small bear/dc jack Q

[aziltz]

super quick.  I bought the metal dc jack from small bear to go into the box im building.  Does it need any special washers (non-metal) for installation?  details for that?

[burnt fingers]

I don't have details or a source for what you need but yes, you will need to insulate the jack from the enclosure if you are wiring it up to take a boss style adaptor.  Small bear sells the plastic ones too.  I'd get those next time.

Scott

[Apehouse]

super quick.  I bought the metal dc jack from small bear to go into the box im building.  Does it need any special washers (non-metal) for installation?  details for that?

i've had pretty good luck drilling the dc jack hole bigger than i need and then bondo-ing the hole closed. Once the bondo cures, sand it down flush and then drill the right size hole. Works great(i discovered this when i ordered a half dozen of the wrong type)
-greg

[John Lyons]

Smallbear has a project page for how to bobdo and isolate the holes on the Small wart page....
The plastic ones smallbear has seem cheap but they are fine when they are installed....

[RDV]

If you drill a 1/2" hole you can use a 3/8" rubber grommet from a hardware store. I have a few pedals I did this to so I could use those metal jacks. Do yourself a huge favor and buy the plastic jacks next time.

HTH

RDV

[doctornorbert]

I am using one of these metal jacks, too, and I wonder if this is the reason my latest rangemaster (positive ground) build isn't working. Presently the jack is not connected to a chassis. No sound from the unit. However there is voltage on the collector, so maybe the jack isn't the problem...

Does this particular jack need to be isolated from the aluminum chassis in a positive ground circuit? Or connected to it? Not sure I understand the design of this thing.

[doctornorbert]

Actually the RM problem was a bad solder joint on the input cap. No problems with the metal jack yet. Not sure that there will be, since board ground, signal ground, and battery + all are connected.

Can it be concluded that these metal jacks work OK connected to a metal enclosure in a positive ground circuit...?

[SolderBoy]

I use these...

http://www.dse.com.au/isroot/dse/images/products/p1648.jpg


SB

[alteredsounds]

I made the same mistake a while back and bought some metal ones not thinking about the associated problems.  Although I've always used the plastic ones but IMO they look cheap in comparison and are larger, an issue where space is tight.  The gromet idea is a good one and I'm def gonna look into that as long as the fixing is 100% secure.

[doctornorbert]

From my experimentation so far, this jack works fine for positive ground circuits. The only problem would be if you wanted a stereo jack on the input to engage the power only when a cord is plugged in. In this case I think you'd want to have all your ground points isolated from the chassis and connected to the sleeve lug on the stereo jack - otherwise your circuit is always on as long as the power cord is plugged in.

I don't care about this as the pedal I'm making has no LED or on/off switch. It's always on.

[aziltz]

does mouser/digikey/jameco carry these grommits? i could order a few when i start my next project.