What the heck are these plugs for?

I needed to replace a 1/8" stereo plug on a cord. I found on ebay a pack
of three 1/8" stereo plugs from China, for about $2. I dont normally
order from China, but for the price and since I was in no hurry for
them, I bought them.

That was a mistake. They are NOT stereo, they are THREE CHANNEL. The tip
of the plug has THREE contacts, (plus the grounded base). What the heck
are they for? I have never seen any 3 prong 1/8" jacks on anything.

Yea, I could just ground the uppermost terminal so it acts as a stereo
plug, but it gets worse. Under the shell, I found a solder on ground
contact. But none of the three conductors have any contacts attached to
them. There are just three pieces of "rod" sticking out the back, with
the insulation in between. I would have to wrap the wires around them,
and solder them and by the time I manage to do all that in that tiny
space, I'd probably melt the insulation between the sections and unless
they wires were hair thin, they would short against the ground terminal.

For the small price, I am not gonna make a big deal out of it. I'll just
have to order some properly made plugs from an American manufacturer,
and use these worthless plugs for a conversation piece.

 

[John-Del]

On Saturday, July 1, 2017 at 5:08:38 AM UTC-4, olds...@tubes.com wrote:

I needed to replace a 1/8" stereo plug on a cord. I found on ebay a pack
of three 1/8" stereo plugs from China, for about $2. I dont normally
order from China, but for the price and since I was in no hurry for
them, I bought them.

That was a mistake. They are NOT stereo, they are THREE CHANNEL. The tip
of the plug has THREE contacts, (plus the grounded base). What the heck
are they for? I have never seen any 3 prong 1/8" jacks on anything.

Yea, I could just ground the uppermost terminal so it acts as a stereo
plug, but it gets worse. Under the shell, I found a solder on ground
contact. But none of the three conductors have any contacts attached to
them. There are just three pieces of "rod" sticking out the back, with
the insulation in between. I would have to wrap the wires around them,
and solder them and by the time I manage to do all that in that tiny
space, I'd probably melt the insulation between the sections and unless
they wires were hair thin, they would short against the ground terminal.

For the small price, I am not gonna make a big deal out of it. I'll just
have to order some properly made plugs from an American manufacturer,
and use these worthless plugs for a conversation piece.

A link would be nice, but I've seen plugs like what you're describing used for plug in keyboards, controllers, and even small power supplies - anything that needs a quick disconnect.

 

[Gareth Magennis]

wrote in message news:i3lelc5gojpe7o9ttiepp8oc3feho047nt@4ax.com...

I needed to replace a 1/8" stereo plug on a cord. I found on ebay a pack
of three 1/8" stereo plugs from China, for about $2. I dont normally
order from China, but for the price and since I was in no hurry for
them, I bought them.

That was a mistake. They are NOT stereo, they are THREE CHANNEL. The tip
of the plug has THREE contacts, (plus the grounded base). What the heck
are they for? I have never seen any 3 prong 1/8" jacks on anything.

Yea, I could just ground the uppermost terminal so it acts as a stereo
plug, but it gets worse. Under the shell, I found a solder on ground
contact. But none of the three conductors have any contacts attached to
them. There are just three pieces of "rod" sticking out the back, with
the insulation in between. I would have to wrap the wires around them,
and solder them and by the time I manage to do all that in that tiny
space, I'd probably melt the insulation between the sections and unless
they wires were hair thin, they would short against the ground terminal.

For the small price, I am not gonna make a big deal out of it. I'll just
have to order some properly made plugs from an American manufacturer,
and use these worthless plugs for a conversation piece.




**********************************************************



You find these on things like headsets and mobile phones where you have
stereo audio plus a microphone down the same cable.


Gareth.

 

[Stephen Wolstenholme]

On Sat, 01 Jul 2017 04:04:35 -0400, oldschool@tubes.com wrote:

I needed to replace a 1/8" stereo plug on a cord. I found on ebay a pack
of three 1/8" stereo plugs from China, for about $2. I dont normally
order from China, but for the price and since I was in no hurry for
them, I bought them.

That was a mistake. They are NOT stereo, they are THREE CHANNEL. The tip
of the plug has THREE contacts, (plus the grounded base). What the heck
are they for? I have never seen any 3 prong 1/8" jacks on anything.

