For any of you who may be interested.

I just succeded in wiring my semi-professional headset (phones and mic) to my M3100. It works a treat. However, the only place in the world where I could find a plug that fitted the Mini-USB socket was on the phones that came with M3100, I had to take a pair of wirecutters to them (the mic was DOA anyway, so no loss there).

Here is, breifly, how I did it. If anyone wants more detailed instructions, just shout and I'll see if I can help. I took some photos as I was doing it, but they aren't very enlightening (macro mode on the M3100 is OK-ish, but the contrast between the black wires and their shadows leaves something to be desired)

1. I bought two 3.5mm stereo jack line sockets from Maplin (product number RK31F, 85 pence each).
2. I snipped the headphones off the headset that came with the 3100, about an inch and a half after the point where the two wires split apart
3. I stripped the plastic off the last 0.5" of each wire (now sans-headphone) with a razor blade and used a lighter to burn off the coloured laquer and nylon filler
4. I twisted togeher the two non-laquered (screen) wires and soldered them to the casing of one of the jack sockets, remembering to thread the wires through the sleeve beforehand
5. I soldered the red laquer to the rounded tag on the plug
6. I soldered the green wire to the squared-off tag on the plug
7. I screwed the sleeve onto the plug

If you are using a different socket, you want to end up with the red wire connected to the ring connector on the socket and the green wire to the tip.

So far so good for the headphones. Now for a decent mic.

1. Using a small screwdriver, I prised apart the black box containing the microphone and volume slider (this is easiest if you start at the end hole the headphone wires come out of
2. The microphone is held in place by two leads, which in turn are soldered into the circuit board and do double-duty as the elecrical connections. With a combination of a screwdriver, a solder sucker, a pair of pliers and some brute force, I prised the microphone off the circuit board. It broke in the process. No loss.
3. I wanted to poke wires through the mic holes on the circuit board, so I had to enlarge them very slightly using a round needle file (working from the side the Mic was mounted on, so as not to damage the solder pads more than necessary)
4. I recycled a 4" bit of wire from one of the old headphones, stripping 0.5" off each end and flaming with a lighter as above. I pushed the pair of bare wires at one end through the holes that previously held the microphone and soldered them in place from the other side. It doesn't matter which wire goes through which hole
5. I tied a knot in the wire for strain relief and reassembled the plastic housing (a bit of a tight squeeze, but do-able), making sure that the volume slider engaged with the variable resistor on the PCB
6. I threaded the sleve of the other jack socket onto the wire (Full disclosure: actually, I forgot this the first time. Such is life)
7. I soldered the screen of the wire to the casing of the jack socket, and the coloured wire to one of the tags (doesn't matter which)

That's it. Works fine. I can wandering around the office using Voip over WiFi with a proper, wired headset.

Admittedly, this is a bit of a hack and you end up with a headphone lead that is double the normal length, but it will do the job until I find a pair of bluetooth phones I'm happy with.

Allan

Did my hack a little differently as I didn't want a headphone cable a mile long and I wasnt interested in the volume control or the microphone. The result was an adapter of about 3" in length.

Full details of the hack including photos can be found HERE.

Just a thought, are you sure the red wire is 'auido-right'? This is not always the case. Perhaps if you have a sound file with only left or right audio you could check.

I'm 100% positive that the red is the right channel. If you look closely at the picture in this post you should just be able to make it out. I have tested with an audio file that says 'left' & 'right'.

cheers dade

I sense a modaco cottage-industry being born.

ie: Send your supplied USB headphones and £5 and an SAE and get someone smart with a soldering iron to make you an adaptor!

PS: I dont own one, and have the fine motor skills of a rhino, so dont ask me!!

I can do that!

Motorola used to do a off the shelf miniusb to 3.5 convertor or their razr

No idea whether it works on the tytn/hermes/Spvm3100 though - has anyone got one to try or a shop nearby they could try it?

Regards

Craig

P.S. Maplin in the UK sell a Mini USB plug for £1.50 Ask for part code L53AZ

The mini USB plug wont help I'm afraid. The socket on the M3100 is double sided and a standard USB plug only has connectors on one side - the wrong side!

Has anyone tried searching "EMU to 3.5" (Enhanced Mini USB) on Google? I have found the adaptor before but maybe it was not the correct side like mentioned above. "

Dade converted mine for me Works a treat and I've got my M3100 plugged into my car cd player

will this work??

http://cgi.ebay.com/3-5mm-Headphone-Adapte...1QQcmdZViewItem

Why wont it work?

I don't think that adapter will work. The main reason being that the USB connector shown looks like a standard Mini USB whereas the M3100 needs an Enahanced Mini USB connector. If you have a look at a normal mini USB cable and then have a look at the USB socket on the M3100 you will see that Mini USB has contacts on just one side but the socket on the M3100 has contacts on both sides. It's the 'other' side that has the audio connections.

Dade

I quite fancy the shorter version. Any idea if its possible to connect a microphone without the extra circuitry in the volume control box?

I notice there are a few resistors on the board, so not sure of they are needed for the mic?

Ideally I'd like a version like you have done, but with an additional 3.5" jack for a mic.

How about this for an idea?

Rather than getting a RK51F (stereo) how about a 4 pole 3.5mm socket (L32AZ) and then a 4 pole jack plug (QT65V).

Then: connect up all the wires (including the "mic") to the short end of the USB plug, as per Dade's version, and then using the remainder of the supplied headphones, put the 4-pole jack plug on the end.

I am hoping that with this I could retain the supplied headphones+mic for when I want a corded handsfree, but be able to use my nice sennheiser headphones the rest of the time.

One question is what will happen when using "regular" 3.5mm stereo headphones with the 4-pole socket? Will you still get full stereo sound?

Give me a little time and I will have a look into this.

I can tell you that if you plug a normal stereo jack into a 4 pole socket it't normally fine!

There seems to be a lot of pins on the enhanced mini USB socket, some of which on one side which is what a standard mini USB would use. Does anyone know if all the pins are used, if not, surely its possible to connect power input so that we can listen to our music while the device is being charged. For example, in-car use.

Hi guys n gals,

Just a note of caution - I had also made my own 3.5mm out of the headset... was happily using it for about 3 weeks, when one day the right earpiece had no sound.

Turns out that the mini USB socket on the phone had become loose (it did not feel loose, but when I moved the headset jack a little bit sometimes the sound comes back).

Sent the phone in for servicing, and they replaced the whole mainboard. Collected it 3 days later. Was happy with the service, but now worried about the durability of the mini USB socket. Afterall, it is used for the headset, charger and sync cable.

You might find this post helpful.

What you'll notice however, is that the plug on the headset supplied with the M3100 is single sided and only picks up the 6 connectors on the 'audio side' of the EMU socket.

This unfortunately makes modding the headset into a charger, sync and audio cable impossible!