Not sure whether this is the right place for this, but here goes. I
have to make up a cable to connect a 5 pin DIN to a 3.5mm stereo mini
jack bought from Maplins.

Does anyone know how to tell which is left and right on the jack. Both
connections are the same length, One is joined to what looks like the
central core, so would that go to the tip and if so is it left or
right?

Any help most welcome. TIA
John

John Edgar wrote:

> Not sure whether this is the right place for this, but here goes. I
> have to make up a cable to connect a 5 pin DIN to a 3.5mm stereo mini
> jack bought from Maplins.
>
> Does anyone know how to tell which is left and right on the jack. Both
> connections are the same length, One is joined to what looks like the
> central core, so would that go to the tip and if so is it left or
> right?
>
> Any help most welcome. TIA
> John


The Tip is Left, the middle is Right and the sleeve is Ground.

http://www.headwize.com/faqs.htm#access


Sparks...

In article ,
   John Edgar  wrote:

> Not sure whether this is the right place for this, but here goes. I
> have to make up a cable to connect a 5 pin DIN to a 3.5mm stereo mini
> jack bought from Maplins.

> Does anyone know how to tell which is left and right on the jack. Both
> connections are the same length, One is joined to what looks like the
> central core, so would that go to the tip and if so is it left or
> right?


Left is tip, right ring, screen body.

With all those sort of connectors that started out mono like jacks or
indeed DIN, the old mono 'hot' is left. As a rule.;-)

You ok for the 5 pin DIN connections?

-- 
*Rehab is for quitters.

    Dave Plowman        dave@davenoise.co.uk           London SW
                  To e-mail, change noise into sound.

Great and thanks for the replies. You must excuse me for being so
stupid, but I assume that the tip is the central core when looking at
the top of the plug. It's a bit difficult to work it out. For the 5 pin
DINS I have circuit diagrams and pictures. It is to connect to a Quad
33 and I have all the original stuff, so I think I can work that out.


Dave Plowman (News) wrote:

> In article ,
>    John Edgar  wrote:
> > Not sure whether this is the right place for this, but here goes. I
> > have to make up a cable to connect a 5 pin DIN to a 3.5mm stereo
mini
> > jack bought from Maplins.
>
> > Does anyone know how to tell which is left and right on the jack.
Both
> > connections are the same length, One is joined to what looks like
the
> > central core, so would that go to the tip and if so is it left or
> > right?
>
> Left is tip, right ring, screen body.
>
> With all those sort of connectors that started out mono like jacks or
> indeed DIN, the old mono 'hot' is left. As a rule.;-)
>
> You ok for the 5 pin DIN connections?
>
> --
> *Rehab is for quitters.
>
>     Dave Plowman        dave@davenoise.co.uk           London SW
>                   To e-mail, change noise into sound.

>> Left is tip, right ring, screen body.
>>
>> With all those sort of connectors that started out mono like jacks or
>> indeed DIN, the old mono 'hot' is left. As a rule.;-)
>>
>> You ok for the 5 pin DIN connections?


John Edgar wrote:

> Great and thanks for the replies. You must excuse me for being so
> stupid, but I assume that the tip is the central core when looking at
> the top of the plug. It's a bit difficult to work it out. For the 5
> pin DINS I have circuit diagrams and pictures. It is to connect to a
> Quad 33 and I have all the original stuff, so I think I can work that
> out.
>
>


From my experience, yes - I take it you don't have a meter handy then!
(And replies are supposed to go under the last persons reply ;-)

Sparks...

John Edgar wrote:

> Great and thanks for the replies. You must excuse me for being so
> stupid, but I assume that the tip is the central core when looking at
> the top of the plug. It's a bit difficult to work it out. 


Yes - the 'tip' is the end of the plug; the 'tip', as it were ;-) To be 
sure which one of the solder tags it's connected to (it's this middle 
one in all the 3.5mm jacks I've ever soldered, but that's a sample size 
of mere tens), just use a multimeter, or lamp/LED-n-resistor and 
battery, to be quite sure of the continuity. 'Ring' is the next one up, 
as it forms a, well, 'ring'; and is typically the other solder tag 
visibly insulated from the main body. 'Sleeve' equates to 'body', or 
'main lump o'metal'; all too often it doesn't get a solder tag of its 
own, tho' with luck there'll be a small hole a bit below the 
optimistically-named 'cable grip' thru which you can pass, and then 
solder, the twisted-together screen conductors.