Yea, I could just ground the uppermost terminal so it acts as a stereo
plug, but it gets worse. Under the shell, I found a solder on ground
contact. But none of the three conductors have any contacts attached to
them. There are just three pieces of "rod" sticking out the back, with
the insulation in between. I would have to wrap the wires around them,
and solder them and by the time I manage to do all that in that tiny
space, I'd probably melt the insulation between the sections and unless
they wires were hair thin, they would short against the ground terminal.

For the small price, I am not gonna make a big deal out of it. I'll just
have to order some properly made plugs from an American manufacturer,
and use these worthless plugs for a conversation piece.

My Samsung photo mobile has a plug like that for earphone and
microphone made before USB became standard.

Steve

--
Neural Network Software for Windows http://www.npsnn.com

 

[Trevor Wilson]

On 1/07/2017 6:04 PM, oldschool@tubes.com wrote:

I needed to replace a 1/8" stereo plug on a cord. I found on ebay a pack
of three 1/8" stereo plugs from China, for about $2. I dont normally
order from China, but for the price and since I was in no hurry for
them, I bought them.

That was a mistake. They are NOT stereo, they are THREE CHANNEL. The tip
of the plug has THREE contacts, (plus the grounded base). What the heck
are they for? I have never seen any 3 prong 1/8" jacks on anything.

**They are used for a wide variety of things. One is for two stereo
channels and one video.

Yea, I could just ground the uppermost terminal so it acts as a stereo
plug, but it gets worse. Under the shell, I found a solder on ground
contact. But none of the three conductors have any contacts attached to
them. There are just three pieces of "rod" sticking out the back, with
the insulation in between. I would have to wrap the wires around them,
and solder them and by the time I manage to do all that in that tiny
space, I'd probably melt the insulation between the sections and unless
they wires were hair thin, they would short against the ground terminal.

For the small price, I am not gonna make a big deal out of it. I'll just
have to order some properly made plugs from an American manufacturer,
and use these worthless plugs for a conversation piece.

**"American manufacturer"? Don't tell me you've swallowed the Trump
Kool-Aide? I doubt that 3.5mm jack plugs were ever manufactured in the
US. If they were, it was likely before the early 1960s. If want REAL
quality, then look at Neutrik. Best 3.5mm jack plugs in the business.
You guys really have to get over this 'inch' bullshit. Everyone on the
planet, save a tiny 5% of the planetary population has embraced the
Metric system. Hell, engineers and scientists in the US use it.



--
Trevor Wilson
www.rageaudio.com.au

 

[Andy Burns]

oldschool@tubes.com wrote:

I needed to replace a 1/8" stereo plug on a cord. I found on ebay a pack
of three 1/8" stereo plugs from China, for about $2. I dont normally
order from China, but for the price and since I was in no hurry for
them, I bought them.

That was a mistake. They are NOT stereo, they are THREE CHANNEL. The tip
of the plug has THREE contacts, (plus the grounded base). What the heck
are they for? I have never seen any 3 prong 1/8" jacks on anything.

You seem to have bought TRRS rather than TRS plugs, mobile phones often
use them for stereo headsets with mic (and sometimes answer/end call
buttons, or FF/REW buttons)

 

[John-Del]

On Saturday, July 1, 2017 at 5:08:38 AM UTC-4, olds...@tubes.com wrote:

I needed to replace a 1/8" stereo plug on a cord. I found on ebay a pack
of three 1/8" stereo plugs from China, for about $2. I dont normally
order from China, but for the price and since I was in no hurry for
them, I bought them.

That was a mistake. They are NOT stereo, they are THREE CHANNEL. The tip
of the plug has THREE contacts, (plus the grounded base). What the heck
are they for? I have never seen any 3 prong 1/8" jacks on anything.

Yea, I could just ground the uppermost terminal so it acts as a stereo
plug, but it gets worse. Under the shell, I found a solder on ground
contact. But none of the three conductors have any contacts attached to
them. There are just three pieces of "rod" sticking out the back, with
the insulation in between. I would have to wrap the wires around them,
and solder them and by the time I manage to do all that in that tiny
space, I'd probably melt the insulation between the sections and unless
they wires were hair thin, they would short against the ground terminal.

For the small price, I am not gonna make a big deal out of it. I'll just
have to order some properly made plugs from an American manufacturer,
and use these worthless plugs for a conversation piece.

