jaws of death

[simonbaker]

Gotto really keep a sharp lookout for Big Bad Murphy...

Decided to wire a phono jack to my PCB finally.

Easy enough, just hold the wires in my "third hand" soldering jig and solder on the jack.

Start testing it, suddenly no sound. What happened. Use scope, looks bad at power transistor, crap... try other things, maybe bad Jack. Solder in another one... no luck.

Ok, get ready to extract and replace power transistor.

Final thought -- what about that alligator clip biting into those wires... you don't suppose...?

Sure enough - gator bit into both wires, shorted em out real nice.

Anyone need a nice handbag?

And Little Red Riding Hood went on her merry way...

[christop]

My first thought was that you connected the yellow wire to the shunt switch rather than to the ring. I have a couple of mono jacks that appear to have the same pin arrangement as this one, and the shunt switch is normally closed (when there is nothing plugged in) between the bottom two pins. If your jack is like mine, the unconnected pin is the ring, the yellow wire is connected to the shunt, and the black wire is connected to the tip.

Are you sure you're not shorting out the wires with the jack itself?

[simonbaker]

My first thought was that you connected the yellow wire to the shunt switch rather than to the ring. I have a couple of mono jacks that appear to have the same pin arrangement as this one, and the shunt switch is normally closed (when there is nothing plugged in) between the bottom two pins. If your jack is like mine, the unconnected pin is the ring, the yellow wire is connected to the shunt, and the black wire is connected to the tip.

Are you sure you're not shorting out the wires with the jack itself?

I think it finally worked when I removed the alligator, but those jacks fool me all the time... so your thought is very possible too...

-SB

[dfbowers]

I think it finally worked when I removed the alligator, but those jacks fool me all the time... so your thought is very possible too...

-SB

Hey Simon!

I hate when that happens.

[simonbaker]

Hey Simon!

I hate when that happens.

ROTFL!

Most of what I do is a croc anyway...

Wish I had more time to tinker, I'm getting rusty...

Enjoy the snow for me!

-SB

[jwms]

Like the 2nd gator better. I slipped a bit of heat shrink over the gator clip jaws. hold great and doesn't cut into the wire when it gets hot.