Female headphone jack not working

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mandina_choilab
 
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Female headphone jack not working

Post by mandina_choilab »

Hello,

We bought an order of ~10-20 female headphone jacks from you (https://www.adafruit.com/product/4031?g ... UgQAvD_BwE).

We also bought the 3.5 mm stereo male jacks from you (part number P1800A). These are working fine. We have them as the exit of a featherboard that sends a voltage signal.

We are having issues getting voltage out of the female jack, the only way we could get voltage out of them was to forcefully bend the male jack towards the top once soldered into a PCB.

It seems to us that there is no "leaf spring" making effective contact on the ground on the inside, we have to push to force this contact by bending the jack.

We tried another male jack that we had around (not purchased from adafruit) and it was also not working.

Is it possible that this is a bad lot or something? Is it possible that we are missing something else?

The female jacks we got are C12874-001 P4031A from 2018-11-1.

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adafruit_support_carter
 
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Re: Female headphone jack not working

Post by adafruit_support_carter »

It's a little confusing what the actual setup is here. Can you post some photos showing how the PID 4031 jacks are being used?

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mandina_choilab
 
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Re: Female headphone jack not working

Post by mandina_choilab »

Hello,
The jacks were soldered into a board that matches the pins of a raspberry pi
Sorry about the confusion. Here are some pictures of the design.
2021-10-06-130508.jpg
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2021-10-06-130415.jpg
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We also tried to measure output by using a multimeter on a jack that was not soldered to anything. We could only get voltage out while strongly bending the male jack towards the walls of the female jack.

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adafruit_support_carter
 
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Re: Female headphone jack not working

Post by adafruit_support_carter »

Can you try testing continuity?

Remove the prototyping HAT assembly from the Pi. Then it'd help to make a breakout tester using a male plug, that has pigtails wires for each of the conductors. Then you can plug that in to each female jack on the HAT and test continuity from the pigtails wires all the way to the corresponding pin on the 2x20 header.

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mandina_choilab
 
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Re: Female headphone jack not working

Post by mandina_choilab »

Hello, that's what we did before posting this issue.
Is it possible that the female jacks are defective?
Is it possible that we are missing something?

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adafruit_support_carter
 
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Re: Female headphone jack not working

Post by adafruit_support_carter »

Which two pins are you using?

GND = ?
SIGNAL = ?
pins.jpg
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mandina_choilab
 
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Re: Female headphone jack not working

Post by mandina_choilab »

Hello,

GND = 3

Signal = 1

The only way to get voltage out is to forcefully produce contact by bending the male jack. Looks like the ground pin is not making good contact.

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adafruit_support_carter
 
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Re: Female headphone jack not working

Post by adafruit_support_carter »

OK, those are the generally correct pins.

In your first post you mention using PID 1800 plugs:
https://www.adafruit.com/product/1800
Those are stereo plugs. Which of the conductors are you using on the PID 1800 plug?
plug.jpg
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mandina_choilab
 
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Re: Female headphone jack not working

Post by mandina_choilab »

Hello, the male plug is not the issue, we can get voltage from it.
We also tried a commercial 3.5 mm male Jack. and couldn't get signal from the female jack.
Anyway, we are using the one from Adafruit as a mono, long leg is ground (I think this is 3), two short legs are positive (I think this is 1,2).

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adafruit_support_carter
 
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Re: Female headphone jack not working

Post by adafruit_support_carter »

Anyway, we are using the one from Adafruit as a mono, long leg is ground (I think this is 3), two short legs are positive (I think this is 1,2).
Can you check and verify this. Since you are using a stereo plug into a mono jack, worth verifying how this is being done.

Note that even though the PID 4031 jack has 3 pins, only 2 are for signal. The other is for checking insertion.

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mandina_choilab
 
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Re: Female headphone jack not working

Post by mandina_choilab »

2021-10-20-095227.jpg
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2021-10-20-095240.jpg
2021-10-20-095240.jpg (78.2 KiB) Viewed 135 times

This is how we soldered the connector, is this clear enough?

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adafruit_support_carter
 
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Re: Female headphone jack not working

Post by adafruit_support_carter »

Thanks. That helps. Can't really tell for sure from looking though in terms of where the red wire ends up on the plug. Are you getting continuity between these points?
cont.jpg
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mandina_choilab
 
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Re: Female headphone jack not working

Post by mandina_choilab »

Voltage difference between the tip and the long leg (or the place with 3 in your previous picture) is 3.3, the same voltage I have as output for my feather. Resistance is around 16 Mohms.
When I trigger a signal in the feather I see the voltage step in my multimeter.
Voltage difference between the places marked with red arrows in your picture is 0. Resistance is around 1 ohm.
We have been through all this BEFORE posting in this forum.
Is it possible that the batch of female jacks we received is not working as expected, is there a way you can verify their functioning and send us a correct batch or reimburse us?

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spiritranger7
 
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Re: Female headphone jack not working

Post by spiritranger7 »

Hello, I worked with mandina_choilab on this project. I have tested the cable and confirmed it is connected as we have designed. I tested the plug connected to our audio jacks both soldered and not soldered into the proto board. The jacks work as expected only when you place considerable lateral force on the male audio jack plugs while they are plugged into the female jack. After further testing, it was discovered that specifically the ground pin of the female jack is not connected unless you apply lateral force to the male plug. Thus, it is my belief that there may be some internal defect in the jacks, or we have missed some critical detail of the way the jacks work.

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adafruit_support_carter
 
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Re: Female headphone jack not working

Post by adafruit_support_carter »

Voltage difference between the places marked with red arrows in your picture is 0. Resistance is around 1 ohm.
0 volts is expected. 1 ohm is suspicious, it should be near 0. My guess is you are using the wrong conductor on the plug - the ring. Since you are using a stereo plug into a mono jack you'll want to make sure you are using the tip conductor on the stereo plug, where red arrow points.

A better option would be to use a mono plug instead of a stereo plug.

It's possible you are getting the ring conductor of the plug to connect with the internal conductor of the jack by applying the lateral force.

If you have spare jacks and plugs, it's fairly easy to see how these two pieces mate together. The bottom of the jack is wide open and you can see how the plug mates with all the internal parts once inserted.

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