OK, here goes my completely weird project ...
I've been wanting to have voice conversations over the net, and up until now, it's been the "headphones + desktop microphone" method. Sure, it's fine for some conversation, but i feel weird having to talk louder than normal for the mic to pic my voice up. Raising its volume would pic up ambient sounds, and this is not good. I'm aware that there are headsets cheaply available, but I wanted to do something different. I wanted a telephone-shaped device!
While fussing around my eletric junk, i found a "RJ-11 to 4 wires" converter (I think it's RJ-11 ... it's adapter most phones have to connect the headset to the main part ... the one with 4 wires, not 2). It separates those 4 little wires inside the adapter into 4 wires: red, black, green and yellow. So far, so good ...
Then I got out two defunct headphones, and stripped out the cable, since I wanted two mini-source connectors (1/8 inch) to be able to connect the phone to the sound card. Unfortunatelly, inside the cable was actually two very thin wires, which wouldn't pass eletric current when held against the converter. Number 1 problem: I don't understand how those wires work!
I got back to my eletric junkyard and found another cable, with a 1/8 connector on each end. I stripped it out and found something different: it resembled a coax cable, with a dense metal weave on the outside, but two thin cables on the inside. Stripped those wires out, and connected the device on the headphone jack of my stereo. After fiddling out all possibles combinations, I finally got to output my stereo onto the fone using the black and yellow wires of the converter connected to the external metal weave and one of the inside wires. Other combinations would generate a low volume sound, but this one was perfect.
The problem appeared while trying to get the mic to work. No combinations would yeald into sound coming out of my stereo! There was lot of static (probably EMI, I dunno), but the mic wouldn't pic up my voice. This is where I'm at now ... I haven't a got a clue on what to do! I dont know if the mic of the phone produces an eletrical current incompatible with the stereo, or if I've done something wrong.
After this monstruous post ... what do you guys think? 😛
I've been wanting to have voice conversations over the net, and up until now, it's been the "headphones + desktop microphone" method. Sure, it's fine for some conversation, but i feel weird having to talk louder than normal for the mic to pic my voice up. Raising its volume would pic up ambient sounds, and this is not good. I'm aware that there are headsets cheaply available, but I wanted to do something different. I wanted a telephone-shaped device!
While fussing around my eletric junk, i found a "RJ-11 to 4 wires" converter (I think it's RJ-11 ... it's adapter most phones have to connect the headset to the main part ... the one with 4 wires, not 2). It separates those 4 little wires inside the adapter into 4 wires: red, black, green and yellow. So far, so good ...
Then I got out two defunct headphones, and stripped out the cable, since I wanted two mini-source connectors (1/8 inch) to be able to connect the phone to the sound card. Unfortunatelly, inside the cable was actually two very thin wires, which wouldn't pass eletric current when held against the converter. Number 1 problem: I don't understand how those wires work!
I got back to my eletric junkyard and found another cable, with a 1/8 connector on each end. I stripped it out and found something different: it resembled a coax cable, with a dense metal weave on the outside, but two thin cables on the inside. Stripped those wires out, and connected the device on the headphone jack of my stereo. After fiddling out all possibles combinations, I finally got to output my stereo onto the fone using the black and yellow wires of the converter connected to the external metal weave and one of the inside wires. Other combinations would generate a low volume sound, but this one was perfect.
The problem appeared while trying to get the mic to work. No combinations would yeald into sound coming out of my stereo! There was lot of static (probably EMI, I dunno), but the mic wouldn't pic up my voice. This is where I'm at now ... I haven't a got a clue on what to do! I dont know if the mic of the phone produces an eletrical current incompatible with the stereo, or if I've done something wrong.
After this monstruous post ... what do you guys think? 😛
