Extending Headphone Input problem

[vertexguy]

Anyone have a solution for extending a headphone input?  Now wait, before you say, just "buy an extension cable dummy", there's a little more to the problem.

When you plug in an extension cable to the headphone jack in either my speakers (has an output) or on the output jack on the PC, it immediately shuts off external speakers and routes all audio to the headphone jack.  The problem is, I don't actually have headphones plugged in yet.  I'm just trying to extend the REACH of the output jack.  It's great if it does that when I actually plug in the headphones, but not when I plug in an extension cable.

Any idea how to hack around this problem?  I'm trying to make use of an external extension cable to the outside of my cabinet design so I CAN use headphones if desired.

[Mike A]

I don't know if this would be helpful.

https://www.pcgamer.com/how-to-easily-swap-between-headphones-and-speakers-in-windows-10/

[Osirus23]

What motherboard/sound card is on your PC? Audio jack detection has been configurable in software in everything made since around the mid '00s now.

[vertexguy]

So the problem with a configuration in windows like what Mike A pointed to is that it requires toggling in windows.  I want to keep the behavior where plugging in the headphones kills the speakers and sends audio out the headphones.  I just simply need to extend the headphone jack to the outside of my cab.  But as mentioned, the extension cable makes it think there's a headphone plugged in when there isn't.  It would be ideal to not have to use some sort of hot key mapped to an external button to toggle output devices.

System is an old dell optiplex gx620 with its sound on the motherboard.

[Mike A]

Is there a headphone header on the mobo? You could extend a jack off of that. Then just plug your headphones into that when you want to use them.

[vertexguy]

Is there a headphone header on the mobo? You could extend a jack off of that. Then just plug your headphones into that when you want to use them.

I'm not quite brave enough (or skilled enough) to pull off the audio jack from my motherboard and try to figure out how to solder wire direct to the board pads if that's what you're suggesting.  Maybe if I dig up a cheap sound card I can experiment on that.  Kinda sad if that's the only way though.  The extension cable doesn't work as advertised when it behaves like this.  It was meant to use on boats / rv's / etc but clearly wouldn't work right unless your only audio output option was the headphones.   From the research I did, it seems like its common for the jacks to have a physical lever that gets tripped to know something plugged in.  In some other instances there's a difference in resistance it might detect.  I'm guessing both of these use a physical lever which is why it can't tell the difference between an extension and a headphone. 

[PL1]

I'm guessing both of these use a physical lever which is why it can't tell the difference between an extension and a headphone.

Sounds right.

Found this related thread on StackExchange:

Headphone jacks have extra contacts inside, which act as switches. The the drawing below, pins 4 and 5 are intended for sensing that the plug was inserted. They are not intended for audio signal. When the plug is not present, the switche, which are formed by 2 & 4 and 3 & 5, are closed. When the plug is inserted, these switches are open. The plug flexes 2 and 3 slightly, and they break contact with 4 and 5. You could insert a 3.5mm plastic rod [a dummy] into the jack, which will open the contacts, and the phone might think that earphones are plugged in.

Scott

[vertexguy]

Hmmm...  so in theory, if I could get a replacement jack that didn't have a physical lever, swap that out, and then assuming the extension does have that lever, it would work as desired?

[Osirus23]

Hmmm...  so in theory, if I could get a replacement jack that didn't have a physical lever, swap that out, and then assuming the extension does have that lever, it would work as desired?

No. The extension will only have contacts for the L and R channels with nothing to extend the jack detect on the board.

Find a PCI bracket or 3.5" front panel doodad with HD Audio ports. Remove the jack from it and plug it into your motherboard's front panel header. You'll need an extension as those are usually only 12-18", but that should be easy to do with dupont connectors.

[thomashenry]

I had this problem on a bartop I built. I removed the jack from the main board and relocated it to the cabinet side, and soldered wires back to the main board.