Stereo Jack to double Mono jack Patch lead

[Tranquito's Revenge]

Hi there,

I am currently making a stereo to double mono patch lead and I understand that the shield must be split in two so that both monos are connected to earth. I have already destroyed about 3 inches of shielding trying to separate the weave. Does anyone know of a good technique for separating woven shield?

Thanks,
Danny

[James Perrett]

I'm not sure how you are doing this, but I would take both mono cables into the stereo jack, strip them as normal, twist the shield wires together and then solder them. The clamp on the stereo jack will clamp both cables. I wouldn't try to split the cable outside the connector as this will lead to a very fragile cable.

James.

[Tranquito's Revenge]

Hi James,
Thanks for the reply but I not sure I understand exactly what you mean. The cable I am using is a regular, balanced hot/cold/screen microphone cable and I have only the mono jack plugs and not mono cabling. Am I going the wrong way about doing this entirely?

[hollowsun]

If you're going stereo jack to two mono jacks, you only need a simple signal/screen cable for the mono cables.

If the screen is a weave, you'll need a very small, clockmaker's screwdriver or a pin, whatever, to tease the weave apart. So...

Cut the cable. Strip off about 1/2 an inch of the outer casing to reveal the weave. With a small screwdriver/pin/whatever, tease the weave apart starting where you originally cut the cable up to the point where you removed the outer casing. Twist. Strip the inner cable by about 1/4" to reveal the wire for the signal. Twist that as well. Do the same for the other mono cable. Solder the two twisted weaves together. Solder one signal cable to the tip of the stereo jack, the other to the ring and the soldered together weaves to the sleeve (you may want/need to snip the soldered together weavey bits).

It's fairly straightforward but fiddly and awkward especially if it's your first time to do this.

But for separating the weave, it needs to be teased apart starting at the point you cut the cable up to where you removed the outer cabling.

Good luck!

If all else fails, there's this from Maplins!

[Tranquito's Revenge]

Thanks very much, I'll give that a go! I have to learn to do this stuff myself though, Maplins have enough of my money!!

[Exalted Wombat]

Hi there,

I am currently making a stereo to double mono patch lead and I understand that the shield must be split in two so that both monos are connected to earth. I have already destroyed about 3 inches of shielding trying to separate the weave. Does anyone know of a good technique for separating woven shield?

Thanks,
Danny

The best way to do this, keeping a good shield and ground connection to both plugs would be to use twin cables (or twin cable bonded together, as often seen in the twin phono cables supplied with hi-fi gear). Alternatively, if the cable is thin enough you could loop into the first plug, terminating one core, then loop out to the other. Or you could unpick the braid (more or less laboriously, depending on the construction - if there's foil as well as braid probably best to forget it) and split the cable. You'll need some sleeving to cover the extended portions, and a couple of sizes of heat-shrink sleeving would help tidy things up.

Actually, in practice it quite likely won't matter if only one side has the earth connected, and a couple of inches of unscreened core won't cause a line level signal any grief (I imagine this cable is going to feed an external FX box from a mixer's Insert jack?)

[ef37a]

Yes,
This is tricky to do well and make a reliable job.

A better idea IMHO is to simply put a stereo and two mono jacks in a small case and wire accordingly. Then use standard TS and TRS leads.

Dave.

[Folderol]

Yes,
This is tricky to do well and make a reliable job.

A better idea IMHO is to simply put a stereo and two mono jacks in a small case and wire accordingly. Then use standard TS and TRS leads.

Dave.

+1 on this.
You can get some (cheap) dinky little diecast boxes that are ideal.

[Exalted Wombat]

Yes,
This is tricky to do well and make a reliable job.

A better idea IMHO is to simply put a stereo and two mono jacks in a small case and wire accordingly. Then use standard TS and TRS leads.

Dave.

+1 on this.
You can get some (cheap) dinky little diecast boxes that are ideal.

Do you really want all that extra hardware floating around behind the rack for every insert effect you need? Now, be honest. Are YOUR insert spltter cables made up that way?

[Folderol]

Yes,
This is tricky to do well and make a reliable job.

