X50 - 3.5mm Headphone/Headset Jack

[Sven Johannsen]

3.5mm Headphone/Headset Jack: Headset support for VoIP and voice recognition application

That's what it says in the X50 material. The specs in the manual indicate the audio connector supports a mono mic. Problem is there doesn't appear to be any headset offerred on Dell's site and there is no information I can find about the layout of the connector. It is obviously not a standard cell phone, or 900Mhz phone, headset as those are 2.5mm, not 3.5. Most of the PC headsets you find break out into two connectors, one mic, one headphone.

So where do you get a headset (mic and earphone) for this thing, or the info to build one. Anyone know? Got schematics?

[ChemNerd]

I wondered about this myself. Most, it not all, 3.5mm headsets are dual male. I'm not sure if there is a particular reason why... would love to know. My assumption based on what little knowledge I have is that 3.5mm headsets are designed for stereo audio while 2.5mm only do mono and it's just a convention - again this is a guess and not really one good enough to provide an answer.

Ideally you should just be able to use an adaptor and it should work - but maybe not.

http://www.seidioonline.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=CBA-35M25F

Something like that perhaps?

[Sven Johannsen]

The size convention is mostly to keep you from mixing them up. Both typically have three connections. The 3.5 is L, R, common, and the 2.5 is ear, mic, common. If you want to support a stereo headset and mic, you need four connections, L, R, Mic, common. We know it is 3.5mm and it is possible to find 4 conductor 3.5mm plugs (http://www.minute-man.com/acatalog/4_Conductor_3_5mm_Plugs_and_Jacks.html) but I need to know if that is what is needed here, and if it is a 4 conductor connector what the pinout is and what sort of mic is expected.

[Sven Johannsen]

Well I figured that 4 conductor plugs would be fairly standard, and I took a shot. I ordered two things from www.pc-mobile.net to try on my X50.
The items were PTAMS, 3.5mm Mic/Speaker Adapter for Toshiba e75x and PQTAA, Headset/Audio Adapter for HP54xx/Toshiba e75x.

Both worked wonderfully. The former is a short Y cable that breaks he headset mic/jack into seperate headset and mic jacks so you can use any of the many PC headset/microphone assemblies that have seperate plugs for the headset and mic.

The latter is a ziplinq type rollup cord that has the 4 conducter plug and terminates in a line cord microphone and a stereo headphone jack. It includes a mono earphone, but you could plug a stereo one in.

My test consisted of ensuring I could listen to stereo music on the headset in either case, and that I could record from the external mic. I was amazed by the clarity of the recorded sound from both my headset/mic combo I plugged into the Y adapter, and from the headsphone/mic unit.

My intent is to use this for VoIP, like Skype, and I have no doubt it will work beautifully. The key here is that the jack on the X50 is indeed a mic and headset jack and the configuration is apparently the same as the HP54xx/Toshiba e75x. This might even be useful for those wanting to record lectures and such, as you can use an external microphone and potentially get better pickup and directionality.

[Bill Harrison]

Yes, you hit it right on the head. The toshiba series has had these items for some time now, in the last few models, and they offer the headsets to go with them. On my e805 they even included a bundled VOIP program (I don't use it, SJ Phone is free and works great for me)

Off topic, has anyone ever found a VGA Softphone? Dialing those tiny numbers gets irriating on my e805 :P