"Installing" a earphone jack...

[csuh13]

I feel like an idiot for asking this, but I've stumped myself.

I use a pair of nifty little RS 900MHZ wireless intercoms to relay audio from my radios (located in my "shack" in the garage,) to other areas in the house. The main intercom has an audio input (meant for piping in "background music" to play over the intercoms when not being used for intercomm-ing...) which I just plug straight into the headphone jack on whichever radio I'm using at the moment. The other intercom (which runs on 4 AA's,) can then be taken anywhere in the building and used like a standalone radio. Works great!

What I'd like to do is wire in a 1/8" mono earphone jack inline with the speaker so that the speaker cuts off when an earplug is connected. It's just a regular old dinky 1 inch speaker with two wires going into it... Nothing high-tech.

I can't for the life of me remember how to wire that correctly. I've spent quite a long time trying different wirings to no avail. Can someone please help me out? Thanks!

 

[ScanWorcester]

You can't just use a standard 1/8" jack. You'll need a jack switch, which allows the signal to pass through the jack when it's not being used. When it is used, it breaks the path and diverts the signal to the source being plugged in.

 

[csuh13]

That's what I thought I needed, but I can't get it wired right... How do I connect my 2 speaker wires to the 3 terminals on the switch?

(This shouldn't be that difficult... I'm having a real brain fart with it...)

Thanks again,

 

[ScanWorcester]

Wire the + of the line on one side of the switch on the jack, and the + of the speaker through the other side of the switch. (You're essentially putting the switch where you're cutting the wire)

Wire the - to the common of the jack.

Each jack switch is different, so without knowing the exact pinout, I wouldn't be able to tell you exactly what is what. Once you get it, it should have a layout that is pretty straightforward. If not, snap a pic and I'll try to help further.