Need a headset for your computer?

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With the increase in VoIP usage (Skype, Google Talk, etc.), more and more people need a headset for their computer. I didn’t want to buy a dedicated headset for my computer since I have a ton of cell phone headsets lying around. I searched all over to buy an adapter but couldn’t find one. As such, the only logical thing to do was to make one.

Headsets for computers have two 3.5mm plugs on them. One goes into your speaker output and the other into the microphone input of your computer. The standard cellphone headsets (the ones used by Motorola, Treo, Blackberry, Samsung, etc.) utilize a single 2.5 mm plug. To make the adapter, you need to buy two 3.5mm plugs and one 2.5mm female socket, and some wire. You can also buy the 3.5mm plugs attached to some wire to save yourself some work. Here is a simple diagram of the adapter:

Disclaimer: This works for me, but if you fry your headset or your computer, I’m not liable. Make sure you know what you’re doing before you start messing with any electronics.

Here is the finished product:

Note: The speaker on the headset is limited to the right channel only (mono) with this setup.

2 Comments

  1. You might be able to connect to both the right and left output, however, it depends on the way the amplifier is configured. In some cases, bridging the output can cause problems, so I simply just decided to make it with mono output. HTH

  2. I was looking at your diagram and was wondering, why not connect the speaker to the left audio as well, that way you could have both. I have no expertise with the jack types, but it seems that the end of the 3.5mm male to computer speaker out is for left audio.

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