Audio Jack wiring (open Jacks)

[Kevinkemp33]

I am for some reason having trouble remembering which leg of the open jack is which. TRS and TS. I have used closed jacks in the past and know which leg is which but not with the open style jacks, which I am just now starting to use on my builds. Any help would be very appreciated.

 

[Big Monk]

I am for some reason having trouble remembering which leg of the open jack is which. TRS and TS. I have used closed jacks in the past and know which leg is which but not with the open style jacks, which I am just now starting to use on my builds. Any help would be very appreciated.

The easiest thing to do is to take a patch cord, plug it into the pedal, and use your multimeter to determine which tabs are what. I've been building for a long time but i still do this frequently.

 

[fig]

I just look at the solder tabs. The ground/sleeve is visibly connected to the lug.

 

[Joben Magooch]

Yep, as above - you can just see where the sleeve (ground) is connected to its respective lug.

With TRS plugs, generally speaking the lug will be directly across from the corresponding plug/contact. You already know which one the sleeve is, so the tallest contact (tip) will have the tip lug directly opposite it and the middle contact (ring) will also have the ring lug across from it.

And of course you can also just look at the wafers, too. Just follow the tip contact down and see where it "enters" the fiber wafer. The corresponding lug will naturally come out of the same "level".

But I get it. For whatever reason I always am forgetting or spacing out on it too, so as was said above also I usually just plug in a cable and use my multimeter if I'm doubting for some reason.

 

[Nic]

I could add, sometimes better to test continuity with a multimeter than to follow tayda spec sheet... ask me how I know.

 

[andare]

I also use a multimeter for that. I use it for everything. Mine reads temperature as well...instant meat thermometer. While the chicken is in the oven you can have fun seeing the voltage, resistance and capacitance of the bird go up.

I always quintuple check everything when building. Am I alone in this?

 

[jimilee]

The easiest thing to do is to take a patch cord, plug it into the pedal, and use your multimeter to determine which tabs are what. I've been building for a long time but i still do this frequently.

This is what I did for the longest time. I don’t use batteries, so I dropped the stereo on jack a good while back.

 

[spi]

On an open jack you can see that where lug and the plug come out of the same stack level of wafers.

Still, I've wired it wrong more than once, which is to say that the way I often tell is after I boxed the pedal and plug it in the first time.

 

[Kevinkemp33]

Thank You all so much for your help. It is definitely much appreciated!!