A1 is a protocol used on many pieces of Sony electronics including CD players, receivers and MD players. Control-A1II is the same protocol with some extensions added used by newer equipment. The connection for both of these is the same. Control-A1(II) is a bus architecture meaning that multiple pieces of equipment can be daisy chained onto the same port.
Generally only Sony audio equipment has Control-A1(II) ports. They are usually labeled as such. Sometimes they will be labeled only as "S-link". Do not however use a port labeled "S-link/Control-S". Control-S ports are generally on Sony video equipment and should not be connected to the Slink-e Control-A1 ports.
The Slink-e has 4 separate Control-A1(II) ports. Each port can have multiple pieces of equipment connected to it. Many Control-A1(II) capable devices have two interconnected ports on allowing you to easily daisy chain your equipment.
You can technically put at least one of each type of equipment per port. You may not want to though for reason discussed in the next section. For instance you can have one receiver, one MD player and one tape deck on the same port. Some equipment like Sony CD changers with capacities of 300 or less have a selector switch on the back which lets you select 3 different IDs. This allows up to 3 changers to be chained on the same port. The newer 400 disc CD changers will automatically select IDs based on their configuration.
Sony DVD changers have a Control-A1II port but this port cannot be used to talk to the unit. This port is only for the DVD changer to control a slave CD changer.
It is not always best to connect multiple pieces of equipment to the same port. Some Control-A1(II) equipment types will try to communicate with each other to do things automatically. An example of this is a receiver switching to the CD input when a CD player is started. Sometimes this type of automatic behavior can interfere with the PC software controlling the equipment, therefore it can often be better to put equipment on separate ports to avoid such complications.
The most common problem of this sort is multiple CD changers being in a Master/Slave configuration. The newer CD changers allow you to turn this off with a "MegaControl" switch but older changers do not. This configuration often interferes with CDJ properly controlling the changers. See the Connecting Multiple Changers topic for more information on this problem.
The Control-A1(II) cable is a 1/8" phone plug mono cable. These can be purchased at Radio Shack (part number 42-2420) or most electronics stores.
We have seen some cables where the mono plug is too long for The Slink-e port. The symptom you will see is that the light on the slink-e will stay orange when the cable is plugged in. This is because the plug is shorting the connection. If you pull the connector out a little bit so that the light goes to green you may be able to get it to work anyway.
If you build your own cables they can typically be run up 50ft without problems. In general we recommend using a long serial cable instead of long Control-A1 cables if you need to go a long distance from your Slink-e to your equipment. If you build your own cables you should use shielded or twisted pair wire.
If you have an old CDP-CX153 CD changer you will need a special connection. The simplest way to do this is to plug a Radio Shack part number 274-375 dual 1/8" mono jack to 1/8" stereo plug adapter into the CD player. Then plug a standard 1/8" mono plug cord into one of the mono jacks and the other end into the Slink-e. Since the two mono jacks on the 274-375 aren't labeled, you'll have to try both of them to discover the correct connection.
If you have a voltmeter or are constructing you own cable, do the following: