i need one of those… or 2…

Posted at 9:50 am on Oct 13th, 2008 by starfight

I just bought a jack for my thingamakit, and the best feature was it had a metal screw-on collar and lock washer so it could be easily mounted on a box.

Posted at 10:05 am on Oct 13th, 2008 by bearsinthesea

I usually buy the ones at RadioShack, I don’t use surface mount stuff often. The RadioShack ones have screw-on collars so I used them to build a switch box for my speakers (hook up multiple audio sources to one set of speakers). I recently desoldered all the components off of a broken set of PC speakers, got a ton of capacitors, a few amp chips, and a few 3.5mm jacks.

Posted at 10:40 am on Oct 13th, 2008 by CalcProgrammer1

Not being an audiophile, can someone explain the point of a passthrough? It just seems superfluous…

Posted at 10:42 am on Oct 13th, 2008 by zach

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TRS_connector

has a lot more useful info

Posted at 11:01 am on Oct 13th, 2008 by andrew

Anyone know where I can get jacks and cables with 4 sections?

the iPod as well as the Zune and other devices (like the DVD player in my car) use a 4 section jack to carry stereo audio+composite video….

so far the only 4 section cables I’ve found are expensive break out cables that convert a 4 section end into normal RCA Audio and Video jacks at the other end.

Having a single small cable with a 3.5mm plug on either end would be quite useful for a lot of projects, and especially those where you want to grab AV data from your portable media device.

I’ve looked for these things for months but not found any resource that is terribly useful or economical for a hardware hacker. I figured this article is a perfect opportunity to as the h.a.d. community.

Posted at 11:18 am on Oct 13th, 2008 by twistedsymphony

along with my last post here is the pinout for 4 section connectors on the iPod, Zune, Camcorders and other devices:
http://www.anythingbutipod.com/archives/2006/11/microsoft-zune-av-cable-pinouts.php

Posted at 11:22 am on Oct 13th, 2008 by twistedsymphony

It would be nice to have part #’s on digikey/mouser for the popular ones, through hole parts that match the standard 0.1″ grid of holes in a perfboard/breadboard.

Also part numbers for ones with screw collars, both metal jack body and plastic jack body (ie: sleeve isolated from case ground, and sleeve connected to case ground).

Posted at 12:08 pm on Oct 13th, 2008 by aonomus

Four conductor plugs:

Available from Mouser.com

Part # 171-7435-EX 3.5mm 4 Conductor Plug

Part # 171-7425-E 2.5mm 4 Conductor Plug

http://www.mouser.com/Search/Refine.aspx?N=4206622+4294758968+4294728630+4294635164&Ns=P_Product|0||P_SField|0

Posted at 12:10 pm on Oct 13th, 2008 by PUNiSH3R

Zach,

It’s so your device can behave differently when there’s something plugged into the jack. For example, automatically muting speaker output if you plug in headphones.

Posted at 12:47 pm on Oct 13th, 2008 by Ken

PUNiSH3R, Thank you very much for that ^_^

Posted at 4:47 pm on Oct 13th, 2008 by twistedsymphony

http://www.allelectronics.com/make-a-store/category/190050/Connectors-Plugs-and-Jacks-/3.5mm/1.html

they aren’t audiophile grade or anything, but they are inexpensive and they work. :)

Posted at 8:42 pm on Oct 13th, 2008 by ryan

As well as audio and power connectors, I’ve been known to use these as low profile RS232 connectors (3 sections = Tx, Rx and Gnd).

Anyone else used these for something novel?

Posted at 5:56 am on Oct 14th, 2008 by lwr

4 Conductor 3.5mm jack to 3 rca cables are available at your local dollar store.

Posted at 10:11 am on Oct 14th, 2008 by cde

They have 43,200, so supply isn’t a problem!

http://search.digikey.com/scripts/DkSearch/dksus.dll?Detail?name=CP1-3515SJTR-ND

Posted at 11:14 am on Oct 14th, 2008 by MicrosoftBOB

Looks like it’s the same footprint, and even manufacturer too!

http://search.digikey.com/scripts/DkSearch/dksus.dll?Detail?name=CP1-3515SJTR-ND

Posted at 11:20 am on Oct 14th, 2008 by MicrosoftBOB

@lwr – using this as a mini RS232 connector is an awesome idea, I can’t believe I didn’t thing of that, and I’m even working on a few projects where I needed a small sized RS232 connector!

@cde – yes I know that 4 conductor to RCA are available in a lot of places (not my dollar store, though, already checked) but that’s not what I was looking for.

4 conductor to 4 conductor patch cables seem rare as do 4 conductor jacks for projects, as do solder-able 4 conductor plug ends for custom cables.

Posted at 12:41 pm on Oct 14th, 2008 by twistedsymphony

@ Twisted, you can check car audio/video places. I dd’d a 4 conductor plug to 3 rca JACKS, with weather proof cap from one once. You can go in and see if they have that.

Posted at 2:46 pm on Oct 14th, 2008 by cde

@lwr:
I’ve used the passthrough contacts connected to a relay as an easy and unconventional motorcycle immobiliser.

Stick the socket in an unobtrusive place on your bike/car dashboard, wire it into the ignition somewhere appropriate and the vehicle won’t move without a headphone plug inserted.

Not hi-tech, but also not an easy to recognise system for most car thieves, therefore not easy to defeat.

Posted at 10:38 am on Oct 19th, 2008 by andygondorf

@andygondorf:
That’s a neat idea. If you wanted to make it harder to defeat, I guess you could run some kind of serial protocol over it and query an encryption key embedded in a micro in a headphone jack.

Or (analog and maybe more simple) put 3 resistors between the 3 jack contacts and use an op-amp circuit to detect that the resistor values are the correct ones for your particular key.

Posted at 1:26 am on Oct 28th, 2008 by lwr

I have been looking all round and I can find it. I am wondering where I can get a 3.5mm phone jack (stereo) double open circuit/isolated switching “make” circuit.

Refer to: http://www.switchcraft.com/products/pdf_files/jack-65_schematic.pdf (drawing XX)

Thank you

Posted at 10:14 pm on Jul 13th, 2009 by Mike Lachance