Journal goldfndr's Journal: Adapter for headphones - patented? 1
When I was out shopping on Sunday, I was looking for an audio Zip-Linq cable at Fry's Electronics in Renton WA - the closest they had to retracting audio was manually spooled Sony cases and something by... I think it was RCA and terribly bulky (compared to Zip-Linq).
Today I ventured out to Zip-Linq's site in their audio section and see that they have a ZIP-AUDIO-PC2 with both binarual headphone and microphone. But it isn't enough.
Ideally, I'd like that plus an adapter for telephone use. The adapter would have two 3.5mm jacks and a phone (2.5mm or Nokia or other) plug:
- Each jack would be color-coded to accept a headphone plug or a microphone plug.
- The 2.5mm/Nokia/other plug would fit into a cell phone jack or cordless phone jack.
- The internal wiring of the adapter would have the phone output going to both "ears" (an ideal mono to "stereo" conversion) and, obviously, the microphone input to the phone input.
The 2.5mm edition would resemble Radio Shack's 274-945.
Optional bonuses for this adapter:
- A volume control (on/off or mute one ear or potentiometer). But that could be expensive.
- An onhook/offhook (hangup/pickup) control. I don't know if the 2.5mm standard covers it but I know Nokia can do it.
- A clip or lanyard or similar for attachment.
Alternatively, an adapter that converted a headset (preferably binaural) with a 2.5mm/Nokia/other plug to dual 3.5mm plugs (one for microphone jack, one for speaker/line jack, of course) would be a great invention, with or without any of the optional bonuses above. I see one that seems to have one plug only but it's probably merely straight-thru; that just isn't enough.
With either adapter, one could use it or remove it to toggle between participating in a normal phone conversation or a normal stereo/MP3/computer interaction without the hassle of carrying around two headsets.
Anything like this exist?
Crossover adapter=UTP-7220 (Score:2)
The red crossover adapter mentioned is the Cables Unlimited UTP-7220 [cablesunlimited.com], although why they claim it to be green instead of red is beyond me. I paid $3.99 at Fry's [frys.com] in Renton [frys.com], a far cry from the $16.99 MSRP.