Wikipedia Badly Needs Correction
- From: RapidRonnie <rapidronnie@xxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sun, 22 Jun 2008 06:29:21 -0700 (PDT)
I have no desire to fool with it personally but this page contains
significant errors. One is that it does not differentiate between the
longframe, or even acknowledge its existence per se, and the common
1/4" "phone plug". It does talk about bantam plugs, indicating some
concept of professional use knowledge.
Longframe and consumer 1/4' jacks are NOT interchangeable and will
damage each other's connectors. Why there are two such standards, in
fact, is beyond me, but there are.
Of course one only needs to look at 50 vs. 75 ohm BNC connectors...or
the four pin pre-modular telephone plugs which existed in at least
three incompatible sizes....
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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TRS connector
TRS connector
"Triple contact plug" as described in 1907.
"Triple contact plug" as described in 1907.
A TRS connector, also called an audio jack, phone plug, jack plug,
stereo plug, mini-jack, or mini-stereo, is a common audio connector.
It is cylindrical in shape, typically with three contacts, although
sometimes with two (a TS connector) or four (a TRRS connector).
It was invented for use in telephone switchboards in the 19th century
and is still widely used, both in its original quarter-inch (6.3 mm)
size and in miniaturized versions. The connector's name is an
initialism derived from the names of three conducting parts of the
plug: Tip, Ring, and Sleeve[1] – hence, TRS.
In the UK, the terms jack plug and jack socket are commonly used for
the respectively male and female TRS connectors.[2]
In the U.S., a female connector is called a jack. The terms phone plug
and phone jack are commonly used to refer to TRS connectors,[3] but
are also sometimes used colloquially to refer to RJ11 and older
telephone plugs and the corresponding jacks that connect wired
telephones to wall outlets. (The similar terms phono plug and phono
jack refers to RCA connectors.) To unambiguously refer to the
connectors described here, the diameter or other qualifier is often
added, e.g. 1/4-inch phone plug", "3.5 mm phone jack, and balanced
phone jack or stereo phone plug for the three-contact version.
Contents
[hide]
* 1 Modern connectors
* 2 Mono and stereo compatibility
* 3 Uses
* 4 Switch contacts
* 5 Tip/ring/sleeve terminology
o 5.1 Usage
+ 5.1.1 Audio
+ 5.1.2 Computer sound
+ 5.1.3 Recording equipment
o 5.2 Aircraft headsets
* 6 Configurations and schematic symbols
* 7 Color Codes
* 8 See also
* 9 References
* 10 External links
[edit] Modern connectors
This section does not cite any references or sources. (August 2007)
Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable
sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed.
2.5 mm (3/32") mono (TS), 3.5 mm (1/8") mono and stereo (TRS), and 6.3
mm (1/4") stereo (TRS) jack plugs
2.5 mm (3/32") mono (TS), 3.5 mm (1/8") mono and stereo (TRS), and 6.3
mm (1/4") stereo (TRS) jack plugs
Modern TS and TRS connectors are available in three standard sizes.
The original 1/4" (6.35 mm) version dates from 1878, for use in manual
telephone exchanges—making it possibly the oldest electrical connector
standard still in use. The 3.5 mm or miniature and 2.5 mm or
subminiature sizes were originally designed as two-conductor
connectors for earpieces on transistor radios. The 3.5 mm and 2.5 mm
sizes are also referred to as 1/8" and 3/32" respectively in the
United States, though those dimensions are only approximations. All
three sizes are now readily available in two-conductor (unbalanced
mono) and three-conductor (balanced mono or unbalanced stereo)
versions.
Four and five conductor versions of the 3.5 mm plug are used for
certain applications. A four conductor version is becoming a de facto
standard output connector for compact camcorders, providing stereo
sound plus a video signal. This interface is also seen on some laptop
computers. Proprietary interfaces using both four and five conductor
versions exist, such as the audio connector on the first four
generations of iPod MP3 players (the 5th generation player now uses a
standard 3 conductor cable), where the extra conductors were used to
supply power for accessories. There is also an optical connector used
for TOSLINK (mainly on things like portable equipment; hi-fi separates
and similar tend to use the standard square connector) that is the
same size as a 3.5 mm jack. Sockets exist that can make either an
optical connection to such a plug or an electrical connection to a
stereo jack plug, such as the headphone jacks on many laptops.
A three or four conductor version of the 2.5 mm plug is widely used on
cell phone handsfree headsets, providing mono (three conductor) or
stereo (four conductor) sound and a microphone input. It should be
noted that the use of common stereo headphones with the 2.5 mm plug
are often not compatible with this type of socket.
