Extending a headphone jack from a decased PC Speaker amp?

[ARTIFACT]

I want to add a headphone jack on my cab.
For my cab audio, I have a de-cased a PC speaker amplifier which works very well.

It has an existing headphone jack on the amplifier PCB...
Is this as simple as de-soldering the existing jack from the PCB and reconnecting it using long wires?
I'm afraid simply plugging a long male jack > female jack extension will make the amp act as if a headphone was plugged all the time (although I admit I haven't tried that yet)

Finally, how would you mount it on a cab built with 3/4" Plywood  (birch)? I have seen fancy mountable jacks with built-in brackets, but I think they are too much $$$ and it seems that a DIY solution could be possible here - reusing the existing jack component...

WHAT DO YOU THINK?
THANKS FOR YOUR INPUT!


Click here for a very large (9 MP) version of this image.

[ARTIFACT]

FYI, I read this article on the archives for Oscar Controls, but it doesn't exactly apply to my problem, or it doesn't show the amp unit and how that's soldered:
http://web.archive.org/web/20060508195633/http://www.oscarcontrols.com/volume/

Thanks. I did use search but mainly found pointers to the article above.
I imagine that this is something folks do all the time, using a cheap PC speakers set, so can't wait to hear the input!

[johnnya]

Admittedly, I've never done something like this, but I think you could do a jack extension. I don't think the headphone jack will engage (thereby disengaging the speakers) unless you actually have headphones hooked up.

[BobA]

To extend a headphone jack you have to extend all the connections to the jack via long wires.   There is a connection that is controled by the plug when you place it in the jack.  It disconnects the speakers when a plug is inserted.   Beacuase of this you cannot use a headphone cord extension.

It might be easier to get another stereo headhone jack and extend the wires from the pcb to it.  This way you can solder under the PCB on the tabs where the existing jack is soldered in place and you do not have to remove the existing jack.  Since it is a pcb type the solder tabs will be very small on the jack.

edit: As per PBJs post  I checked this and you do have to remove the existing jack because it provides the circuit for the speakers and if you do not remove it the circuit will be closed and will not open when you plug into the new jack.   Still you can get a jack with solder tabs for wires that is easier to work with then the original pcb jack.  In essence you are remotely mounting the jack.

[ARTIFACT]

thank you so much for posting all f this great info guys
this is going to be fun

[ARTIFACT]

i will play with this tonight

i think i will extend the pcb jack since it will handle the 4 wires switching etc

i think i can nest it snug into the 3/4'' plywood front panel next to the coin door.

thanks again for input!

[ARTIFACT]

looking at the PCB now... Warming up my iron... ohhh FUN

[ARTIFACT]

OMG

OK so it happened that a physical switch that was placed on the amplifier PCB BEHIND the jack... opening a circuit which disabled the main speaker output when the plug "pushed" the switch. ARGHH

SO

I am no electronic wiz, but I figured out how to reuse one of the headphone sides on my panel jack to open that when the headphones are plugged... It's a Radio Shack jack which has 5 prongs instead of just 3 ... the extra 2 are activated when the jack is not plugged. I was able to use that to replace the physical switch.

The result?

It works BUT 1 of the sides in the headphones is not working... IT'S OK... THE main goal was to give the miss a break with the noise when I play ... I'll just make a mono merger adapter so both ears get audio (just the same side). I can leave without true stereo headphones, especially when most of the times it's Donkey Kong that's running!

I am proud that it's working!! Again I am totally new to all this stuff...
I had a ton of fun doing it...

[Zebidee]

hiya Artifact,

What you really need to do is buy a new phono jack and wire it into the SPEAKER OUTPUT from your PC.

ie, the sound signal travels from PC -> jack -> amplifier

All jacks are different I guess, but they usually work by:

1) breaking the GROUND contact while simultaneously ... 
2) redirecting the ground contact to the headphone plug.

