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Eris 3.5 mm jack pinout - headphone problems

R

rocketman3746

Lurker
Does anyone have a confirmed pinout for the 3.5 mm jack on the Eris? I have found conflicting information elsewhere. Some sites say one way, some say the other. Obviously it's going to either be:

Option #1
1 - Tip - Left
2 - Ring - Right
3 - Ring - Ground
4 - Sleeve - Mic

Or

Option #2
1 - Tip - Left
2 - Ring - Right
3 - Ring - Mic
4 - Sleeve - Ground

I have an iPhone compatible headset with mic and volume controls (Skullcandy 50/50), and it seems that if the Eris was pinned like option 1 above, it should work since it's pinned the same as the iPhone. But the mic doesn't work and I'd like a little confirmation before I go and order an adaptor that will switch pins 3 and 4. Any help would be appreciated!

ps - I'm not expecting the volume controls to ever work, but it would be nice if the mic did.
 
Hello Rocketman.

I don't know the pin map on the Eris jack yet, but I have a co-worker who uses a Radio Shack Auvio headset with mic successfully.
 
rocketman3746 said:
Does anyone have a confirmed pinout for the 3.5 mm jack on the Eris? I have found conflicting information elsewhere. Some sites say one way, some say the other. Obviously it's going to either be:

Option #1
1 - Tip - Left
2 - Ring - Right
3 - Ring - Ground
4 - Sleeve - Mic

Or

Option #2
1 - Tip - Left
2 - Ring - Right
3 - Ring - Mic
4 - Sleeve - Ground

I have an iPhone compatible headset with mic and volume controls (Skullcandy 50/50), and it seems that if the Eris was pinned like option 1 above, it should work since it's pinned the same as the iPhone.
Click to expand...

right. 4 has to be ground since thats standard for headsets. lots of devices like camcorders or those old archos boxes and nonstandard grounds so 'normal' headphones wouldn't work.

Some devices use small capacitors in parallel with the mic so less/more sensitive ones may not work. apple does this with resistors on their newer connectors for the express purpose making older connectors useless.

thats just a guess, though. you're right it has to be pinned the same otherwise it either wouldn't work period, or you'd only get one channel (tip/left).
 
I am fairly sure it goes like this.

Tip = Left
R1 = Right
R2 = Common
R3 = Mic


The only thing I am not 100% sure of is the Left and Right might be backwards, but that's not a big deal.

I use an iPod cable to hookup my Eris to my wired handsfree system in my car.
I've used the same cable for my buddy's iPhone and it worked as well. I think that is a pretty standard pinout for phones.

This is the cable I use.
http://www.amazon.com/Macally-Audio-Video-Cable-classic/dp/B000GGQ2ZU/ref=sr_1_10?ie=UTF8&qid=1298470270&sr=8-10

I've even used the same cable on my old 5th Generation iPod Video, and it worked. The only difference was R3 was a video out instead of a mic in. But the audio out was the same.

Oh, and I've used this setup with a couple of LG feature phones that had 3.5mm jacks, and audio and mic worked perfectly on those phones too. I think this is pretty standard. There might be some exceptions to the rule, but I believe this is the rule.

Remember that you can use a standard headphone TRS plug in that same jack and it works. In that case, the mic (sleeve) would just be shorted to the third ring, the ground, telling the phone that you are using headphones versus a headset. And it can tell the difference.
 
manderle said:
I use a iPhone compatible set of earbuds with mic and it works just fine. It doesn't have volume control built in.
Click to expand...

Thanks for all the replies. I still can't figure out why, but it sounds like I screwed myself by getting headphones with volume control. Not sure why they are different. I even purchased an adapter from kVconnection that switched the ground and mic pins, which seemed to make the mic work, but the audio sounds out of phase now. I'm going to pin out the adapter and see what they did. But from what manderle says, it sounds like I don't even need the adapter. I just need to stay away from headphones with volume controls... I wish there was a way to hack the headphones to bypass the volume controls. Might be time to do some brain surgery...
 
On my iPhone 3GS & 4 the sleeve is Ground Return for the L/R earphones, and therefore the electret mic was discovered on the next ring (R2) assuming the nomenclature Tip (LHS ear), R1 (RHS ear), R2 Mic, Sleeve (Gnd). The iPhone used the electret mic current to switch out the internal (iphone) mic and earphone over to the headset parts. I found a 10Kohm did the trick. I seem to remember that the R2 mic connection was -ve and not as expected.
However the Samsung headset supplied with the Galaxy TAB and the Galaxy S has just a mic and a push switch (no volume controls) and I have established that the earphones are returned to R2 and the mic is on the Sleeve ie the reverse to the iPhone headset. The push switch (momentary) places 100ohm across R2 and the sleeve (presumeably for call control, etc). This will also mute the mic during the press function.
Hope this helps someone out there!
 
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