Miniature Speaker to Laptop Audio Jack

[JoshuaGates]

Hi everyone,


Currently trying to output sound from the laptop through this miniature speaker:

http://nz.rs-online.com/web/p/miniature-speakers/7564618/

The setup so far is just a mono 3.5mm Audio Jack to the two input pins of this mono amplifier board:

https://www.sparkfun.com/products/11044

The amplifier is powered with 5V and then I've connected the miniature speaker listed above to the two output pins of the amp.

Just want to confirm whether this setup would work? It is currently not outputting any sound at all. The same configuration however works successfully if I change the audio input from the audio jack to just digital tones from the Arduino so I think I must be misunderstanding something on the audio jack connection to the laptop. Any help would be appreciated.
Thank you.

 

[dorke]

1. Is the Laptop actually producing sound?can you verify that with another "audio system"?
2. You should use a stereo 3.5mm on the Laptop output,can you show what you are using photo and diagram.
3. Note that he audio amp you are using is actually differential input .

 

[JoshuaGates]

Hi there thanks for the response

1. Yes the laptop does output sound as I've plugged in my headset to listen to music through it and it works.
2. I don't think I can use stereo because I'm only using the one speaker which only has two connections.

Attached is a photo with just the 3.5mm Mono Audio Jack connection to the speaker. Usually the amplifier would be sat in between the two but not sure how much of an effect that has.

3. Thanks I'll have to look into the meaning of that and its effect on what I'm trying to do

 

[dorke]

The Laptop connector is of the stereo type (has 3 connections).
You should use that type to connect to it properly,at the other end use only 2 of the 3 wires,one signal and one ground.
Leave the other signal wire not connected.

 

[JoshuaGates]

Hey just thought I'd give an update.
So turns out that there was no signal at all coming from the mono audio jack connection I used.
I then took apart one from an old headset and used that connecting 2 of the 4 wires (one was mic) as you described and it is successfully outputting sound now. Thanks for your help!