wpg3121 Posted June 12, 2013 Share Posted June 12, 2013 Hi All, In a few weeks time I will be mixing a production of Oliver Twist at a local primary school and will be using 8 JTSUS 903 DC Pros. My issue surrounds the fact that the headsets available for these systems are firstly far too expensive to be used by the children as from past experience I know they have a habit of accidentally breaking them, and secondly being far too large to fit the head of a 11 year old and not fall off (even with generous application of tape!) My solution to this problem will be to purchase 10 cheap £6.50 Pro Signal headsets from CPC (http://cpc.farnell.c...eige/dp/MP33752) however they do not sell these headsets with the 4 pin connectors my belt packs demand. I did assume it would be a simple to change the plugs on these headsets to the 4 pin variety such as some nice Neutrik ones however upon examining the headsets the microphones come with I have found they contain a resistor between pin 2 and pin 4 with three red stripes. I checked inside the Pro Signal headsets and they do not contain a resistor of any description. My question is "How should I convert these microphones?"Any help would be very gratefully appreciated.Thanks,William Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bruce Posted June 12, 2013 Share Posted June 12, 2013 Buy some 2.2k resistors - the smallest ones in the catalogue - and solder them up using the original as a pattern. Although this thread says you can lose the resistor, connect signal to pin2 and screen to 3+4 In fact, I'm sure I've made up some that way in the past, witout the resistor, and they worked fine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cedd Posted June 12, 2013 Share Posted June 12, 2013 Bit odd that they're 2.2k. Most bias resistors in 4 pin XLR's I've seen have been 10k. That said, it appears to be working for you! I fit the resistor to all of my headsets. I just imported 16 from China which were all missing the resistor (I knew this when I bought them) and am about to start a bulk resistor fitting session. To be honest I've never tried them without but I've now got a stash of the smallest 10k resistors I could find, which are just as easy as a wire link. When you've got the connector off it's well worth investing in a length of clear heatshrink at the connector end. I find this is where all my headset damage seems to happen, and a 3 inch length of heatshrink has significantly reduced my failure rate. The biggest challenges will be working with tinsel wire (there's a knack - be patient and get rid of that annoying cotton before you even breathe on it with a soldering iron! Also get a single strand of normal wire and wrap it around the copper that's left before soldering) and also you need to keep the ground wire away from the resistor. It's quite easy to leave it at a length where it can touch. Heatshrink and Hellerman sleeving are your friends! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wpg3121 Posted June 12, 2013 Author Share Posted June 12, 2013 The biggest challenges will be working with tinsel wire (there's a knack - be patient and get rid of that annoying cotton before you even breathe on it with a soldering iron! Also get a single strand of normal wire and wrap it around the copper that's left before soldering) and also you need to keep the ground wire away from the resistor. It's quite easy to leave it at a length where it can touch. Heatshrink and Hellerman sleeving are your friends! I feel I may be about to ask a stupid question but what is tinsel wire? I tried googling it but the results do not seem very clear... Why would I use it instead of Bell Wire for example? William Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cedd Posted June 12, 2013 Share Posted June 12, 2013 Sorry, that's probably my bad! I've always known it as tinsel wire, but to be honest I've absolutely no idea where I picked the name up from! I suspect it was an old engineer who I served my apprenticeship with, and who knows where she got it from! Think I've heard others use the term though. The wire I'm referring to is the kind of stuff used in headsets and headphones which is a mixture of copper strands and tiny strands of cotton or some other fibre. When you strip it you can see that it's got a mixture of the 2 types of strands within it. There are a few methods of dealing with it. Some people just apply a soldering iron and burn off the cotton. I find this pollutes the solder in your joint though and can make for a nasty joint. I prefer to remove the strands of cotton using some fine cutters (get some Lindstrom ones! Very expensive but they're great) and then wrap the copper that's left in a single strand of normal wire to bulk it up a little before soldering. If you're just heating up the terminals on your old headset, removing the cable and reattaching it to the new connector then you may never have to strip the wire itself. Sadly if you get a failure at the connector end of the cable (as seems to happen to mine quite a lot) you've got to cut it short and reterminate. That's when you'll discover the joys of tinsel wire! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wpg3121 Posted June 12, 2013 Author Share Posted June 12, 2013 So would using some of the seeming miles of bell wire I have floating around not be suitable? William Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jamesperrett Posted June 13, 2013 Share Posted June 13, 2013 So would using some of the seeming miles of bell wire I have floating around not be suitable? Traditional bell wire is solid core and intended to be used in static installations. It is probably about the worst thing you could choose for microphones or headphones where the wire is going to be continually flexed as it will probably break within a few minutes of a performance starting. Tinsel wire originated in the telephone business where it was used for patch cords which were continually plugged/unplugged as calls were connected and ended. James Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
timtheenchanteruk Posted June 13, 2013 Share Posted June 13, 2013 Ive always called it tinsel wire too, I presumed it was because of its colours more than anything, it always seems to be red green and gold. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bruce Posted June 13, 2013 Share Posted June 13, 2013 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tinsel_wire Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paulears Posted June 13, 2013 Share Posted June 13, 2013 Great! You talked it up and I now have a set of headphones wrecked by my son to repair. Getting rid of the enamel insulation by scraping followed by a VERY hot iron for a short application. Horrible stuff! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wpg3121 Posted June 13, 2013 Author Share Posted June 13, 2013 This tinsel wire sounds like rather horrible stuff! For joining pins in a connector is it really necessary? Does everyone use it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
david.elsbury Posted June 13, 2013 Share Posted June 13, 2013 Can't find a link but I'm sure I remember some JTS headsets coming with a TA4f to 3.5mm adaptor, a little moulded thing. Am I going crazy? :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hilary Watts Posted June 13, 2013 Share Posted June 13, 2013 This tinsel wire sounds like rather horrible stuff! For joining pins in a connector is it really necessary? Does everyone use it? It's used on many commercial headsets. However it may not be tinsel wire on the ProSignal ones you mention and there's certainly no need to use it to link the pins inside the plug - any small gauge wire (preferably solid rather than stranded for ease of use) would be fine Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jamesperrett Posted June 14, 2013 Share Posted June 14, 2013 This tinsel wire sounds like rather horrible stuff! For joining pins in a connector is it really necessary? Does everyone use it? Maybe I misunderstood what you wanted to use the wire for in my last reply. If you just want to join pins inside a plug then solid core wire is fine as it won't be subject to flexing. James. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oldradiohand Posted June 14, 2013 Share Posted June 14, 2013 Tinsel wire is a bugger to solder - all the PO type patchcords and headsets were crimped. And yes, it's made from thin strips of metal foil, like tinsel used to be before they invented aluminised plastic. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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