Although relatively unknown in modern electronics, the professional
audio world and the telecommunication industry rely heavily on tiny
telephone (TT) connectors which use mid-size phone plugs with a 4.4 mm
(0.173-inch) diameter shaft. In the telecom world, this is known as a
"bantam" plug. Due to their compactness and reliability, TTs are often
used for professional console and outboard patchbays in studios and
live sound applications, in which a single patch panel may require
hundreds of patch points in a limited space. The TRS versions of TT
connectors are capable of handling balanced line signals and are
preferred in pro audio installations.
Both two-conductor and three-conductor versions of the three standard
sizes are readily available in male and female inline versions, and
panel-mounting female versions. Panel-mounting male versions of these
also exist but are rare, as they are vulnerable to mechanical damage
and therefore unreliable. Female inline versions are also notoriously
unreliable and are avoided by many users.
The most common arrangement remains to have the male plug on the cable
and the female socket mounted in a piece of equipment: the original
intention of the design. A considerable variety of line plugs and
panel sockets is available, including plugs suiting various cable
sizes, right angle plugs, and both plugs and sockets in a variety of
price ranges and with current capacities up to 15 amperes for certain
heavy duty 1/4" versions.
Less commonly used sizes, both diameters and lengths, are also
available from some manufacturers, and are used when it is desired to
restrict the availability of matching connectors, such as .210 inch
inside diameter jacks for fire safety communication jacks in public
buildings, the same size found in vintage 16mm projector speaker jacks.
[4]
A dual 310 patch cable, two pin jack plug
A dual 310 patch cable, two pin jack plug
* A two-pin version, known to the telecom industry as a "310
connector" consists of two TRS 6.3 mm jack plugs at a centre spacing
of 1". The socket versions of these can be used with normal jack plugs
provided the plug bodies are not too large, but the plug version will
only mate with two jack sockets at 1" centre spacing, or with line
sockets, again with sufficiently small bodies. These connectors are
still widely used today in telephone company central offices on "DSX"
patch panels for DS1 circuits. A similar type of 3.5 mm connector is
often used in the armrests of aircraft, as part of the on-board
entertainment system. Plugging a stereo plug into one of the two mono
jacks typically results in the audio coming into only one ear.
Adaptors are available.
* A short-barrelled version also exists, once used on high-
impedance mono headphones, and in particular those used in World War
II aircraft. It is physically possible to use a normal plug in a short
socket, but a short plug will neither lock into a normal socket nor
complete the tip circuit. These are still manufactured but are now
regarded as a non-standard size.
[edit] Mono and stereo compatibility
This section does not cite any references or sources. (August 2007)
Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable
sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed.
Old profile jack plugs. The leftmost plug has three conductors; the
others have two.At the top is a three-conductor jack from the same
era.
Old profile jack plugs. The leftmost plug has three conductors; the
others have two.
At the top is a three-conductor jack from the same era.
Modern profile 2-conductor 1/4" jack plugs.
Modern profile 2-conductor 1/4" jack plugs.
In the original application in manual telephone exchanges, many
different configurations of 1/4" jack plug were used, some
accommodating five or more conductors, with several tip profiles. Of
these many varieties, only the two-conductor version with a rounded
tip profile was compatible between different manufacturers, and this
was the design that was at first adopted for use with microphones,
electric guitars, headphones, loudspeakers, and many other items of
audio equipment.
When a three-conductor version of the 1/4" jack was introduced for use
with stereo headphones, it was given a sharper tip profile in order to
make it possible to manufacture jacks (sockets) that would accept only
stereo plugs, to avoid short-circuiting the right channel amplifier.
This attempt has long been abandoned, and now the normal convention is
that all plugs fit all sockets of the same size, regardless of whether
they are balanced mono, unbalanced mono or stereo. Most 1/4" plugs,
mono or stereo, now have the profile of the original stereo plug,
although a few rounded mono plugs are also still produced. The
profiles of stereo miniature and subminiature plugs have always been
identical to the mono plugs of the same size.
The results of this physical compatibility are:
* If a two-conductor plug of the same size is connected to a three-
conductor socket, the result is that the ring (right channel) of the
socket is grounded. This property is deliberately used in several
applications, see "tip ring sleeve", below. However, grounding one
channel may also be dangerous to the equipment if the result is to
short circuit the output of the right channel amplifier. In any case,
any signal from the right channel is naturally lost.
* If a three-conductor plug is connected to a two-conductor
socket, normally the result is to leave the ring of the plug
unconnected (open circuit). In the days of valves ("tubes" in the
U.S.) this was also potentially dangerous to equipment but most solid
state devices tolerate this condition well. A 3-conductor socket could
be wired as an unbalanced mono socket to ground the ring in this
situation, but the more conventional wiring is to leave the ring
unconnected, exactly simulating a mono socket.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TRS_connector
.
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