Don't feel bad if you totally najjer the first plug you solder up, and 
end up cutting it right off and using a fresh one. There's a reason RS, 
Canford, and maybe even Maplin sell 'em in bags of 5 ;-) - they're a 
fiddly little "()%&("! to solder up and keep all the bits wot should be 
insulated from each other reliably insulated. Often there's very little 
room to leave the bit of heatshrink sleeving you want far enough away 
from where you're soldering, as the body of the plug is pretty short so 
you want to be back to the unstripped cable jacket within no more than 
1cm of the point at which you solder. It can be easier to strip back too 
far, and use one wider, adhesive-lined chunk of heatshrink to go around 
the cable as it exits from the plug, allowing you to strip back beyond 
the exit point.

HTH - Stefek

On Sat, 21 May 2005 16:31:00 퍝, Stefek Zaba wrote:


> There's a reason RS, Canford, and maybe even Maplin sell 'em in bags 
> of 5 ;-)


Yeah they are so cheap it's the only way to get a reasonable price tag 
on 'em.


> - they're a fiddly little "()%£&("! to solder up 


Naw, fiddly is 8 pin lemo or right angled single pin lemo (the solder 
point is down ahole about 2mm dia) or those surface mount "honda"(?) 
things found on the bottom of mobile phones with a pitch of 0.5mm.

-- 
Cheers                                              new5pam@howhill.com
Dave.                                             pam is missing e-mail

In message ,
  Stefek Zaba  wrote:

[regarding 3.5mm jacks]


> Don't feel bad if you totally najjer the first plug you solder up, and 
> end up cutting it right off and using a fresh one. There's a reason RS, 
> Canford, and maybe even Maplin sell 'em in bags of 5 ;-) - they're a 
> fiddly little "()%&("! to solder up and keep all the bits wot should be 
> insulated from each other reliably insulated.


As with many things I find that this varies enormously with the
brand (i.e. cost) of the plug bought. Cheapest things with black plastic
or PVC barrels are the worst generally, and I've had more than one of
that type, 3.5mm, 1/4inch, phono and so on actually disintegrate (bits
falling off), either during soldering or after a few days/weeks of use.

The cheaper plugs (plastic or metal) also usually have shiny silver
terminals. IME these will not take solder unless you use loads of heat
and probably have at least two or three attempts to let the flux get at
things. A way to help is to scratch the silver stuff off as well as
possible. I use a sharp pointy thing (broken blade of penknife) but
anything which makes a decent scratch should do. The quicker you can
solder, the better the rest of the plug holds together. Oh yes, and the
spacing of the "terminals" is often such that the connector to the ring
is in severe danger of shorting on the barrel.

The mid-price connectors with "gold plating" (of a couple of atoms thick
usually) are often of no better construction, but do at least take
solder relatively well.

And then there are the expensive types. There's no way they'll make the
sound any better, but they are usually built a bit more robustly and
have decent terminals which positively drink the solder. My favourite
has to be Neutrik, but then I do use a lot of XLRs and 1/4inch, and it's
worth paying the best part of three quid for a plug which solders
easily, never falls apart and has a decent cord grip. Haven't seen them
for a bit, but Deltron used to have a Neutrik XLR clone that was just as
good for a few pennies less.

But I digress. I haven't used a Neutrik 3.5mm jack so I can't comment.

Hwyl!

M.

-- 
Martin Angove: http://www.tridwr.demon.co.uk/
Two free issues: http://www.livtech.co.uk/ Living With Technology
.... Reality is for people who can't handle computers.

> Naw, fiddly is 8 pin lemo or right angled single pin lemo (the solder 
> point is down ahole about 2mm dia) or those surface mount "honda"(?) 
> things found on the bottom of mobile phones with a pitch of 0.5mm.


Oh yes !!!

