K3 Back Panel Phones Jack... my solution...

[Tom Hammond-2]

Man... what a BIG discussion... whew!

Early on with my K3, I found that having two speakers (L & R) plugged into the
rear panel SPKR jack of the K3 was turning out to be a real P.I.T.A.

I had two speakers, with somewhat lengthy (though folded up and tied) leads
which extended left and right across the back of the K3, wound in/out of all
of the other wires back there as well, and BOTH leads attached to a single
stereo plug, inserted into the back of the K3.

When I wanted to move the speakers, or to take them with me for a trip or demo
I had to first unplug the plug from the back of the K3 and then 'snake' at
least one of the speakers up/down in/out of all the other accumulated wires
before I could manage to resurrect both speakers fro in back of the rig.  It
got to be a really tiring process... really quick!

I decided to fix that problem.

I designed a small PC board on which two (2) stereo phone jacks were mounted,
and then a 7" length of 2-conductor (w/shield) cable from the PC board to a
single stereo plug which plugged into the back of the K3.  The jacks on the
PC board were wired such that the RING on each jack was left unconnected and
so only the TIP and SLEEVE were connected to the cable. This way, I can plug
EITHER stereo OR mono plugs into the jacks on the PC board and not have to
worry about shorting anything on the K3 out to ground.  Additionally, and this
is the best part for me... now, when I need to remove the speakers, all I have
to do is to unplug each speaker from the PC board and INDIVIDUALLY unwrap any
wires before pulling it to the front of the desk... no longer do I have to
man-handle a big honkin' speaker, trying to unwind it from the rats nest of
wires in back of the rig.  I also have a quick and easy to unplug both speakers
from the back of the K3 if I need to do that as well.

If you like my idea, visit my web site at:  http://www.n0ss.net/index_k3.html
and drop down to the line titled: "External (Dual) Speaker Splitter
for the K3".

If there's enough interest, I might consider making some PC boards for sale,
otherwise, I'll be happy to make the artwork available for you to make your
own PC boards IF you're interested in doing so.  If someone else wants to make
the boards, I'll be happy to give them the artwork, too.

73,

Tom   N0SS

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[Don Wilhelm-4]

Tom,

A great idea (why didn't I think of that).  I don't cart my K3 around
much, but I use 2 speakers for AFX.  It is not 'nice' having both
speakers tied to a single stereo jack.
Another solution, although not as elegant, is to use a Y-adapter.  If it
is a commonly manufactured adapter, the ones that adapt 1/8 inch stereo
jacks will not work because the plug and two jacks are simply wired in
parallel.  The Y-adapter with a 1.8 inch stereo plug to 2 RCA jacks will
work, but it requires RCA plugs on the speakers (or that addition of  
2-RCA plug 0to 1/8 inch jack adapters.  One example is from Radio Shack:
                           Y-Adapter, Phono Jacks to Stereo 1/8" Plug
                              *Model:* 274-269 | *Catalog #:* 274-369
Tom, I will take one of your board if you decide to make up some
'kitchen boards'.

73,
Don W3FPR

Tom Hammond wrote:

> Man... what a BIG discussion... whew!
>
> Early on with my K3, I found that having two speakers (L & R) plugged into the
> rear panel SPKR jack of the K3 was turning out to be a real P.I.T.A.
>
> I had two speakers, with somewhat lengthy (though folded up and tied) leads
> which extended left and right across the back of the K3, wound in/out of all
> of the other wires back there as well, and BOTH leads attached to a single
> stereo plug, inserted into the back of the K3.
>
> When I wanted to move the speakers, or to take them with me for a trip or demo
> I had to first unplug the plug from the back of the K3 and then 'snake' at
> least one of the speakers up/down in/out of all the other accumulated wires
> before I could manage to resurrect both speakers fro in back of the rig.  It
> got to be a really tiring process... really quick!
>
> I decided to fix that problem.
>
> I designed a small PC board on which two (2) stereo phone jacks were mounted,
> and then a 7" length of 2-conductor (w/shield) cable from the PC board to a
> single stereo plug which plugged into the back of the K3.  The jacks on the
> PC board were wired such that the RING on each jack was left unconnected and
> so only the TIP and SLEEVE were connected to the cable. This way, I can plug
> EITHER stereo OR mono plugs into the jacks on the PC board and not have to
> worry about shorting anything on the K3 out to ground.  Additionally, and this
> is the best part for me... now, when I need to remove the speakers, all I have
> to do is to unplug each speaker from the PC board and INDIVIDUALLY unwrap any
> wires before pulling it to the front of the desk... no longer do I have to
> man-handle a big honkin' speaker, trying to unwind it from the rats nest of
> wires in back of the rig.  I also have a quick and easy to unplug both speakers
> from the back of the K3 if I need to do that as well.
>
> If you like my idea, visit my web site at:  http://www.n0ss.net/index_k3.html
> and drop down to the line titled: "External (Dual) Speaker Splitter
> for the K3".
>
> If there's enough interest, I might consider making some PC boards for sale,
> otherwise, I'll be happy to make the artwork available for you to make your
> own PC boards IF you're interested in doing so.  If someone else wants to make
> the boards, I'll be happy to give them the artwork, too.
>
> 73,
>
> Tom   N0SS
>
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[Brett Howard]

