Any mountable 1/4" headphone jacks?

 
stick with Neutrik as a brand and you will be fine

EDIT: most towns have specialty electronics stores that might have the jacks if not look through your phone book for a audio production company. they will have some to sell or they will know where you can get them easily
 
Mouser Electronics is a GREAT place to buy components. Bought the caps I needed to fix an aging m/b. Still works great.

www.mouser.com
 
mouser or digikey have lots, neutrik makes very nice 1/4" jacks, both locking and non
 
m3ta1head said:
I'd seriously recommend a locking neutrik 1/4"-they are renounced for their quality.

http://www.partsexpress.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?&Partnumber=092-084
Click to expand...

I think that's "renowned". But yes, Neutrik is the standard. PE has good prices, so does Mouser. DigiKey has a fee if you don't meet a minimum order, so I'd not recommend them unless you're buying at least $25 worth of stuff. All Electronics has good prices since they're surplus, but sometimes you don't know the manufacturer.
 
m3ta1head said:
I'd seriously recommend a locking neutrik 1/4"-they are renounced for their quality.

http://www.partsexpress.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?&Partnumber=092-084
Click to expand...

Well, I just picked up one of these from Part's Express. Seems like the best part they carried to fit my needs.

Problem - it just comes in a plastic bag with a part # sticker on it. No diagram showing pin-out for me to figure out how to wire this up. Neutrik's site has a page for the part #, but the "diagram" is more like a straight CAD rendering of the part - no labeling to indicate which leads are for what.

Anyone have any ideas? I have an Intel Front Panel Audio header already, so I'm just re-wiring it to use this plug. FWIW, it's the top pinout table on this page.
 
The connector closest to the mounting point of the jack is the "sleeve" or ground (pin 2 on the header). The middle one is the "ring", the right channel, pin 5. The farthest from the mounting is the "tip", the left channel, pin 9. Hold the connector like in the PE picture. You want to connect them to the three connectors that CAN'T be seen. I'm not sure what to do about the "sense" connection - I don't know the spec or how it's implemented. Without it, the audio might not know if the headphone is plugged in and it may not send a signal to it.
 
For the For AC-97 Front Panel Audio pinout listed on the page linked above you connect the jack like this---->
jack.png
 
A loose translation of the schematic on page 25 is:

You can't use that jack because it does not have an isolated switch (which when connected to SENSE_SEND, SENSE1_RETURN and SENSE2_RETURN. allows the "dynamic re-taking of the front panel jacks" to function).
(you can't ground the sense signal)

This----> http://cui-inc.com/pdffiles/SJ-6346.pdf
Would be a much better jack for this application but good luck finding a vendor that stocks them.

Of course you can always wire a plug and jack onto the jack you bought and make it all work like a FrontX jack does. ;)
 
Nuts! I was afraid it meant something like that.

Frustrating, as these Shuttle systems are very limiting in what exactly you CAN do with the space allowed...
 
Actually, thinking about this more, I'm not sure this won't work...I just need a better understanding of how to do it.

For circumstantial evidence - I had wired up a mono connector very like an AC'97 jack, and it acted like this post on Creative's boards experienced. When nothing was plugged in, there was no sound anywhere. When I plugged something in - even just a 1/4" adapter not connected to anything - the speakers would come on (and headphones, too, in mono, of course). It was definitely detecting the switch (the X-Fi console would switch back and forth between 'headphone' mode when nothing was plugged in to the headphone jack to 'speaker' mode when the headphones were plugged in) - it was just doing it backwards.

The poster 'resolved' this behavior on the second post of the second page, apparently, by doing just that - shorting the 'sense' signal to ground. I think. His explanation is incomplete and lacks technical detail, but with the ability to solder whatever I feel like to the headphone jack (I'm not modding a PCB it is built onto, as he seemed to be), I should have a lot more flexibility, here...

(And as to technical skill - I definitely know my way around a soldering iron. It's merely electrical diagrams I'm not familiar with all the symbols of. Given a picture, or less technical diagram, I'm actually quite precise with the work involved...)

This is an enormously frustrating limitation, and I very much want to get around it. Any help would be appreciated!
 
