# RCA to Panel Mount 1/8" Stereo. Need help



## Chapel (Jun 23, 1999)

*Updated to remove the trial and error portions*








I bought this from Radioshack for $3.
Then I took one of these:








cut the headphone jack off and tried wiring it together
Now here's the schematic on the back of the bag 








We know that the ring/red is right channel and the tip/white is left channel
Now, inside the sheathing, there's only 4 wires:
red + copper
white + copper
Inside the cable when we stripped it, there's a layer of of copper, then another covered layer (red or white sheath)
What we did was join the copper layers as one cable and solder it together
then we took the red wire and the white wire and connected them up as so:








Pins 3 and 4 are not used.


_Modified by Chapel at 8:04 PM 3-8-2009_


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## Pat @ Pitt Soundworks (Nov 14, 2008)

*Re: RCA to Panel Mount 1/8" Stereo. Need help (Chapel)*

You should only need three of the plugs on the jack, ground and left and right. Easiest way to tell which ones to use for what would be to hook the stereo to rca cable into the jack, fire up the digital multimeter, and start poking around what pins go where on rca ends.
Wait, you're tying to run the speakers by bypassing the head unit?
IIRC, 1 is left, 5 is ground, and 2 is right
edit: wow fingers aren't working at all


_Modified by Pat @ Pitt Soundworks at 6:45 PM 3-7-2009_


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## Chapel (Jun 23, 1999)

*FV-QR*

no no.
My radio has an RCA Aux In on the back.
I have the RCAs plugged in, but I wanted them terminated into a panel mount headphone jack. (which is mounted to one of the dummy panels in my Audi)
So, which wires should go where if I've got 4 wires and 5 connectors?
are the copper sheathing JUST ground and the white and red inner wires the actual speaker?


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## Pat @ Pitt Soundworks (Nov 14, 2008)

*Re: FV-QR (Chapel)*


_Quote, originally posted by *Chapel* »_
should I have bought this instead? looks like this is the 3 wire solution...

You don't have to use all of the plugs. You should be fully operational using only three (left, right, common ground)

_Quote, originally posted by *Chapel* »_
So, which wires should go where if I've got 4 wires and 5 connectors?
are the copper sheathing JUST ground and the white and red inner wires the actual speaker?

Correct. You can take two grounds (I assume on the RCA side?) to the same ground pin on the jack.


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## Chapel (Jun 23, 1999)

*FV-QR*

Ok, so:








1 is ground
2 touches tip (left ch)
5 touches ring (right ch)
So, if I understand correctly:
1 is at the collar/ground
2 is at the white/tip
5 is at the red/ring
3-4 unused
hopefully I can unsolder it and put it back together tomorrow
makes sense now.


_Modified by Chapel at 8:02 PM 3-8-2009_


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## Pat @ Pitt Soundworks (Nov 14, 2008)

*Re: FV-QR (Chapel)*

This is from memory, so you WILL want to check with a multimeter.
1 should be right. 
5 should be ground
2 should be left
Also from memory:
shield is ground
red is right
white is left

pins 3 and 4 from that diagram look to be duplicates of 2 and 5, respectively.

I cannot stress enough that you need a digital multimeter (or a AA battery and LED works too) to test which wires go where.


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## Chapel (Jun 23, 1999)

*FV-QR*

how exactly do I test that with a multimeter though?
that's what I don't understand.
I never did pass Electrical Engineering in College
here's how the panel mount is set up right now


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## Pat @ Pitt Soundworks (Nov 14, 2008)

*Re: FV-QR (Chapel)*

There ya' go


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## Chapel (Jun 23, 1999)

*FV-QR*

Ok, so here's the final result
















works beautifully


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