I solved this issue by installing a male RCA connector on each of my
speakers.  Then I bought a long RCA to 1/4" in headphone cable that
didn't have a strain relief type thing on it.  The strain relieve that
I'm talking about are the ones that don't allow the cable to split.  I
then ripped the two cables apart so that each channel could go different
directions.  

I then when its time to go pull the cable off at the speakers and then
pull the RCA ends into where the radio is and extract the cable.  Heck
if I really wanted to make travel easy (and I may end up doing this)...
I'll just buy another cable then all I have to do is pull the speakers
off with their little pig tails and they'll plug right into the travel
cable (which can probably be a shorter version of what is in the
shack)...

~Brett (KC7OTG)

On Sun, 2010-01-03 at 16:09 -0600, Tom Hammond wrote:

> Man... what a BIG discussion... whew!
>
> Early on with my K3, I found that having two speakers (L & R) plugged into the
> rear panel SPKR jack of the K3 was turning out to be a real P.I.T.A.
>
> I had two speakers, with somewhat lengthy (though folded up and tied) leads
> which extended left and right across the back of the K3, wound in/out of all
> of the other wires back there as well, and BOTH leads attached to a single
> stereo plug, inserted into the back of the K3.
>
> When I wanted to move the speakers, or to take them with me for a trip or demo
> I had to first unplug the plug from the back of the K3 and then 'snake' at
> least one of the speakers up/down in/out of all the other accumulated wires
> before I could manage to resurrect both speakers fro in back of the rig.  It
> got to be a really tiring process... really quick!
>
> I decided to fix that problem.
>
> I designed a small PC board on which two (2) stereo phone jacks were mounted,
> and then a 7" length of 2-conductor (w/shield) cable from the PC board to a
> single stereo plug which plugged into the back of the K3.  The jacks on the
> PC board were wired such that the RING on each jack was left unconnected and
> so only the TIP and SLEEVE were connected to the cable. This way, I can plug
> EITHER stereo OR mono plugs into the jacks on the PC board and not have to
> worry about shorting anything on the K3 out to ground.  Additionally, and this
> is the best part for me... now, when I need to remove the speakers, all I have
> to do is to unplug each speaker from the PC board and INDIVIDUALLY unwrap any
> wires before pulling it to the front of the desk... no longer do I have to
> man-handle a big honkin' speaker, trying to unwind it from the rats nest of
> wires in back of the rig.  I also have a quick and easy to unplug both speakers
> from the back of the K3 if I need to do that as well.
>
> If you like my idea, visit my web site at:  http://www.n0ss.net/index_k3.html
> and drop down to the line titled: "External (Dual) Speaker Splitter
> for the K3".
>
> If there's enough interest, I might consider making some PC boards for sale,
> otherwise, I'll be happy to make the artwork available for you to make your
> own PC boards IF you're interested in doing so.  If someone else wants to make
> the boards, I'll be happy to give them the artwork, too.
>
> 73,
>
> Tom   N0SS
>
> ______________________________________________________________
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> Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft
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[Julian, G4ILO]

Tom Hammond-2 wrote

I had two speakers, with somewhat lengthy (though folded up and tied) leads
which extended left and right across the back of the K3, wound in/out of all
of the other wires back there as well, and BOTH leads attached to a single
stereo plug, inserted into the back of the K3.

When I wanted to move the speakers, or to take them with me for a trip or demo
I had to first unplug the plug from the back of the K3 and then 'snake' at
least one of the speakers up/down in/out of all the other accumulated wires
before I could manage to resurrect both speakers fro in back of the rig.  It
got to be a really tiring process... really quick!

I decided to fix that problem.

I designed a small PC board on which two (2) stereo phone jacks were mounted,
and then a 7" length of 2-conductor (w/shield) cable from the PC board to a
single stereo plug which plugged into the back of the K3.

Been there, done that, etc. I think practically every socket on the back of my K3 has something plugged into it.

But either I'm overlooking something, or you don't need to make up a special connector. You can buy little adapters that have one 3.5mm stereo jack output and two 3.5mm stereo sockets for input. I think they are made to allow two people to listen simultaneously to an MP3 player.

