3.5mm jack vs usb

modded matt

modded matt

Active Member
I tend not to start many topics here for various reasons, But I see alot of talk and excitment about the 3.5mm jack mod. why is that? why not embed the mini usb from the origional chip? then any usb cable will work, you dont have a need for a simi propritary plug? I just dont understand the benifit, I guess the install may be a small bit easier, but not really. IMO most 3.5mm jacks, definatly the radio shack ones, are cheap and tend to fail as they have moving parts, where as with the mini usb, this is not an issue.
 
K

Krier023

Useful Poster
I think he means that the 3.5s have springs that force the metal to make contact and the springs wear out over time, but on mini usbs there are contacts no matter how used the chord or port is
 
Fredrow

Fredrow

Active Member
Uh..... The 3.5mm jack kind of have moving parts, it’s not a spring. Inside the jack is just rectangle sized pieces of metal, they have a slight bend in them so when you insert the male-plug into the jack those metal pieces make contact and hold the male-plug into place. Now, some are built better than others. I have not seen any fail as of yet, but I'm sure some will because nothing is perfect...lol... Anyone with electronics background can vouch on that.....

The reason why I like the 3.5mm jack is because of installation purposes. Installing the jack is easier than the mini-usb was. Plus the 3.5mm jack looks more professional compared to the mini-usb, when it comes to installing into these controllers. The mini UBS has that weird shape to it, so when trying to cut out a perfect hole for it was a bit of a challenge. I have tried it on a couple shells when we first started up, and I couldn’t get any of them to be perfect and flush with the controller shell.
 
odingalt

odingalt

Well-Known Member
Staff member
Round drill - round hole - 3.5mm jack is round - all looks o.k..

Mini-USB's shape is well... mini-USB. I'm not a genius machine shop type of guy, I didn't know how to make a PROFESSIONAL USB-shaped hole in plastic with common hand tools. I could have hatcheted something using a dremel, but I think for >$100 people expect something that looks professional. Of course injection molding special pieces to use the mini-USB is an option, at an added cost. Injection mold costs anywhere from $5k-$15k depending on the details, which means a guy will have to turn several thousand parts to make his money back. It would end up driving up the cost of the controllers by as much as $20 a controller. So we went with the ghetto method of drilling a 5/8" (I'd have to look at the drill bit to remember for sure if it's 5/8") hole and going with the proprietary cable (used to be sold in Best Buy and Walmart before the new gen of ipod's came out)

Another problem is the mini USB's depth and trying to figure out how to mount it so it stays in place for many many insertions. Perhaps with a cnc? router (is that the right term) and some sort of a jig a guy could find some consistency, then then dealing with how to connect three wires from the mod chip to the mini-USB - surely you need a second PCboard, then solder the mini-USB to the pcboard, then use a wire connector - ah but the wire connector takes up more spce so now you're looking around in the controller for a place to fit a mini-USB on a circuit board with a wire connector on it...

The story can go on for quiet awhile but I said screw it and went with the 3.5mm jack, it was the easy solution at the time. I do miss using a real bonafide mini-USB connection. I checked on micro-USB but it's actually not any smaller in terms of the jack itself and finding a place to mount it.

Einar
 
Itz CHARLEY

Itz CHARLEY

New Member
yeah when the metal on the inside of the 3.5 loses its springyness the cable jack thing wont stay in well. I have had one of my regular xbox wireless controller for more than 2 years and my headphone jack thingy always falls out.
 
modded matt

modded matt

Active Member
I was just mearly asking a question, not trying to emply anything, thanks for the two educated responces. I was just curious to see how the desision was made. I assumed either cost based or instalation based.

lol, yes they have moving parts, actually at radio shack you can get some with a clear back, so you can actually see the moving parts, there is mainly one springy type (sorry for the tech term) piece of metal that opens and closes a contact when the plug is insertted and extracted, I was playing with this function to do ICP on a 16F688 to let the IC know when the jack is inserted and when it is not, but I got sick of messing with the jack
 
odingalt

odingalt

Well-Known Member
Staff member
Yeah no I was just trying to be detailed in my thinking, 'thinking out loud' in the thread. Sometimes it's hard to talk about stuff without pictures :) I need to figure out a way to allow videos to be embedded in the forums. I thought I saw something the other day that allows youtube's to be embedded. Though that might end up making a mess of the forums.
 
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