Dave

Thanks for the replies. I'll give it a go and see what happens. It's a
while, like 20 years or so, since I had my soldering iron out, but it
still works and I have some solder, so here's hoping!
John


Martin Angove wrote:

> In message ,
>   Stefek Zaba  wrote:
>
> [regarding 3.5mm jacks]
>
> > Don't feel bad if you totally najjer the first plug you solder up,
and
> > end up cutting it right off and using a fresh one. There's a reason
RS,
> > Canford, and maybe even Maplin sell 'em in bags of 5 ;-) - they're
a
> > fiddly little "()%£&("! to solder up and keep all the bits wot
should be
> > insulated from each other reliably insulated.
>
> As with many things I find that this varies enormously with the
> brand (i.e. cost) of the plug bought. Cheapest things with black
plastic
> or PVC barrels are the worst generally, and I've had more than one of
> that type, 3.5mm, 1/4inch, phono and so on actually disintegrate
(bits
> falling off), either during soldering or after a few days/weeks of
use.
>
> The cheaper plugs (plastic or metal) also usually have shiny silver
> terminals. IME these will not take solder unless you use loads of
heat
> and probably have at least two or three attempts to let the flux get
at
> things. A way to help is to scratch the silver stuff off as well as
> possible. I use a sharp pointy thing (broken blade of penknife) but
> anything which makes a decent scratch should do. The quicker you can
> solder, the better the rest of the plug holds together. Oh yes, and
the
> spacing of the "terminals" is often such that the connector to the
ring
> is in severe danger of shorting on the barrel.
>
> The mid-price connectors with "gold plating" (of a couple of atoms
thick
> usually) are often of no better construction, but do at least take
> solder relatively well.
>
> And then there are the expensive types. There's no way they'll make
the
> sound any better, but they are usually built a bit more robustly and
> have decent terminals which positively drink the solder. My favourite
> has to be Neutrik, but then I do use a lot of XLRs and 1/4inch, and
it's
> worth paying the best part of three quid for a plug which solders
> easily, never falls apart and has a decent cord grip. Haven't seen
them
> for a bit, but Deltron used to have a Neutrik XLR clone that was just
as
> good for a few pennies less.
>
> But I digress. I haven't used a Neutrik 3.5mm jack so I can't
comment.
>
> Hwyl!
>
> M.
>
> --
> Martin Angove: http://www.tridwr.demon.co.uk/
> Two free issues: http://www.livtech.co.uk/ Living With Technology
> ... Reality is for people who can't handle computers.

On 22 May 2005 02:45:01 -0700, John Edgar wrote:


> Thanks for the replies. I'll give it a go and see what happens. It's 
> a while, like 20 years or so, since I had my soldering iron out, but 
> it still works and I have some solder, so here's hoping!


Like falling of a bike you never forget how to do it. Just remember 
that the hot end of the soldering iron is just as hot now as it was 
then...  B-)

-- 
Cheers                                              new5pam@howhill.com
Dave.                                             pam is missing e-mail

"Dave Liquorice"  writes:

>On 22 May 2005 02:45:01 -0700, John Edgar wrote:
>
>> Thanks for the replies. I'll give it a go and see what happens. It's 
>> a while, like 20 years or so, since I had my soldering iron out, but 
>> it still works and I have some solder, so here's hoping!
>
>Like falling of a bike you never forget how to do it. Just remember 
>that the hot end of the soldering iron is just as hot now as it was 
>then...  B-)


Takes a while to acquire those "don't catch it when you knock it off
the bench" reflexes, but they do stay with you for life.

(Off to put new cells in the cordless razor and my 144MHz handheld. 2.49
*each* from Maplins for solder tagged AAs.)


-- 
       "The road to Paradise is through Intercourse."
        [email me at huge [at] huge [dot] org [dot] uk]

In message , Dave 
Liquorice  writes

>On 22 May 2005 02:45:01 -0700, John Edgar wrote:
>
>> Thanks for the replies. I'll give it a go and see what happens. It's
>> a while, like 20 years or so, since I had my soldering iron out, but
>> it still works and I have some solder, so here's hoping!
>
>Like falling of a bike you never forget how to do it. Just remember
>that the hot end of the soldering iron is just as hot now as it was
>then...  B-)
>

But , if you've not done any soldering for that long, practice a bit 
before doing something fiddly

One point to bear in mind is that you're better off with a nice hot iron 
on a job like this otherwise you'll conduct enough heat to melt the 
plastic insulation if you hold the iron for too long

-- 
geoff