connecting headset to laptop

[lamina]

Any of you guys attempted to use your flying headset to make skype calls via a latop?

If so was quality OK, and where did you get a 5.25mm-3.5mm adapter from. I've found one site that lists said adapter but US based, any available in UK.

Thanks

[Wader2]

Any of you guys attempted to use your flying headset to make skype calls via a latop?

If so was quality OK, and where did you get a 5.25mm-3.5mm adapter from. I've found one site that lists said adapter but US based, any available in UK.

Thanks

Tottenham Court Road?

[west lakes]

maplin...............................

[airborne_artist]

Buy a cheap n cheerful headset for Skype - change out of £4.00 on Ebay.

[lamina]

Got a cheap and cheerful skype set, but my bags already full of crap. As for Maplin, all I got was blank expressions when I mentioned 5.25mm plug and then eventually told they don't exist!

[Pontius Navigator]

That's why I said TCR.

Wandered in off the street one day, wanted a roof top aerial. 'What car?'

The kid didn't look old enough to drive but told me exactly how to drill the hole and fit it in my SAAB 900 which was fairly new at the time.

They know their stuff, if they don't they know a man who does.

[Saab Dastard]

It is easy to get 6.35 to 3.5 adapters, but you might have to make up your own 5.25 adapter.

SD

[P.Pilcher]

I would be very wary of attempting to connect aircraft headsets up to computers for the purposes of making skype calls or anything else. If you got the right plug - which in Maplin lingo is a standard (mono) jack plug and you need an in line socket for same for your aircraft headset (headphone). The microphone plug (assuming your headset uses double plugs for connection to the A/C) is a totally different animal. I have never come across such connectors in the general electronics field and getting them out of the suppliers of aircraft bits and pieces has been like getting blood out of a stone! However, the microphone on aircraft headsets uses a different technology to modern microphones. In days of yore, carbon microphones were the norm. If you get a small container of carbon powder and change the pressure on it, its resistance will very. Put a diaphragm on one end of the container and the resistance of the carbon will fluctuate in sympathy with the sound waves vibrating the diaphragm. O.K. now apply a small voltage (the excitation voltage) across the carbon and the current will fluctuate in accordance with the sound waves and this can be used by the associated electronics to produce the required electrical signal. These days, carbon microphones are no longer used, but the excitation voltage is still provided and is usually used to drive a pre-amplifter to improve the audio qualities of the conventional headset mic. Computers do not provide such an excitation voltage so it is unlikely that your headset microphone will work with your computer anyway. The above advice to obtain a skype headset from Ebay or Maplin is thus valid. Sorry you will probably have to carry an extra bit of junk in your flight bag.

P.P.

[KillingTime]

You don't need a spare headset to use with Skype. Your own normal stereo headplugs don't take up any space, and will work just fine. Most laptops have a built-in microphone, so the headplugs are all you need.
I use Skype all the time and the voice quality is better than many normal land and mobile lines, assuming that the internet connection where you are is half-decent.

...all right. Back to lurking :rolleyes:

[corsair]

I found this. You can use your aviation headset on your PC. Presumably the little black box provides the little excitation voltage for the microphone.

I might buy one myself, my baby son keeps wrecking the weedy PC headsets I use now.

http://www.mypilotstore.com/mypilotstore/sep/3334

I presume it would work with most types of headsets?

[lamina]

Thanks guys for all the info. Just what I needed to know.

Guess I'll have to fill my bag up with even more rubbish now:hmm:

[corsair]

I ordered the adapter and it just arrived. Works very well indeed. Though I do look like a bit of a prat sitting here with my DC's on. It was delivered from Florida over the weekend via Fedex.