The attached image is a triumph of sorts as it shows the solution to a problem that has been driving me nuts the whole week.I wanted to connect an external, professional mic to an iPhone 4 (running iOS 5.1). Research showed me that the iPhone needed an external mic to have an impedance of at least 800 ohms or else it wouldn't switch over from the internal mic.
So I bought a cable on line from Sescom, via B&H. It arrived but wouldn't work. I was using a pro Sennheiser mic, but my iPhone just wouldn't switch over from the internal to the external.
I even pulled the XLR connector apart to see if it had the right impedance
matching circuit in it, which it did. The strange thing was that the mic and cable worked fine into my iPad.The solution is to insulate the base of the TRRS connector from touching the iPhone case. (The screwdriver is pointing to the offending part). Once this was done - Bingo! Worked fine. I now need to refine the solution and I have told the nice guys at Sescom how to do it. A small neoprene washer should do the trick. The supplied TRRS plug on the connecting cable is different from the ones A
pple supply, in that the Apple ones don't extend the sleeve connection to the base of the plug.This base (screwdriver blade in pic (L) indicates the offending area) comes into contact with the metal case/antenna that is around the iPhone. In effect it's then a connection between the 'sleeve' of the plug and the case. This obviously causes the audio circuits to malfunction and not switch over to this external input.
Nice to have worked it out.
7 comments:
Hey Martin!,
Sescom cables have been shipping with an insulating washer for quite some time now to resolve this exact issue and your article is a good one to help show others how to resolve this problem when using a pro microphone and an iPhone.
It is from articles and forums as well as our own research that at Sescom we can keep making solutions that work for pro-audio!
Kindest Regards,
Jon Fitzer
Director
www.Sescom.com
Hey Martin!,
Sescom cables have been shipping with an insulating washer for quite some time now to resolve this exact issue and your article is a good one to help show others how to resolve this problem when using a pro microphone and an iPhone.
It is from articles and forums as well as our own research that at Sescom we can keep making solutions that work for pro-audio!
Kindest Regards,
Jon Fitzer
Director
www.Sescom.com
Jon,
Thanks for the post and info. When I got my cable, there was no washer and your help desk guys couldn't work it out. So once I came up with the solution, I posted it here.
Probably fair to say that I would have thought it would have been fully tested before you shipped these, give that this is a problem/function of all iPhone 4's. Anyway - all good now.
Thanks
Hello Martin!
I am having problem using my external mic too. I bought an adapter from kvconnection.com but did not work on my iphone 4. I tried it on a friend who has a iphone 4s and it worked. Could you please help me? I tried to do the issue you are mentioning but did not work for me! Am i missing something?
Stefanos,
Not sure I can help. What alerted me to the problem was that the cable worked with my iPad, but not my iPhone 4. If your cable works with a friends iPhone, then logic says it should work with yours also. As I said in my post, the problem was the 'shield' of the TRRS connector connecting with the metal case of the iPhone. Once I stopped that happening it worked fine.
Yep i have tried it but did not work! Anyway thanks for replying thank you so much have a nice day!
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