Saving battery with XLR instead of 1/4"jack??

[rockhorst]

Okay, volume pedal working, next on the list is a XLR and 1/4" jack cable tester. Found some schematics and the basic idea is of course real simple. The whole thing would run on a 9V battery (what is it with 9V that makes it so suitable for pedals?).

Now I've read about the battery saving trick using a stereo jack so that you only use battery power when a jack is inserted. Is that possible with an XLR as well?

[Mark Hammer]

Okay, volume pedal working, next on the list is a XLR and 1/4" jack cable tester. Found some schematics and the basic idea is of course real simple. The whole thing would run on a 9V battery (what is it with 9V that makes it so suitable for pedals?).

Now I've read about the battery saving trick using a stereo jack so that you only use battery power when a jack is inserted. Is that possible with an XLR as well?

Technically, I suppose.  Three conductors is three conductors.  What I'm perplexed about is what ciircumstances would you choose to do that under?

[rockhorst]

Well basic problem is that I don't really know how an XLR works in comparison to a jack. Shouldn't be too much of a difference I guess, but better be sure (I like time efficient management ). And basically I would use it in the same way as with the 1/4" jack...What's so weird about that?

[Mark Hammer]

Well here's the thing.  The stereo jack trick works with a mono cable.  You can't do it with a cable that is wired for stereo, because you need to have one common point of contact (the phone plug shaft) that shorts out two contacts (the ring and shaft contacts on the phone jack) which would normally be isolated from each other with nothing plugged in.

Certainly, you can wire up an XLR cable so that two of the pins on the plug at the end of the cable are wired together AS IF it was a mono cable that shorts out two normally isolated contacts on the jack.  But for all intents and purposes, that cable now becomes useless as tits on a bull for connecting balanced equipment.  If you're fine with dedicating THAT cable to THAT purpose and know that it will never be mistaken for a standard balanced mic cable to plug into the mixer (horribly confusing everyone who attempts to use it with a voice mic), then go ahead.

For me it is largely a question of keeping different classes of connections distinct.  What you want to do is feasible, and not dangerous in any way, just potentially awkward in some circumstances.

[rockhorst]

Not planning to use it in any stompbox setting or anything, just for cable testing. I do a bit of road work for a band and while jack-guitar cables seldomly break, we have had a lot of trouble with mic-cables. So running a test on them every onece in a while would come in quite handy...Besides that I can't figure out a useful config either. Question is will I still be correctly testing the cable and wich one of the 3 connectors could I best use (if there is a preferance). Cuz otherwise I'd have to just do the trick with the 1/4"jack to not drain my battery constantly, resulting in always having a jack cable inserted for testing an XLR...wich seems rather stupid...

Easy alternative is of course just making an on/off switch on it...but I'm just trying to get a basic understanding of XLR cables and how they relate to jack cables, wich are much more common to me...basically, I'm a noob on the practical side of electronics.

[RedHouse]

Instead of jack switching or an "on/off" switch, in a cable-tester it would be more appropriate to use a momentary switch (push to turn on, release to turn off), you then label the switch "Test" instead of "Power".