RCA to 3.5mm Cable

[hrlslcbr]

OK, I don't know if this is the right place to ask, but...
I want to make a RCA to 3.5mm connector to capture audio, but I need some help with it. I cut a 3.5mm to 3.5mm cable and found 3 wires, two for the audio, and the other one for ground. The thing I need to know is if the ground wire needs to be connected (and if yes, where), or it's only used for connecting something like the speakers to the line out of a sound card.
Any help appreciated.

[doppletwo]

You should just buy one.

You can get one for like 3 or 4 dollars.

Why risk making one when they are so cheap?

[hrlslcbr]

Well, I have one big reason; I don't live in america...
If you know of a store that ships outside of america, I would buy it; but until now, I'll have to make it myself.

[stahlhart]

It sounds as though what you have is a stereo cable, with conductors for right and left channel, and ground for shielding. It would seem, then, that the molded ends of the 3.5mm cable are 3-conductor (two insulators separating the right and left channels, the tip and the middle, with the ground being the contact closest to the connector grip).

You'll need to use the ground wire in any case, but whether or not you require one or both of the signal leads depends on whether or are dealing with stereo or monaural audio. 3.5mm inputs on sound cards are pretty much all stereo; if your source is mono, you could probably get away with tying right and left together and having the same audio in the right and left channels. It would save a processing step further down the road, unless having audio coming out of only one of your speakers in the finished product is acceptable to you.

C.K.

[hrlslcbr]

My source is stereo, and the cable I'm using is a standard stereo 3.5mm mini plug.
I know how to connect the audio signal; I do get audio from the source. But I don't know where or how to connect the ground wire.

[stahlhart]

Both right and left channels of the audio need to be grounded. Ground is usually a common point, which is why you only have one for both of the conductors in the cable.

If you don't connect the ground between the devices that the audio is travelling between, you may end up with phasing problems in the audio (sometimes referred to as OOPS, or out of phase stereo).

C.K.

[hrlslcbr]

OK, I understand that the ground wire MUST be connected, but the question is; where?

[stahlhart]

To the outer ring (shield) connection of each of the RCA plugs...

C.K.

[cd090580]

The easiest way is to buy one. They sell such adaptors on Amazon.com (it's an international site). It's only 1.25$

the item you need is:

[stahlhart]

There you go...

C.K.

[hrlslcbr]

Thank you!!!

[mstone321]

When buying / making / using RCA to 3.5mm adapters and cables
BEWARE. Many are inconsistently wired and will reverse right and
left audio. Kinda spoils the scene where the car zoom accross your
screen.

Your sound card's 3.5mm jack can't be swapped L to R etc. Sooo...

The tip of 3.5mm plug is designated as L, the middle ring R and the rear
section is ground. Check your cables / adpaters before capturing!

[stahlhart]

Thanks for clarifying that -- I couldn't remember whether it was left or right that went to the tip conductor, and vice-versa for the ring conductor. I probably would have checked with an ohmmeter before proceeding. But yeah, it's quite important to get that correct.

C.K.

[hrlslcbr]

Don't worry, I connected just one wire to the left channel of my source, and it came from the right speaker , so I just swapped the wires and checked again disconnecting each wire and now it is correctly wired.
BTW, it worked stahlhart. Thank you all.