Quick, hopefully easy question re: Boss DC Jacks

[drummer4gc]

Most DC jacks we use have three pins, which we use for: +, -, battery +.

Boss DC jacks have 5 pins. Why?

[armdnrdy]

Without seeing an image or being familiar with an actual Boss DC power jack....I would imagine the extra pins are to secure the jack to the board.

Some PC mount pots have the same "extra" pins for mounting purposes.

Example: If you were to build a fence, which would be more durable?...one with posts sunk into the ground every twenty feet or one with posts every eight feet?

The extra pins are like fence posts.  

[drummer4gc]

The five pins correspond to the five largest solder blobs at the top.

Notice how the pins on the far left and far right are connected to each other, then to a resistor R1 in series to an unseen large value electro to ground. It seems to be related to power filtering, I'm just not sure why 5 instead of 3. Makes sense that they would be used for stability, but they are also involved in the circuit in some way, which is what I'm trying to understand.

Thanks!

[armdnrdy]

The "extra" pins are connected because depending on the circuit you may need to route the power or ground to the left or to the right.

This 5 pin configuration offers better mounting stability and versatility in board design.

To verify this, check continuity between the pins.