Let me dumb it down for you a little:

easy.png




To make it "switch modes" simply replace the "normally open isolated switch" with a SPST toggle switch and everything should work.
The cool thing about a toggle switch is it allows you to select from either mode
(speakers on, speaker mode with an active headphone output or headphones on, headphone mode with no speakers)





* The annotation "short together for headphone mode" can work either way (open or shorted) depending on the codec, you will have to trial and error check it to find out how it works for your board's implementation. ;)
(I tried it on my girlfriend's computer and it worked as drawn but it has a POS realtek codec)


BTW... you may find this helpful------> http://www.ibiblio.org/obp/electricCircuits/Ref/REF_9.html
(how to read schematics "tutorial")
 
Okay, pretty sure I follow your explanation, and a switch is certainly an easy thing to install, but I'm afraid you lost me with the return lines on the headphone. The jack I have is 6-pin 'switched', but your diagram only appears to show 3 connection related to the headphone jack (L, R, ground).
 
Ignore the "out pins" because there are no return lines on the "Intel HD Audio" header (to connect them to).
 
sense_send along with sense_return is how the "circuit is closed"

(from section 2.3.5.2 on page 24)

The SENSE_SEND signal is split and routed through the PORT1 and PORT2 isolated
switches. The other contact of each isolated switch, are routed to their respective sense return
signals, SENSE1_RETURN and SENSE2_RETURN. This functionality, together with the
Rjd_PORT1 and Rjd_PORT2 resistors on the motherboard as shown in Figure 5, informs the audio
driver of jack insertion or removal, which is necessary for dynamic re-taking of the front panel
jacks.
Click to expand...
 
Mister X said:
sense_send along with sense_return is how the "circuit is closed"

(from section 2.3.5.2 on page 24)
Click to expand...

Oh, no, wasn't referring to that circuit - I follow that, with the switch. It was more the 'L' and 'R' channel to the headphones I was asking about. You need the signal to run into the headphones through the 'L' in and back out from the 'L' out (and ditto 'R')...but where does it go from there? I didn't see anything in your diagram to cover that, it just went TO the headphone's (presumably) 'in' pins, but nothing coming from the corresponding 'out' pin.

Or am I just overthinking this?

Maybe - how about this. Time for fun with picture pages...

jacks.gif


...forgiving the crudeness of the above diagram, that's the general layout of "what I have". How do I get this to work for the headphones and mic? (Or, perhaps, omit the mic of it's simpler)
 
How about we try something else then?

Get your dykes and cut the "out pins" off the jack.
(now your only choice is to ignore them and you will stop trying to figure out what to connect to them)
 
Mister X said:
How about we try something else then?

Get your dykes and cut the "out pins" off the jack.
(now your only choice is to ignore them and you will stop trying to figure out what to connect to them)
Click to expand...

That works?

How?
 
Well, given that the 'switched' jack wasn't going to do what I wanted (it actually worked exactly the opposite way of what was needed...:rolleyes:), I picked up some new jacks at Radio Shack that 'matched' the switches I could find. Basically a 'proof of concept' run, but it works great.

I'd say I'm 90% of the way there, in fact - the switch works to force headphone mode, mute speakers, etc.

st20g5_mod.jpg


NOW...why only '90% there'? Well, I get this funny...noise...sometimes. I thought it was hard disk activity at one point, as spinning through the 'coverflow' view in iTunes always caused it, but just scanning on the hard disk doesn't cause it much (it does, but much more subdued). Dunno how to describe it, but it's kind of a warble/scratching kind of noise in the background. Not massively 'present', but if you listen for it you can hear it, and it now bugs me.

I'm *guessing* some kind of EMI interference. Or a ground loop?

Thoughts on how to resolve this problem?
 
Mister X said:
No, a ground loop would be more like a loud humm.

Do you know what a ferrite donut is?

Try wrapping the wires around one, as close to the jack as possible, like they are in this picture---->

http://www.mp.ttu.ee/risto/rc/electronics/images/esc/future35/ferrite.jpg

You could also try a snap on ferrite bead but they are less effective.
Click to expand...

I am familiar with both of those things, but didn't realize they were so easily accessible (I dunno why, just never put any thought in that direction at all, actually).

The snap-on ferrite choke would be a LOT more convenient to use - the wires are very short, and the space I'm working in very cramped, so it would be stunningly difficult to work the donuts in. Or...maybe not...if I presume the shielding in the wire is not up to the task (per the noise already getting), I could strip the outer cover down further, and wrap the wires around a donut much easier...still would be tricky with the space, though, to pack all that back in the case...

Hmmm.

Thought - the jacks I ended up using are these. The solder points and wiring around them are - for EM interference purposes, anyways - unprotected (just electrical tape in place to prevent anything actually touching in such close proximity). Compared to most of the length of the wire to the soundcard, which is somewhat shielded. Is there anything I could do to shield the area around the switches/jacks? Or is the quality of the jacks such that, proving the concept works, I should set about replacing all the parts with better quality ones?
 
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