I've also seen them on X-Box headsets now that I think about it.

 

[John-Del]

On Saturday, July 1, 2017 at 6:31:22 AM UTC-4, Trevor Wilson wrote:

**"American manufacturer"? Don't tell me you've swallowed the Trump
Kool-Aide?

Trump is NOT talking about replacing every imported item with a domestic one. That's the leftist media's binary spin on this: If Trump talks about reducing the trade deficit, then it means he wants to stop *all* imports and make everything domestically. Not happening - not his plan.

Americans don't have any problem buying German, British, Canadian, Swiss etc. imports as we know they aren't built strictly for price. While the Chinese are not genetically predisposed to making junk, a very large portion of Chinese sourced pieces/parts are indeed crap. There are however many good parts sourced from China, it's just not the norm from what I've seen. Japan had the same (deserved) reputation until they started making better quality stuff. Americans no longer have any problem buying a Japanese sourced component as we perceive them to be of higher quality that Chinese stuff.

You guys really have to get over this 'inch' bullshit. Everyone on the
planet, save a tiny 5% of the planetary population has embraced the
Metric system. Hell, engineers and scientists in the US use it.

Americans (and I'm guessing the Brits) are "bilingual" when it comes to measurements (except the old guys like olds...@tubes.com!). We use both interchangeably and seamlessly. It's not an issue here.

OTOH, we call the plug in question 3.5mm as well. I didn't realize they're also referred to as 1/8 inch.

 

[rickman]

John-Del wrote on 7/1/2017 1:51 PM:

On Saturday, July 1, 2017 at 6:31:22 AM UTC-4, Trevor Wilson wrote:


**"American manufacturer"? Don't tell me you've swallowed the Trump
Kool-Aide?

Trump is NOT talking about replacing every imported item with a domestic one. That's the leftist media's binary spin on this: If Trump talks about reducing the trade deficit, then it means he wants to stop *all* imports and make everything domestically. Not happening - not his plan.

Americans don't have any problem buying German, British, Canadian, Swiss etc. imports as we know they aren't built strictly for price. While the Chinese are not genetically predisposed to making junk, a very large portion of Chinese sourced pieces/parts are indeed crap. There are however many good parts sourced from China, it's just not the norm from what I've seen.

I'll share with you a secret. If we didn't buy "crap" from China, they
wouldn't keep sending it!!! They only make what people buy, nothing more,
nothing less.


> Japan had the same (deserved) reputation until they started making better quality stuff. Americans no longer have any problem buying a Japanese sourced component as we perceive them to be of higher quality that Chinese stuff.

Many times we perceive Japanese goods to be superior to US made goods. I
seem to recall they nearly (or maybe did) bankrupt the US automakers at one
point, not to mention many other goods they seem to excel at making.

You guys really have to get over this 'inch' bullshit. Everyone on the
planet, save a tiny 5% of the planetary population has embraced the
Metric system. Hell, engineers and scientists in the US use it.

Americans (and I'm guessing the Brits) are "bilingual" when it comes to measurements (except the old guys like olds...@tubes.com!). We use both interchangeably and seamlessly. It's not an issue here.

Hardly. *Some* engineers use both systems. I recall all of the mechanical
designs at a company I worked for were in inches. I asked about that one
time and they made is clear they had no reason to change.

The average guy on the street has no idea how large a gram is or a ml or a
mm or a hectare, even though they are printed on the sides of the things we
buy (well, maybe not the hectare).


> OTOH, we call the plug in question 3.5mm as well. I didn't realize they're also referred to as 1/8 inch.

They've been 1/8 inch since they appeared on the sides of Japanese
transistor radios in the 60's.

I'm actually surprised oldschool didn't spot the three way plug. They have
come in mono and stereo for a long time. I expect he can still use the
plugs he got as stereo plugs. He just needs to short together two sections.
I guess he'd have to figure out which two sections though.

--

Rick C

 

[Ralph Mowery]

In article <b2bbc031-f775-49d7-a936-55f18beb6f72@googlegroups.com>,
ohger1s@gmail.com says...

On Saturday, July 1, 2017 at 6:31:22 AM UTC-4, Trevor Wilson wrote:

Trump is NOT talking about replacing every imported item with a domestic
one. That's the leftist media's binary spin on this: If Trump talks
about reducing the trade deficit, then it means he wants to stop *all*
imports and make everything domestically. Not happening - not his plan.

