Connect Headphones to Ms. Pac?

Boatdrinks

Member

Donor 2011, 2013
Joined
Oct 27, 2009
Messages
405
Reaction score
17
Location
Minnesota
I play a lot of after hours Ms. Pac, and don't like the sound to wake up the kids, but I still want to hear the sound nice and loud. Anyone have an idea of how i could hook up a mini headphone jack? I was thinking that it could be dangled in the coin return and I could just hook up a set of earbuds when needed.

Thanks for any thoughts...

BD
 
The headphones jack in a stereo/radio uses a resistor in series with the headphones.

The Jack socket has a switch which disconnects the normal speaker

You would have to wire the 2 headphone speakers in series as the Pacmans are mono sound



It was 20 years ago I messed with this, so the resistor value may be wrong, but will give you a starting place

Let us know how it goes
 
I've heard you can use a specific Isolation Xformer from good ole' Radio Shack, but I would have no idea how to wire it.

I'd start hitting up goodwill or whatever for any kind of cheap stereo or receiver (small enough to fit inside the cab) with both a headphone jack and aux. input jacks. Tap into the speaker wires (from your pac) and wire that into aux. input. Get a y-cable if needed (to convert mono sound from the pac to both right and left channels on the stereo), and if desired, get a headphone extention cable (maybe with volume control in line). Cut the power plug from the stereo, strip the ends to expose wire and tap it into 120 inside the cab (or just plug it in another outlet, whatever floats your boat). I would think that's the easiest way, and would be easy to remove later if needed.
 
Last edited:
The easier thing to do would be mount a volume pot inside the coin door and turn it down low when you need to be quiet.
 
Thanks for the ideas... I think I'll try Dez's idea just to see if I can do it.

BD
 
The easier thing to do would be mount a volume pot inside the coin door and turn it down low when you need to be quiet.

Not even inside the coin door. On every Pac/MsPac I've dealt with you can reach the volume pot on the board from the coin door. Just reach back (over the wood separator) feel for the heat-sink in the upper corner closest to you, and JUST below it (standing up) is the volume pot.
 
If you get the right kind of headphone jack you can wire it so the speaker disconnects when the headphones are plugged in. The problem is you will probably still need to adjust the pot because the volume will be too high for the headphones.
 
If you get the right kind of headphone jack you can wire it so the speaker disconnects when the headphones are plugged in. The problem is you will probably still need to adjust the pot because the volume will be too high for the headphones.

In the diagram above, the 220 ohm resistor lowers the volume by a set amount Riptor :)
 
Back
Top Bottom