Hux Electronics : History 2
Custom Built Things, 1985 to 1995. Hux Electronics was established in 1985 in Alice Springs and so this seems to be a good place to start this gallery. I used to be constantly building stuff in these days, partially for my own amusement and lots of it because we couldn't buy the exact thing we needed for some project or other. I was also employed part time (and then later full time) by CAAMA in as a tech, CAAMA had little money for capitol expenses and so I would just build whatever they needed to get the job done. These photos cover only a very small sample of the stuff that was actually built in this time.
A Hux Lead Checker. I made and sold a lot of these handy little boxes. The finish was just paint on a die cast box and would chip off with a bit of hard use. I don't have one of these any more, they are tough little beasties and are probably still out there being used somewhere.
A selection of problem solver boxes, a passive sub mixer of some kind, a passive transformer isolation box, an external 10dB insertable "pad" box for a particular mixing console that didn't pad down enough on inputs, it also doubles up as a passive mixer (very smart design in a box with no knobs).
A Hux Low / High Active Filter Set, this was part of a mod that I fitted to the above Jands EightGate (noise gate), it gives the EightGate a full set of sidechain filters. This unit is probably still in use.
A Hux Midi Switcher, it enables any of the six outputs to follow any of the six inputs in any combination. The LED's show MIDI activity.
A Hux Distribution Amplifier, it enables the recording console outputs to be permanently patched to the inputs of all record machines without fear of stange loading or interaction. The next box down is a custom sub mixer for a Yamaha RX5 drum machine, this drum machine had a choice of stereo outputs or 12 individual outputs, this sub mixer brought the output count back to 8 which made it a bit easier to handle (same as a real drum kit).
Another Hux audio problem solver. 4 channels of balanced to unbalanced and 4 channels of unbalanced to balanced, all with 10 turn level trim pots
A Hux Headphone Amp, balanced inputs
A Hux Active DI Box. A pre set internal pad means no switches which means nothing to break, I built quite a few of these they are all still in service.
A Hux Auto Mute. This is one of those things that cuts the power when the DJ gets too loud. This one works a little differently, it cuts the audio path (not the power) and gives the DJ an actual VU meter as a display. When the VU meter hits the red line he has time to pull back, if he stays in the red line then the audio will cut. The meter red line was also backed up with a lamp output which shone a bright lamp at the DJ to wake him up. As far as I know it is probably still being used today.
Another custom Hux box in a video machine dubbing rack. I don't recall the exact functions but it can select different inputs and different operating levels and then feeds the distribution amplifiers in the rack.
A Hux TBC Remote. This box does the duty of three Sony TBC remote boxes (which have an insane price tag), it is essentially just a bunch of pots in a box with a power supply
Another Hux problem solver (centre of photo). This box controls the monitor speakers in a mobile video edit van. It also controled some other stuff, I don't recall the other functions.
A Hux Stereo Line Mixer (which fell off the top of a car, don't ask) and a Hux Audio Distribution Amplifier (I built lots of these).
A Hux Noise Gate. This was my attempt at building a FET based noise gate, it works but not as well as I would have liked, it is probably still in use.
A Hux Line Driver (top right of rack). This unit drives audio down a long line to a distant radio transmitter. I decided to drive the line with a very low impedance source rather than just equalize the receive end, it works really well and is still silently doing its job as far as I know. I did a lot of broadcast work back then and was always creating solutions to tricky problems.
A few schematic diagrams just to show the sort of things that were being built or conceived at the time.
The above shows the detector section of the Hux Auto Mute
I did a lot of broadcast radio work for CAAMA and so we needed things like Program Fail alarms to let us know when stuff went wrong.
The Hux Mini Broadcast Console. When BRACS (broadcast for remote aboriginal community scheme) started up there were no suitable small broadcast mixing consoles available. I designed this one and sent the concept to all of the Australian console manufacturers at the time. McCubbin in Melbourne eventually built a console along these lines and then others followed suit. The McCubbin MBC-8 uses the stereo cue concept that was part of the Hux design (my claim to fame, a small one I know).
The block diagram of the Hux Mini Broadcast Console.
A Hux balanced line sub mixer. This was built to enable a DJ and live PA operator to sub mix independently into the same PA system. It enables each to be muted locally or remotely and also enables each to have their own system EQ (before the sub mixer). I shopped this idea around to various manufactures but no takers, must have been ahead of its time.
A Hux lamp fader for diacroic lamps. The was built for a display in a wildlife park. It slowly fades the lamps up when triggered, holds for a while and then fades them down again. it was a challenge at the time due to the high current needed to run the lamps.