Americans don't have any problem buying German, British, Canadian, Swiss etc. imports as we know they aren't built strictly for price. While the Chinese are not genetically predisposed to making junk, a very large portion of Chinese sourced pieces/parts are indeed crap. There are however many good parts sourced from China, it's just not the norm from what I've seen. Japan had the same (deserved) reputation
until they started making better quality stuff. Americans no longer have any problem buying a Japanese sourced component as we perceive them to be of higher quality that Chinese stuff.

I don't care where an item is made. I buy for quality, or at least what
I think is quality in my price range. Never could get an American car
to last. Started buying the Japan cars around 1980. Did buy a Ford in
1995 and it turned out that model was a piece of junk. Went back to the
Japan ones.

Around 1972 I took a tour of the local TV station. They had just gotten
in a few Japan Cameras about 6 months before and were bragging on them
and how they were going to get more as the money allowed for it.

China puts out lots of junk at junk prices. However I have found some
of their electronics to be every bit as good as the Japan ones that have
been highly rated for many years. Isn't China where many of the Apple
item are made ?

If the American companies would quit paying the higher ups in a company
large ammouts of money and put it into better quality I am sure lots of
jobs would come back to America. Really looks bad to go to a large
company and see a row of almost new high dollar cars for the wheels, and
the others old used cars for the workers.

 

[jfeng@my-deja.com]

On Saturday, July 1, 2017 at 3:31:22 AM UTC-7, Trevor Wilson wrote:

On 1/07/2017 6:04 PM, oldschool@tubes.com wrote:
For the small price, I am not gonna make a big deal out of it. I'll just
have to order some properly made plugs from an American manufacturer,
and use these worthless plugs for a conversation piece.

**"American manufacturer"? Don't tell me you've swallowed the Trump
Kool-Aide?
By their actions, Donald and Ivanka clearly believe in the superiority of things made in China, since that is where their ties, shoes, and other things are manufactured. The Donald may promote American manufacturing, but that is as credible as anything else that comes out of his mouth.

He has all the honor of someone who stole the family crest of someone else (only modified by removing the Latin word "Integritas" and replacing it with "Trump"), and who tried to convince people that his self-created Time magazine cover was genuine. It is reasonable to assert that all the Trumpettes are just as truthful, honorable and honest.

 

[jfeng@my-deja.com]

On Saturday, July 1, 2017 at 10:51:53 AM UTC-7, John-Del wrote:

Americans don't have any problem buying German, British, Canadian, Swiss etc.
imports as we know they aren't built strictly for price.
Despite NAFTA, Americans cannot easily purchase cheaper drugs from Canada because it would make it harder for the drug companies to raise their prices..

Americans (and I'm guessing the Brits) are "bilingual" when it comes to
measurements (except the old guys like olds...@tubes.com!). We use both
interchangeably and seamlessly. It's not an issue here.
There are lots of stories about problems caused by confusion between metric and Imperial measures. Two that come to mind are the spy satellite that pointed up to the sky, and the Mars probe that crashed.

I think the UK is metricated. The older Imperial units appear when they are being deliberately nostalgic, like in historical dramas. The last I heard, Ireland (not a part of a UK) had an amusing mixture where speed limits were in mph and road distances were in km.

 

[Ralph Mowery]

In article <oj8pjv$vro$1@dont-email.me>, gnuarm@gmail.com says...

Americans (and I'm guessing the Brits) are "bilingual" when it comes

to measurements (except the old guys like olds...@tubes.com!). We use
both interchangeably and seamlessly. It's not an issue here.

Hardly. *Some* engineers use both systems. I recall all of the mechanical
designs at a company I worked for were in inches. I asked about that one
time and they made is clear they had no reason to change.

My son had a Ford that those engineers must have designed. Some bolts
in inches and others were metric.

 

[Ralph Mowery]

In article <oj8pjv$vro$1@dont-email.me>, gnuarm@gmail.com says...

Japan had the same (deserved) reputation until they started making better quality stuff. Americans no longer have any problem buying a Japanese sourced component as we perceive them to be of higher quality that Chinese stuff.