This is how they turn off two stereo channels (or more) at once - sometimes it just requires testing your new jack with a plug and multimeter to work out which is the ground etc, and getting your head around it.   The left/right channels are probably just pass-through, but can't be sure in all cases. 

What this means is, if you put your headphone jack onto the PC output line and, so long as it provides for breaking the ground contact, you won't get sound output from your amplifier after you plug your headphones in.

So don't de-solder the old plug from your PC amp, just buy a new one from RS for a couple of $$.  It'll be neater and easier to mount as well.

Oh, what the heck it looks like you hve been having fun hacking away anyway

[ARTIFACT]

hey thanks for the log write-up

did you see / read what i ended up doing?
i am pretty happy with it (mono, but still )

[phantompower]

hiya Artifact,

What you really need to do is buy a new phono jack and wire it into the SPEAKER OUTPUT from your PC.

ie, the sound signal travels from PC -> jack -> amplifier

All jacks are different I guess, but they usually work by:

1) breaking the GROUND contact while simultaneously ... 
2) redirecting the ground contact to the headphone plug.

This is how they turn off two stereo channels (or more) at once - sometimes it just requires testing your new jack with a plug and multimeter to work out which is the ground etc, and getting your head around it.   The left/right channels are probably just pass-through, but can't be sure in all cases. 

What this means is, if you put your headphone jack onto the PC output line and, so long as it provides for breaking the ground contact, you won't get sound output from your amplifier after you plug your headphones in.

So don't de-solder the old plug from your PC amp, just buy a new one from RS for a couple of $$.  It'll be neater and easier to mount as well.

Oh, what the heck it looks like you hve been having fun hacking away anyway

Is it possible to achieve the same result with a splitter cable plugged into the speaker out on the PC sound card?  What I am wondering is if you have a Y cable where one side runs to a headphone jack you extend to the front of the cab and the other goes to the amp of the speakers.

My hope is that, unless the headphones are plugged into the outside jack, the sound will travel through the amp/speakers.  When the headphones are plugged into the jack, the sound will not come out the speakers.

Is this possible?

[bkenobi]

A simple Y cable will not keep sound from going to the speakers.

I didn't see this thread back when it came out, but I would probably opt for a switch (button or rocker style) next to the jack that will switch the audio from headphones to speakers.  Then I would just use an extension cable coming out from under the CP.  But, that's just me.

[Zebidee]

hiya Artifact,

What you really need to do is buy a new phono jack and wire it into the SPEAKER OUTPUT from your PC.

ie, the sound signal travels from PC -> jack -> amplifier

All jacks are different I guess, but they usually work by:

1) breaking the GROUND contact while simultaneously ... 
2) redirecting the ground contact to the headphone plug.

This is how they turn off two stereo channels (or more) at once - sometimes it just requires testing your new jack with a plug and multimeter to work out which is the ground etc, and getting your head around it.   The left/right channels are probably just pass-through, but can't be sure in all cases. 

What this means is, if you put your headphone jack onto the PC output line and, so long as it provides for breaking the ground contact, you won't get sound output from your amplifier after you plug your headphones in.

So don't de-solder the old plug from your PC amp, just buy a new one from RS for a couple of $$.  It'll be neater and easier to mount as well.

Oh, what the heck it looks like you hve been having fun hacking away anyway

Is it possible to achieve the same result with a splitter cable plugged into the speaker out on the PC sound card?  What I am wondering is if you have a Y cable where one side runs to a headphone jack you extend to the front of the cab and the other goes to the amp of the speakers.

My hope is that, unless the headphones are plugged into the outside jack, the sound will travel through the amp/speakers.  When the headphones are plugged into the jack, the sound will not come out the speakers.

Is this possible?

In short, no. Because your speakers will still be grounded and will still want to suck more power (ie audio signal) than your headphones. You'll also might have problems with mis-matching impedance and extra interference from having extra cabling and two output devices connected.

Just wire is PC -> JACK -> amplifier and everything should be sweet (and in stereo as well), so long as you wire it in correctly. It really is the simpler way.