playing music out of the headphone jack

[automatton]

hi,

i can play music through my headphones no problem, but if i plug a 3.5mm jack from my stereo into my phone it doesn't recognise the stereo plug, tunes continue to come out of the built in speaker. so my question is: is there an app/widget to force the headphone socket on? or do i have to make up a special cable with a tiny earth leak to fool the phone into thinking the headphones are plugged in?

phone is alcatel 980, android 2.1

 

[sitlet]

It should work. Are you sure you are using a 3.5mm cable and not a 2.5mm one? Are you sure its a stereo cable and not a mono cable?

 

[Yeahha]

It sounds like the stereo jack is not connecting, if the headphones work with no issues then it sounds like a problem with the stereo jack. Can you switch the jack from the stereo? If the female part of the TRS connector (part in your phone) is recessed depending on how the male connector (from the stereo) is made it may not be able to penetrate deep enough. This would cause it not to create a circuit and the phone would not realize it is plugged in. You can get an extender from a electronics store which may work better, you may even be able to try it out at the store.

Amazon.com: 3.5MM Extension Cable: Electronics

Just an idea of what you would be looking for, likely you would not need something this long.

 

[Yeahha]

It should work. Are you sure you are using a 3.5mm cable and not a 2.5mm one? Are you sure its a stereo cable and not a mono cable?

If it was mono there should still be sound out of the left channel, the right channel would cause a short and there would be no sound but as long as the stereo isn't too old (20+ years) there should be no worry of damage.

 

[automatton]

i'm using a standard 3.5mm jack to phono lead to get the sound from phone to stereo. works fine with my iPod.

3.5mm jack on the lead is identical to the jack on my handsfree except the handsfree plug has the extra ring for the mic

i've checked the plug fit for length, girth and depth etc (should probably mention 10years audio visual experience at this point. house has so many cables my friends just call it the 'universal adaptor')

when i make a contact from signal to ground (by touching the left phono tip to the right phono earth) the headphone icon pops up on the screen and the audio stops coming out the speaker. i'm thinking the earth is too good on my stereo, completely isolated from signal. so unlike a pair of headphones where the current runs back down the earth, theres no return current on the earth line to tell the phone there's something plugged in. (this is fairly sensible - less moving parts means better longevity - but on the other hand means the headphone switching only works with headphones)

unless there's an app for this i'm just going to make up a cable with a 10k resistor between signal and earth on the left channel. not enough to cause a short or kill the signal, but enough to bleed a little through to earth and let my phone think there's something plugged in

thanks, M@

 

[Yeahha]

i'm using a standard 3.5mm jack to phono lead to get the sound from phone to stereo. works fine with my iPod.

3.5mm jack on the lead is identical to the jack on my handsfree except the handsfree plug has the extra ring for the mic

i've checked the plug fit for length, girth and depth etc (should probably mention 10years audio visual experience at this point. house has so many cables my friends just call it the 'universal adaptor')

when i make a contact from signal to ground (by touching the left phono tip to the right phono earth) the headphone icon pops up on the screen and the audio stops coming out the speaker. i'm thinking the earth is too good on my stereo, completely isolated from signal. so unlike a pair of headphones where the current runs back down the earth, theres no return current on the earth line to tell the phone there's something plugged in. (this is fairly sensible - less moving parts means better longevity - but on the other hand means the headphone switching only works with headphones)

unless there's an app for this i'm just going to make up a cable with a 10k resistor between signal and earth on the left channel. not enough to cause a short or kill the signal, but enough to bleed a little through to earth and let my phone think there's something plugged in

thanks, M@

I still think an extender should help. It sounds like the rings on the stereo cable are not connecting correct in the female connector in the phone. Have you tested a standard set up headphones without the mic? It should not make a difference as you can normally use a TRRS male in a TRRRS female.

 

[automatton]

have tested this with several different cables. regular headphones work fine. it's definitely to do with the base/earth not being part of the signal loop on hi-fi equipment. if there's anyone out there with another OT980 who can verify, would be useful, but i'm still gonna have to get my soldering iron out soon i reckon

thanks for all your help guys

 

[grongebis]

Okay I join the swarm just so I can reply to this thread now I'm havin the exact same problem and I have discovered that I was gonna use the resistor method and I was gonna put 1 resistor on each channel and I was thinking for a her maybe 16 ohms because that's normally with speakers are right but I don't know what to do from there I would also rather use the app method but I don't know if there is a free app out there um yeah
:

 

[divinebovine]

Necrothread!

The Virgin Mobile Venture, manufactured by Alcatel, has exactly the same problem. It apparently doesn't use a physical switch triggered by insertion like most devices do.

To make absolutely sure, I plugged in a splitter. With nothing plugged into the splitter, the headphone jack is not activated. With my car stereo or an FM transmitter plugged into the splitter, the headphone jack is still not activated. With headphones plugged into the splitter, the headphone jack is activated.

Besides soldering, potential solutions include leaving a splitter and cheap earphones in the car or using bluetooth.

 

[divinebovine]

Problem solved for $1.69.
3.5mm Earphone Adapter Cable with mic for iPhone | eBay

Plug it in, press the button, phone switches on headphone jack until you unplug it. The button is supposed to act as a Send/End button but I don't care, I'm just glad it works to activate the headphone jack.

Now not only can I use my car stereo to listen to music from my phone, I can also use it to crank the volume on a conversation...previously I've had to turn it on speakerphone and hold it up to my ear like it's not on speakerphone and still couldn't hear over wind/engine noise.

Might want to get a different one than I got, though. The mic on it is really awful. It's still worth trying ones on eBay that are a couple bucks IMO.

 

[divinebovine]

Update: That cable didn't last long before it frayed and I didn't bother replacing it. Today I accidentally discovered an FM transmitter that works. It's a generic one, no brand name but merely a model number WT-601N. Signal was pretty decent relative to other FM transmitters but I remember the last time I tried this model (years ago) I did not have the same opinion.