These jack strips come with five 3.5mm jack "break-out" boards attached but scored so they may be easily broken into any number of positions from 1 to 5.
The jacks (not included), when mounted (soldered to the board), have their "sleeve" mounting holes on exactly 20 millimeter centers for easy layout and they have terminal holes along the back of the
strip so that you can either solder wires to them or mount DuPont header pins and make them so the wiring can be easily unplugged for panel removal.
All the jack connections are brought to the terminals on the back and though the "sleeve" is normally grounded, the break-out boards have the sleeve connections
deliberately isolated from each other to allow for independent grounding of each jack if desired. They can be easily connected together with jumper
wires for a common ground or isolated if necessary. However, to truly isolate them, the sleeve mounted through a metal panel will have to be insulated
by a non-conductive bushing as well. This makes for many mounting possibilities and with the 20mm spacing between sleeve holes, makes very neat alignment
of the jacks possible. As shown above, the wiring to the jack terminals can readily be seen and the 5 wire terminal connections from left to right (as shown) are for
SLEEVE, RING, RING Switch, TIP Switch and TIP. The individual jacks mount only on the top side of the board (jack outline shown by white lines).
I was asked what the jacks themselves are called and they are 3.5mm Low Profile Stereo Audio Jacks.
Of course, you can break the blocks apart and mount the jacks anywhere you like but still have easy plug-access to the connections. Much neater than soldering
wires directly to the terminals on the jack itself (plastic melts easily) and all terminals are marked on both sides of the break-out boards for quick and easy identification.
The supply of these handy little boards in full strips is now depleted and they are no longer available. There wasn't enough interest in them
after HF Signals started shipping the uBITX Version 6 to warrant ordering more so we no longer have any on hand.
It's very easy to accidentally snap them, which separates them into smaller strips or individual jack break-outs and we have some singles, two and maybe a few 3 jack strips on hand. If anyone wants them
in these configurations, contact W0EB through the email link and I'll try and accomodate you. Cost to the requester will be $0.30 per breakout, $0.25 each in lots of 5.
Postage is included in the price for lots of 5 or more.
Since the advent of the uBITX Version 6, which has the jacks already mounted on the
main PCB, interest has fallen off and TSW chose not to order more as our price to have these manufactured has increased and we
would not be able to sell enough to break even, especially with the world situation now and the increases in postage lately.
4 jacks mounted, shown along with a full 5 position strip shown from the bottom. The score marks can be clearly seen.
Strip of 4 jacks mounted inside my uBITX (main pix on w0eb.com) with the 5th block repurposed to wire a speaker.
I'll be happy to answer any further questions you may have as well as provide ordering information.
Jim Sheldon - W0EB
You can contact me by email through this link - W0EB.
Page last updated by W0EB - 04/12/2022 @ 12:45 UTC