First mini-plug nightmare:
I know this is going to sound low-tech and it is.. But I have had some bad luck lately with 2.5 mm and 3.5 mm phone plugs/jacks.
My gym owner has a 900 MHZ wireless phone that he uses all the time. It came from Radio Shack, but seems to work quite well for him. The headsets are relatively good quality. He likes them. (Much better than the ones included with the phones they are selling on sale now. Probably to be a discontinued item.)
The problem is this: He sometimes knocks the phone off of his belt, and the headset has a 90 degree 2.5mm plug which ends up broken. I replaced a plug, (tedius job) and then found that it won't plug in because the jack on his phone is recessed (probably soldered to the ckt bd).
The original plug has a very small diameter housing, allowing it to push in through the case. We noticed this AFTER I replaced the plug. <Hey, at least I remembered to put the housing on the wire before I soldered the plug on.>
He has been able to find a mono adaptor to go from 1/8" to 3/32", (I assume that is 3.5 mm to 2.5 mm.) This WILL plug into his phone. Now if we could just locate a stereo version, it would be much easier to put the larger, (1/8" - 3.5 mm) plugs on his two headsets. He claims they would cost around $35 and just wants an easy fix. Anyone know where to find such a stereo adapter?
Second mini-plug nightmare:
He has TV sets mounted up where customers can view them while walking on treadmills. He runs audio to the threadmills, and the cords just have an in-line 1/8" stereo phone jack on them. He just uses the cheapest earphones that he can find, since they get broke often.
Also do to the stress on the in-line jack/wires, the wires do break and they go intermittant. I just replaced an in-line jack for him. The 1/8" hummer was very easy to solder on. But as luck would have it when we tried to use it we found that the earphone plug cannot be plugged in all the way.. If it is, one side cuts out. (This in-line jack was purchased at Radio Shack.) He claims that R.S. wants about $20 for a 20 foot extension cord such as he has.
So I am asking... Has anyone experienced problems like this with incompatible mini/sub-mini plugs/jacks? Any suggestions will be appreciated.