Technology

JD1914 Relays

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My old Plymouth Sundance had the low and high beams controlled by a JD1914 latching relay – you pulled the light stalk towards you to switch between high and low. Always thought it was a stupid design even if it was simple with one wire to the relay – throw back to the floor switch.

I much prefer the modern configuration where you push the stalk forward for high, towards you for low. I assume the turn signals and headlight bright control are a signal sensor that sends to the computer over CANBus which tells the computer to probably blip, well probably a JD1914 relay, because it’s cheaper than having two regular relays and you can keep old designs to this day and don’t have to constantly power the relay.

Break the Headphone Jack On Your Laptop? Get an Inexpensive USB-to-Audio Dongle

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Break the Headphone Jack On Your Laptop?
Get an Inexpensive USB-to-Audio Dongle.

Last week I did something stupid — I left my headphones plugged into my laptop when I headed off to the office, breaking off the headphone jack in my less then two year old laptop. I found an inexpensive, plug-and-play alternative that works just a well as a headphone jack.

An USB-to-Audio dongle plugs into any USB port or hub and provides an analog headphone jack audio out. It’s a fairly tiny device with a male USB connector on one side and a headphone jack on the others. iPhone users often use a similar device to connect analog headphones to their phones.

The dongles are under $10 on Ebay and Amazon and can often be found on AliExpress direct from China for less then $5. The sound quality on the one I bought was basically the same as the laptop. The dongles works well, because USB-to-Audio standard is part of the USB standard and most software automatically supports it just like a conventional headphone jack.