DIY 3.5mm Stereo Jack Connector

by superhamster in Circuits > Audio

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DIY 3.5mm Stereo Jack Connector

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Well, this is my first instructable :D, here I'm going to explain how to do a 3.5mm jack, this method is dirty and takes some time but it's cheap... hope you like it :)

What do I need?

- a glue gun
- standard size staples (or something similar)
- soldering iron
- solder
- some cable cover where the jack fits softly (in this case the cover is from an utp cable)
- scissors (or something to cut)
- small cables



First Steps

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well, basically the 3.5mm stereo plug uses 3 contacts, it can be seen clearly if you look at the tip of the plug, but what we need to know are the physical measures, I've made some ugly drawing of it, check it...

looking from the tip to the cable there are...

5mm
1mm insulator (aprox)
3mm (aprox)
1mm insulator (aprox)
5mm 

what ends in about 1.5 cm long...
let's cut 1.8 cm of cable cover.


Time to Staples...

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here we will use standard size staples for doing contacts, as the plug has 3 contacts... we need 3.
llet's separate the staples and straight them...

after that, we need to put the staples into the cable cover, check images for details

when finished, let's go to the soldering part

Solder, Solder Everywhere

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grab the little incomplete "jack" and put solder in every staple, do it quickly, heating staples may result in melting of the cable cover so be careful...

take three small cables and put solder on their tips, then solder them to the incomplete "jack", also be careful in this step, you have to avoid heating the staples...

Glue Wars

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now take the glue gun and cover the exterior part of the cable cover, including the contacts and the other hole of the "jack" if you want(don't let the glue enter on it), be careful to use the glue gun, grab the "jack" from the three cables while you are putting the glue on it.

also you can accelerate the chilling process using water.

good luck :)