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How do I determine which is the left and right terminals on an 3.5mm jack?

post #1 of 9
6/2/11 at 12:23pm
Thread Starter 

This is my first DIY project so forgive me if this is elementary. I just bought a 3.5mm jack to give my M50s a detachable cable, but I don't know which is the left or right terminal. There is a silver terminal and a gold terminal. The silver one is labeled "1" and the gold is labeled "2." Any idea on which one is left and which is right?

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post #2 of 9
6/2/11 at 12:48pm

You could either tell us the part #, check the terminals with a continuty tester or ohm them with a DMM.

 

 

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post #3 of 9
6/2/11 at 1:06pm
Thread Starter 

It's a Philmore 504K. I don't know what a continuity tester, and I don't know what a DMM is.

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post #4 of 9
6/2/11 at 1:14pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by neato View Post

It's a Philmore 504K. I don't know what a continuity tester, and I don't know what a DMM is.



Normally it is left, right ground in the sense of the clock starting at nine o'clock. But to get sure, you will have to measure it with a digital multimeter (DMM)..


Edited by monoethylene - 6/3/11 at 1:29am
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post #5 of 9
6/3/11 at 12:55am

Pin1 is the tip and Pin 2 is the ring.

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post #6 of 9
6/3/11 at 4:59am

plug a mini-to-mini cable into the female jack, touch one of the DMM's probe to one of the terminals on the free end of the mini-to-mini cable, and touch the other to the female jack's each solder lugs. when you have connectivity (usually a beep if the DMM has that function, the display will also usually show 0 Ohms or very close to it), you know which lug corresponds to which terminal.

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post #7 of 9
6/12/11 at 6:48pm

it depends on wt plug u have..do u got any pics?

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post #8 of 9
6/13/11 at 2:01am

Aren't the Tip Ring Sleeves fixed in terms of signal or ground? As long as you know that, you should be able to trace back which is left right ground since the contacts in the plug need to be at the matching postions. Google should be able to get you that info. Search is not too handy for me at the moment.

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post #9 of 9
6/13/11 at 10:16pm
Thread Starter 

Mister X was right. Thanks for the help everyone! Something went wrong when I soldered the wires to the terminals though. The connection was bad.

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