I’m in the process of reworking the interface box between the amateur radio HTs on our bikes and our helmet-mounted earbud & mic lashup. Mary needed a new helmet before I got the new interface ready, soooo there’s an adapter cable in the middle.
This time around, the helmet cable uses a male USB-A connector, rather than a female 6-pin Mini-DIN PS/2 keyboard connector. Either one is cheap & readily available as assembled cables, which gets me out of soldering teeny little connector pins. These days, though, USB cables are more common.
The motivation for a non-latching, low-extraction-force connector at the helmet is that when (not if) you drop the bike, the helmet doesn’t tie your head to the bike and snap your spine. Falls on a recumbent are much less exciting than on an upright bike, but you still want the bike to go that-a-way while you go this-a-way. Been there, done that.
The old helmet cable connector: female 6-pin mini-DIN. The wire color code is not standardized. Viewed from rear of female connector or the front of the male connector, with the key slot up:
ear com - Gn 5 |_| 6 K - ear hot
mic com - Or 3 key 4 Y - mic hot
gnd - Bn 1 2 R - gnd
The new helmet cable connector: male USB-A. Mercifully, they standardized the wire colors. Looking at the front of the male USB-A connector with the tab down and the contacts up, the pins are 4 3 2 1:
- 1 – R – ear hot
- 2 – W – mic hot
- 3 – G – mic com
- 4 – K – ear com
The female USB-A connector is exactly the same.
That arrangement should produce the proper twisted pairs in a USB 2.0 cable, but all the USB cables I’ve seen so far lay all four wires in a common twist inside the shield. Maybe it’s the cheap junk I buy, huh?
It’s worthwhile to scribble some color in the background of the trident USB symbol so it’s easier to mate the connectors.
Memo to Self: verify the connections & proper operation before shrinking the tubing!
The Smell of Molten Projects in the Morning 