Identification of wires in a stereo extention cable

[sliick2]

Friends, I'm trying to wire in an extention cable to the speaker in a Garmin 42LM. I want to connect the wires from the extention cable to the speaker inside the case,so I can plug in my ear buds & listen to the voice commands from the unit. There are 2 wires going to the speaker- but, after stripping back the coating on the cable ,I find 3 wires ! I believe that 2 of the wires should go to one terminal & the common to the other.

I used an ohm meter to try & identify which wire is connected to the different segments of the plug end of the cable- but I don't get any reading ( checked the operation of the meter on another wire-ok ).

The cable wire colors are Red , Blue, Green . The speaker wire colors are Black & Blue.

There was a post from a member(ERS) back on Dec.9,2013 . He said that he did this by" soldering the right & left wires to one side of the speaker & the common to the other terminal.

Could the green wire be the common ? Any help would be fantastic ! Thanks in advance . Sliick

 

[wfooshee]

First problem is that the speaker will be fed by an amplifier which will have too strong a signal for earbuds.....

As for which wire is which, I have no clue. But you probably can't drive earbuds with a speaker-level signal.

 

[Bounce]

+1 to that

first check the input level ratings of your target "speakers" (ear buds, headphones, speakers etc.): Ohms, watts RMS, etc.

next check the output ratings from the source (same stuff ohms, etc.)

then check your wiring diagrams on each end (pos, neg, neutral, ground/earth, etc.). some GPSs will also have a data line for loading waypoints, etc. Some may have power as well for data/power combo cords.

Much easier to take the audio out jack and feed it into a splitter like device that can drive your earbuds as they were meant to. Something like the MixIt2. https://www.mixitproducts.com/

 

[sliick2]

Thanks ,Guys. This particular Garmin does not come with an audio out jack. I thought that I could wire in a jack & be able to use it with earbuds when needed & stand alone. Like I mentioned in my post-there was a member who said he did this & it worked for him.I

sent him a message & hope he gets back to me.You guys are very correct in your comments. Thanks again.

This is what I get for being cheap- can't get my head around a 6 or 7 hundred dollar GPS

 

[Uncle Hud]

In general -- IN GENERAL -- green wires are ground wires.

 

[Bounce]

Unless they're black or brown.

 

[Twigg]

Maybe you can use some of the info here:

https://www.gregrice.com/2012v2/2797/garmin2797.html

Hope that helps.

 

[ERS]

Sliick2

Usually the red and green are the left and right signal and blue is common. To verify you can use an ohmmeter or you can strip the 3 wires and try them on the GPS speaker. reduce the volume to 20% then try red and blue and you should hear sound in 1 ear, then try green & blue and the other should work if this works then blue is common and you can connect blue to one terminal on the speaker and connect the red and green wires to the other terminal. If these colors don't work you can try a different combination until you figure out which is common. If there are only 3 wires you can't hurt anything by trying 2 wires at a time. I drilled a small hole through the case and ran the earbug jack cable through it before soldering it to the speaker. Be sure to avoid interfering with the mounting bracket.

I did this last year before a trip to North Carolina and also used it for a trip to Cleveland and SE Ohio this Sept. I usually don't listen to anything else while riding so this works for me and the GPS still functions with the speaker for cage use. As far as the audio level goes I set the Garmin to a volume level of 20-30% with the earbuds compared to 70-80% using the speaker.

 

[sliick2]

Thanks so much-this is exactly what I was hoping for ! You guys are great ! Thanks