A tale of two... connectors

[Michael Jones]

OK, I got my TRS connectors in, and started to install them in the pannels.
As I got to looking around at them, I noticed some of them are different.
Most of them have only 3 connection points. Seems reasonable; Tip, Ring, and Sleeve, right? But a half dozen or so have additional connection points at the tip and ring.
Additionally, those have a metal shaft or band (for lack of a better word) "inside" of the typical tip and ring connectors. When I insert a 1/4" plug, the "outside" connectors are pushed away from the inside connector, seemingly rendering the "inside" connector useless.

Note the pic. The jack on the right, seems typical to me, while the jack on the left is the one in question.

Pretend for a moment that I'm an idiot (not a difficult task, I know), and explain to me what I'm looking at.

Is the jack on the left "normaled"?

[ibrc]

Hey Michael, I get to help you

You hold two different brands of a TRS connector which I also believe is the same as a stereo jack. I've ordered lots from Jameco for my stompbox building. I prefer to use the one pictured on the right.

Still plannin the room

[Michael Jones]

But, but, but... they BOTH have the word "Neutrix" stamped on them.

Someone had a really good suggestion on your space.
Bump your thread.

[ibrc]

Originally Posted by Michael Jones

But, but, but... they BOTH have the word "Neutrix" stamped on them.

Someone had a really good suggestion on your space.
Bump your thread.

I replied yesterday. Good idea but I'm only building one room.


hmm. I wonder if they changed design or substituted. This happened to me too. I have also purchased pairs of them from different local stores.
One store may have the one on the left. One store may have the one on the right. Or I do believe it may be a conspiracy

By the way. I've looked at your pics here and there. Very impressive!

[Light]

Yes Michael, you are right, it is a normalling connector. If you wire for parts you normally would, it will work like any other jack, but you can use the others to make connections which break when you plug something into it.


Light

"Cowards can never be moral."
M.K. Gandhi

[frederic]

The one on the left is a normalling jack.

If you look closely at the picture, at the metal part of the jack that extends back to reach the "tip" of the plug, you'll see inside of the bend another tab that rests on it, conducting electricity. When you push in a phone plug, the bent tab part bends back slightly to hold the phone plug, and the inside metal tab remains stationary, opening the circuit.

You can actually rotate the jack around and follow the circuits if you really have nothing else to do

[Michael Jones]

Originally Posted by frederic

You can actually rotate the jack around and follow the circuits if you really have nothing else to do

Uh Oh!
Guilty!!

Ya know, I kind of figured it was a normalling jack, and have certianly heard of them before, but never really examined one up close and in captivity.

But, it has me wondering... why would you want to insert a plug to disconnect a circuit?

What kind of Texas A&M Aggie (insert pollock if you don't know what an Aggie is) came up with that?

[Dimebag]

Originally Posted by Michael Jones

Uh Oh!
Guilty!!

Ya know, I kind of figured it was a normalling jack, and have certianly heard of them before, but never really examined one up close and in captivity.

But, it has me wondering... why would you want to insert a plug to disconnect a circuit?

What kind of Texas A&M Aggie (insert pollock if you don't know what an Aggie is) came up with that?

Think about a patchbay...
Imagine using a normalling jack for an insert-cable. That way you will have the signal going in the mixer, out the insert-out, through your normalling-jack back to the insert-in, and then through your channels and so on... BUT, when something is inserted in you normalling jack the "loop" will be broken and signal is going out through whatever you plugged into your jack...
Did that make sense???

[Light]

You want normalled jacks so you don't have to use patch cables to every point in your patch bay. You setup your patch bay so all of your most used connections are always setup (for instance, aux send 1 always goes to the input of your reverb unit). If, however, you are doing a session where you want to use your aux send 1 to go to a distortion unit for some reason, you can plug into the top row on your patch bay for the AUX send, and if the connection is fully normalled (which means both the top and bottom jacks are normalled), it breaks the connection to the reverb unit. If it is half-normalled, then the connection is only broken if you plug into the bottom jack of the pair.


Light

"Cowards can never be moral."
M.K. Gandhi

[MikeA]

You would probably want to return the normalling jacks and get the normal ( i.e. "standard") type unless you'll have a need for them. I presume that you are wiring mic panels up at this point becuase I know you're not to the point of wiring up your patchbays yet.

[knightfly]

Actually, you can just ignore the extra connections once you figure out which ones are the tip ring and sleeve - if the extra contacts aren't wired to anything, then technically they don't exist... Steve

[Dethska]

These normalled jacks are also used in guitar fx boxes to ground out the input when no cord is plugged in. This keeps the pedal quiet when it doesn't have a cable plugged in.

[frederic]

Originally Posted by Michael Jones

But, it has me wondering... why would you want to insert a plug to disconnect a circuit?

Wire up your inserts on your console.

No plugs, circuit is complete from pre-amp to vol/pan controls. Insert plugs, insert compressor or EQ between pre-amp and vol/pan controls.

[Light]

Originally Posted by Dethska

These normalled jacks are also used in guitar fx boxes to ground out the input when no cord is plugged in. This keeps the pedal quiet when it doesn't have a cable plugged in.

I don't know how Boss does it, but you can do that with any TRS jack. You don't need a normalling jack. We do that all the time in guitars with preamps, and when there is nothing pluged in, the battery is not being used.


Light

"Cowards can never be moral."
M.K. Gandhi

[Michael Jones]

Originally Posted by Dimebag

Think about a patchbay...
Imagine using a normalling jack for an insert-cable. That way you will have the signal going in the mixer, out the insert-out, through your normalling-jack back to the insert-in, and then through your channels and so on... BUT, when something is inserted in you normalling jack the "loop" will be broken and signal is going out through whatever you plugged into your jack...
Did that make sense???

Yep!
Perfect sense.

[saxplaya]

I haven't asked this question around for fear of sounding ignorant. HOW does BOSS do that?

Also, I'm doing the wiring for a studio for a guy at my church, that he's building in his basement. Professional sound insulation, the works. I'm using those same kinds of jacks. I'm installing them on the live room's end of the snake so that I can either use the channels for stereo headphone monitor, or a regular floor monitor. Am I the only one who uses Switchcraft?