sootie
27th August 2012, 08:57
I am a recent contributor to this forum, but have been riding motorcycles for over 50 years, and my profession has centred very much around electronics and radio communications.
While considering construction and repair work around motorcycle electronics, a thought has struck me. More than 50% of all the equipment failures I see have something to do with 2.5 or 3.5mm jack plug interfacing. Actually the problems have been so numerous, that I now consider that this type of interfacing is unsatisfactory. Unfortunately, it is still widely used, with consumer grade electronics. It is also interesting to note that jack plug connectors are not used in automotive harnesses, or in professional military spec electronics. I hope this last observation helps to score the point.
These miniature jack plug connectors were originally just two wire, and were intended for light indoor consumer audio use. In this role they were reasonably satisfactory. They have now been extended to 3, 4 or even more connections, and the construction has been cheapened. Combine this with heavy handling, motorcycle dampness & vibration and you are probably looking at a failure sooner or later.
I can personally identify 6 different failure mechanisms within jack plug interfacing, but I won't bore you here. Suffice it to say that some of these are very difficult if not impossible to completely prevent.
There are several simple factors which can affect long term reliability of jack plug interfacing.
Here goes:
1. Mechanical support of the male jack plug in its fitted position will reduce problems.
2. If the female sleeve assembly is made of metal rather than plastic, the connection will survive better
3. The more connections involved, the less reliable the interface will be (a bit obvious!)
4. A few drops (no more!) of WD40 or similar around the assembly every few months improves matters
5. Really good setup wiring of the male & female assemblies helps
6. It is best not to leave DC voltage applied over long periods of non use
If readers are interested, I could go in to more detail, or permanent work arounds for these problems. Don't expect good solutions to be particularly easy though, just best practice for best reliability. In the meantime we can all do a lot better here with a little thought about the above. I have a couple of MP3 stereo jack plugs that have survived about 15,000kms on my bike without any problems so far. Unfortunately, I have also had a number of radio comms ones which didn't!
Sootie
While considering construction and repair work around motorcycle electronics, a thought has struck me. More than 50% of all the equipment failures I see have something to do with 2.5 or 3.5mm jack plug interfacing. Actually the problems have been so numerous, that I now consider that this type of interfacing is unsatisfactory. Unfortunately, it is still widely used, with consumer grade electronics. It is also interesting to note that jack plug connectors are not used in automotive harnesses, or in professional military spec electronics. I hope this last observation helps to score the point.
These miniature jack plug connectors were originally just two wire, and were intended for light indoor consumer audio use. In this role they were reasonably satisfactory. They have now been extended to 3, 4 or even more connections, and the construction has been cheapened. Combine this with heavy handling, motorcycle dampness & vibration and you are probably looking at a failure sooner or later.
I can personally identify 6 different failure mechanisms within jack plug interfacing, but I won't bore you here. Suffice it to say that some of these are very difficult if not impossible to completely prevent.
There are several simple factors which can affect long term reliability of jack plug interfacing.
Here goes:
1. Mechanical support of the male jack plug in its fitted position will reduce problems.
2. If the female sleeve assembly is made of metal rather than plastic, the connection will survive better
3. The more connections involved, the less reliable the interface will be (a bit obvious!)
4. A few drops (no more!) of WD40 or similar around the assembly every few months improves matters
5. Really good setup wiring of the male & female assemblies helps
6. It is best not to leave DC voltage applied over long periods of non use
If readers are interested, I could go in to more detail, or permanent work arounds for these problems. Don't expect good solutions to be particularly easy though, just best practice for best reliability. In the meantime we can all do a lot better here with a little thought about the above. I have a couple of MP3 stereo jack plugs that have survived about 15,000kms on my bike without any problems so far. Unfortunately, I have also had a number of radio comms ones which didn't!
Sootie