Many times we perceive Japanese goods to be superior to US made goods. I
seem to recall they nearly (or maybe did) bankrupt the US automakers at one
point, not to mention many other goods they seem to excel at making.

Japan did not almost put the American cars out of business, they did it
to their selves by making high priced junk.

 

[Gareth Magennis]

"John-Del" wrote in message
news:b2bbc031-f775-49d7-a936-55f18beb6f72@googlegroups.com...

On Saturday, July 1, 2017 at 6:31:22 AM UTC-4, Trevor Wilson wrote:

**"American manufacturer"? Don't tell me you've swallowed the Trump
Kool-Aide?

Trump is NOT talking about replacing every imported item with a domestic
one. That's the leftist media's binary spin on this: If Trump talks about
reducing the trade deficit, then it means he wants to stop *all* imports and
make everything domestically. Not happening - not his plan.

Americans don't have any problem buying German, British, Canadian, Swiss
etc. imports as we know they aren't built strictly for price. While the
Chinese are not genetically predisposed to making junk, a very large portion
of Chinese sourced pieces/parts are indeed crap. There are however many
good parts sourced from China, it's just not the norm from what I've seen.
Japan had the same (deserved) reputation until they started making better
quality stuff. Americans no longer have any problem buying a Japanese
sourced component as we perceive them to be of higher quality that Chinese
stuff.

You guys really have to get over this 'inch' bullshit. Everyone on the
planet, save a tiny 5% of the planetary population has embraced the
Metric system. Hell, engineers and scientists in the US use it.

Americans (and I'm guessing the Brits) are "bilingual" when it comes to
measurements (except the old guys like olds...@tubes.com!). We use both
interchangeably and seamlessly. It's not an issue here.

OTOH, we call the plug in question 3.5mm as well. I didn't realize they're
also referred to as 1/8 inch.


**********************************************************************************



Us "Brits" tend to call a 1/4 inch jack plug a quarter inch jack plug, for
historical reasons.

The 3.5mm jack plug is a more recent addition to our language, and is called
a 3.5mm jack plug.
I have never heard it called an 1/8 inch plug.


The problem as I see it with the old style inches system is that it is in
discrete steps, whereas the Metric system is as accurate as you want it to
be.

I regularly measure things with metric Vernier calipers. This would give a
result of 3.5mm on a 3.5mm jack plug, perhaps 3.51 or whatever, if it wasn't
quite the right size.
3.5mm is somewhere between 1/8 inch and 9/64ths using the Imperial scale.
I think it is actually closer to 9/64ths.

I'm not sure how you can deal with this - why would you not just measure in
mm, rather than say it's a bit more than 1/8 but not quite 9/64ths?



Gareth.

 

On Sat, 1 Jul 2017 14:37:41 -0400, Ralph Mowery
<rmowery28146@earthlink.net> wrote:

In article <b2bbc031-f775-49d7-a936-55f18beb6f72@googlegroups.com>,
ohger1s@gmail.com says...

On Saturday, July 1, 2017 at 6:31:22 AM UTC-4, Trevor Wilson wrote:

Trump is NOT talking about replacing every imported item with a domestic
one. That's the leftist media's binary spin on this: If Trump talks
about reducing the trade deficit, then it means he wants to stop *all*
imports and make everything domestically. Not happening - not his plan.

Americans don't have any problem buying German, British, Canadian, Swiss etc. imports as we know they aren't built strictly for price. While the Chinese are not genetically predisposed to making junk, a very large portion of Chinese sourced pieces/parts are indeed crap. There are however many good parts sourced from China, it's just not the norm from what I've seen. Japan had the same (deserved) reputation
until they started making better quality stuff. Americans no longer have any problem buying a Japanese sourced component as we perceive them to be of higher quality that Chinese stuff.


I don't care where an item is made. I buy for quality, or at least what
I think is quality in my price range. Never could get an American car
to last. Started buying the Japan cars around 1980. Did buy a Ford in
1995 and it turned out that model was a piece of junk. Went back to the
Japan ones.

Around 1972 I took a tour of the local TV station. They had just gotten
in a few Japan Cameras about 6 months before and were bragging on them
and how they were going to get more as the money allowed for it.

China puts out lots of junk at junk prices. However I have found some
of their electronics to be every bit as good as the Japan ones that have
been highly rated for many years. Isn't China where many of the Apple
item are made ?