A better idea IMHO is to simply put a stereo and two mono jacks in a small case and wire accordingly. Then use standard TS and TRS leads.

Dave.

+1 on this.
You can get some (cheap) dinky little diecast boxes that are ideal.

Do you really want all that extra hardware floating around behind the rack for every insert effect you need? Now, be honest. Are YOUR insert spltter cables made up that way?

I don't actually have a great many, but yes some are (some aren't) and my box of choice is...
http://uk.farnell.com/hammond/1590hbk/box-diecast-black-52x38x31mm/dp/443711
I must admit that usually I've got attenuators etc. stuffed in the boxes too

[ef37a]

Morning E.W.
"Now, be honest. Are YOUR insert spltter cables made up that way?"

Yes and no! In fact my mixer does not have inserts (no BD since I have no interest in recording other than "flat &clean"). I do have a couple such leads made up for the purpose of connecting dual mono kit to stereo and THAT was the OP's original question, somewhere along the line someone has assumed it reffered to insert leads, of which, BTW, there are two varieties!

Then, the OP was speaking of the difficulty of making such leads. I don't have such a problem. I have a workshop to hand, with a vice, hot air gun and a variety of heatshrink sleevings and silicone sleeving+ silicone grease and a Hellerman tool! Two decades of experience is handy as well. I also had a quantity of Belden V 9534 two pair shielded cable of about 4mmOD that is just "nice" for getting twice into a jack plug!

As for the "rats'nest" factor. I would have thought ONE lead per insert going to a box "behind the scenes" was much tidier than a double cable per jack? Then there is no reason why multiple one to two jacks cannot be incorporated in a common box making the whole thing even more compact and beejew!

Dave.

[Exalted Wombat]

Your way is more complicated and doubles the number of contacts the signal has to pass through. Both strong minus points for me!

I wonder what this cable IS going to do? Though he said "stereo to double mono" I took this as just being the usual casual names for the plug types. Perhaps he is going to do something clever with a headphone output (do "stereo" jacks carry stereo signals anywhere else in our world?) Maybe they aren't even 1/4" jacks? (though the fact thathe managed to stuff microphone cable into one plug suggests they probably aren't mini-jacks!)

[ef37a]

"and doubles the number of contacts the signal has to pass through"

Oh come ON! No worse than a 1/2 normalled patchbay and I have never heard even the most mad pure path audiophool claim they can hear those!

Dave.

[Exalted Wombat]

"and doubles the number of contacts the signal has to pass through"

Oh come ON! No worse than a 1/2 normalled patchbay and I have never heard even the most mad pure path audiophool claim they can hear those!
Dave.

Don't worry! I'm no audiophool. You won't hear them when they're clean and working properly. But they won't always be clean. And wires-into-plugs have their own issues. Why arrange 6 extra potential points of failure (and that's only counting the plug wiring and plug contacts as one each)?

[ef37a]

". Why arrange 6 extra potential points of failure"

Why do anything? The whole argument goes against standard audio practice, how many connection points do you think are involved in the making of any record/film/radio/tv programme? Don't forget to count the gain switch contacts, phase switches, EQ wipers, wiring harnness plugs and sockets...and yet the Beeb still sounds wonderful (FM, R3 only of course!)

If you are that worried use gold flashed contacts.

Dave.

[Folderol]

I rather thought the O/P was intending to drop them down the back then forget about them, so contact reliability is probably less of a problem. It's always a trade-off between convenience and quality isn't it? Then again, I've seen some horrendous looking semi-permanent connections that were fine - until someone moved them!

In particular, I remember a sort of D.I.Y console in a church hall, that was backed up against a 4.5in exterior brick wall. Initially I was supposed to change the heads on the tape deck (MK11 Brennel) which had a nice set of tramlines. Unbolting the unit from the wall (the difficulty should have warned me) revealed corrosion of epic proportions, yet everything had been working fine - apart from the 'woolly' sounding deck.

The poor vicar was horrified when I showed him and pointed out that any repair at all was likely to cost far more than the unit was worth. I was tempted to make a comment about God moving in mysterious ways, but refrained