[Iain MacDonnell - N6ML-2]

On Sun, Jan 3, 2010 at 3:41 PM, Julian, G4ILO <[hidden email]> wrote:

>
>
>
> Tom Hammond-2 wrote:
>>
>> I had two speakers, with somewhat lengthy (though folded up and tied)
>> leads
>> which extended left and right across the back of the K3, wound in/out of
>> all
>> of the other wires back there as well, and BOTH leads attached to a single
>> stereo plug, inserted into the back of the K3.
>>
>> When I wanted to move the speakers, or to take them with me for a trip or
>> demo
>> I had to first unplug the plug from the back of the K3 and then 'snake' at
>> least one of the speakers up/down in/out of all the other accumulated
>> wires
>> before I could manage to resurrect both speakers fro in back of the rig.
>> It
>> got to be a really tiring process... really quick!
>>
>> I decided to fix that problem.
>>
>> I designed a small PC board on which two (2) stereo phone jacks were
>> mounted,
>> and then a 7" length of 2-conductor (w/shield) cable from the PC board to
>> a
>> single stereo plug which plugged into the back of the K3.
>>
>
> Been there, done that, etc. I think practically every socket on the back of
> my K3 has something plugged into it.
>
> But either I'm overlooking something, or you don't need to make up a special
> connector. You can buy little adapters that have one 3.5mm stereo jack
> output and two 3.5mm stereo sockets for input. I think they are made to
> allow two people to listen simultaneously to an MP3 player.

What you're missing is that that would still cause the "ring" to be
shorted to ground if a mono plug was inserted, and both speakers would
still get the "left" channel, whereas Tom's solution (presumably)
connects the ring of the K3 connector to the tip of the "right"
connector on his little box.

    ~Iain / N6ML
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[Don Wilhelm-4]

Julian,

What is missing there is that with those adapters, one must wire one
speaker to the tip and the other to the ring to achieve dual speaker
reception.
It would be best to have both speakers wired the same - only to the tip
and sleeve - Tom's homebuilt adapter does that.

73,
Don W3FPR

Julian, G4ILO wrote:
> But either I'm overlooking something, or you don't need to make up a special
> connector. You can buy little adapters that have one 3.5mm stereo jack
> output and two 3.5mm stereo sockets for input. I think they are made to
> allow two people to listen simultaneously to an MP3 player.
>
>  
>
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[John Gibson]

Hi Tom,

Doesn't the Radio Shack 274-375 stereo adapter at $4.50 do the same thing as
your circuit board? See

http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2102691

Best wishes and 73,

John, no8v
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[Don Wilhelm-4]

John,

I will try responding in case Tom is not monitoring right now.  That
adapter wires all the tips together and all the rings together.
Tom's adapter wires the tip of the plug to the tip of one of the jacks,
and wires the ring of the plug to the TIP of the other jack.
I do not know of any adapter that does what Tom's does.  It allows
either a mono or stereo plug to be inserted into the jacks with the
speaker wired only to the tip and the sleeve.  One speaker will carry
the left channel info and the other speaker will carry the right channel.

73,
Don W3FPR

John H Gibson wrote:
> Hi Tom,
>
> Doesn't the Radio Shack 274-375 stereo adapter at $4.50 do the same thing as
> your circuit board? See
>
> http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2102691
>  
>
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[Tom Hammond-2]

Hi Julian

>Been there, done that, etc. I think practically every socket on the back of
>my K3 has something plugged into it.
>
>But either I'm overlooking something, or you don't need to make up a special
>connector. You can buy little adapters that have one 3.5mm stereo jack
>output and two 3.5mm stereo sockets for input. I think they are made to
>allow two people to listen simultaneously to an MP3 player.

Agreed... BUT... how many of them ISOLATE the RING so it doesn't
short out when
a mono plug is plugged into the STEREO jack?  THAT is what I was trying to
avoid as much as providing two individual connections... with what I have, you
can plug in either a stereo plug (connected to a SINGLE spkr), or a mono plug
(connected to a single spkr) and still not have to worry about the long mono
sleeve shorting out the RING on the K3's input.

The TIP & GND of the K3 PLUG connects to the LEFT spkr, and the RING & GND
connect to the RIGHT spkr. But the RINGs on BOTH of the INPUT jacks are not
connected to anything.

73,

Tom

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[Julian, G4ILO]

Tom Hammond-2 wrote

The TIP & GND of the K3 PLUG connects to the LEFT spkr, and the RING & GND
connect to the RIGHT spkr. But the RINGs on BOTH of the INPUT jacks are not
connected to anything.

Tom et al.

You are right. I was only thinking of how to avoid the hassle of threading the speakers through the cables. To use the ready-made adapter you'd also have to snip the mono plugs off the speaker cables and replace them with stereo plugs, one wired to the tip and the other the ring.