If the American companies would quit paying the higher ups in a company
large ammouts of money and put it into better quality I am sure lots of
jobs would come back to America. Really looks bad to go to a large
company and see a row of almost new high dollar cars for the wheels, and
the others old used cars for the workers.

This whole business of imported goods being junk has been going on for
a long time. When the USA was still a British colony all sorts of
goods were made here and exported to Britain. They were considered to
be of lesser quality than British made goods. And they mostly were.
This is because for the most part the goods were made to order. And
the British folks ordering the goods were mostly (I seem to have the
word "most" stuck in my head) interested in low prices. After the USA
was formed the cheap goods were still produced to order and most
(Gawd! there's that word again!) production was still owned by the
British. After the USA started to become industrialized certain
technolgies were prohibited from being exported to the USA from
Britain. Eventually the USA became industrialized, we developed our
own machine tools, the British lost control of our manufacturing, we
marketed our own stuff, and produced goods for internal as well as
external consumption, and quality improved greatly. Fast forward to
the period just after WW2 and the Japanese were in a similar
situation. Their country was devasted and they needed money. Many USA
companies started having cheap goods produced in Japan. These goods
weren't supposed to be of high quality, the USA buyers just wanted
cheap and the quality specs of the goods were lower than domestically
produced goods. But just like people everywhere in the world the
Japanese have the same intrinsic smarts and abilities and when they
could they started to produce their own stuff to their own desired
quality. The same thing happened with Taiwan. And Korea (Korea doing
to Japan what Japan did to us). Now China. India will probably be
next, at least when it comes to heavy industry. Machine tools made in
India are starting to come on the export market. As of now they are
not so good. But they are cheap. Computer controlled machine tools
from India still mostly have Japanese controls. But this will change
soon.
Eric

 

[Jon Elson]

oldschool@tubes.com wrote:

I needed to replace a 1/8" stereo plug on a cord. I found on ebay a pack
of three 1/8" stereo plugs from China, for about $2. I dont normally
order from China, but for the price and since I was in no hurry for
them, I bought them.

That was a mistake. They are NOT stereo, they are THREE CHANNEL. The tip
of the plug has THREE contacts, (plus the grounded base). What the heck
are they for? I have never seen any 3 prong 1/8" jacks on anything.

They are for cell phone headsets and other connections to a phone (like a
car). Left and right audio out, and microphone. Blame Apple.

Jon

 

[Stephen Wolstenholme]

On Sat, 1 Jul 2017 12:28:58 -0700 (PDT), "jfeng@my-deja.com"
<jfeng@my-deja.com> wrote:

>I think the UK is metricated. The older Imperial units appear when they are being deliberately nostalgic, like in historical dramas. The last I heard, Ireland (not a part of a UK) had an amusing mixture where speed limits were in mph and road distances were in km.

The UK started going over to metric measures about 50 years ago but
it's still not complete. Many oldish people, like me, still think in
Imperial units. I think of distances in miles and heights in feet. The
advantage of being an Imperial age is multiple arithmetic bases is not
a problem. Younger metric people are base 10 only!

Steve

--
Neural Network Software for Windows http://www.npsnn.com

 

[Foxs Mercantile]

On 7/2/2017 3:44 AM, Stephen Wolstenholme wrote:

The advantage of being an Imperial age is multiple arithmetic
bases is not a problem. Younger metric people are base 10 only!

Not hardly, people don't think of 10 inches as 0.833 feet nor do
they think of 10 feet as 3.333 yards.


--
Jeff-1.0
wa6fwi
http://www.foxsmercantile.com

---
This email has been checked for viruses by AVG.
http://www.avg.com

 

[Stephen Wolstenholme]

On Sun, 2 Jul 2017 04:31:24 -0500, Foxs Mercantile <jdangus@att.net>
wrote:

On 7/2/2017 3:44 AM, Stephen Wolstenholme wrote:
The advantage of being an Imperial age is multiple arithmetic
bases is not a problem. Younger metric people are base 10 only!

Not hardly, people don't think of 10 inches as 0.833 feet nor do
they think of 10 feet as 3.333 yards.

I can work in any arithmetic base without converting from one to
another. I'm 68 years old and I was bought up and taught using
Imperial measures.

Steve

--
Neural Network Software for Windows http://www.npsnn.com