Wiring the MIC & Phone Jacks

[Rolly LSA]

I'm trying to wire up my jacks for the LSA. The plans for the MIC show a twisted pair of shielded wires; a mic PTT wire; and a ground. Now one of the twisted pair go to the Tip (mic), the other goes to the ring (audio); and the shielding goes to the sleeve (ground). The PTT wire gets connected to the MIC wire and the to one side of the PTT switch; the other side to ground. Question: How do I connect the shielding to ground (sleeve terminal of the jack) without making it so brittle that it breaks? The plans for the phone show one wire to the Ring (audio) and the other wire to ground (sleeve). Shouldn't the wire go to the Tip instead of the Ring? Thx. RC

[mswain]

I use solder sleeves to terminate the shield to a wire. There are some videos on YouTube showing technique.


I'm not to wiring audio, but I am pretty sure the tip carries the audio signal and sleeve is ground for the earphone jack.

[jaredyates]

Rolly, are you installing an intercom in your LSA, and if so, which one is it? If not, then will you only be installing one microphone jack?

[Rolly LSA]

Thanks for the info. I have found the problem. RC

[svyolo]

Is there a preferred audio and mic plug type for GA aircraft? I haven't bought headsets yet, but I am ready to install the audio and mic plugs. I bought dual plug type recepticles from ACS, but they were cheap.

[jaredyates]

Those work, though if using ANR, I prefer LEMO connectors so that the headset can be powered by the airplane and not need batteries.

[zkelley2]

The downside to LEMO is that almost no one uses it and no one else can use their headset in your airplane.

[jaredyates]

I have both wired in parallel but the dual plugs almost never get any use.

[James]

My local LAME (A&P) here is rolling his eyes, but I'm thinking I might just put helicopter jacks on my aircraft, and then change the microphones on my headsets.

1) I feel confused every time I see a "two plug" headset panel, and invariably put the wrong jack in the wrong socket.
2) You can find ex-military H10-76 headsets for about 1/3rd the price of the civvy ones, even after you pay to change the mic to high impedance.
3) They don't have drop leads for twin plug setups - only panel mount sockets, and these seem to be a weak point. I think the guys in the back seats can just have drop leads cable-tied to the airframe.
4) No-one will take your headsets, because they won't work on any other GA plane.

Ok, thoughts?

James

[Nev]

I’ve just been researching this too James. I’ve always had a bug bear over headsets with 2 plugs (because that’s the way it was always done....) and so I’ve settled on LEMO plugs. As zkelly2 mentions, almost no-one uses them which is a huge bonus from a security perspective, and it’s a single modern plug. Too easy. You can also get an adaptor to add two plugs should one favor additional complexity

Helicopter headsets were my next choice too. I say do it.

[AKKen07]

What’s a bug bear?

[svyolo]

Thanks for the info. I have used both at work I think. The dual plug sockets were also unreliable. Not the plugs, but the sockets. I may go with the Lemo, and keep a set of adapters handy. I will give it some thought but I am ready to wire and install them.

[500AGL]

As others stated, Lemo jacks are the trend, best use in my opinion and without doubt the future. We don’t see any new panels installed without lemo jacks.

pb