Replacment cable for Reflex

[thestunt23]

Everywhere I go to look for replacement cables I find the same one. I use Reflex with a spectrum radio which has a JR plug type. The replacement cable has JR on one end and it look like instead of USB on the other end it is a CAT 5 or ethernet jack (big phone cord type plug). Will this work?

http://i97.photobucket.com/albums/l219/stuntridah/misc/cable_jr.jpg

[jaron]

The cable that connects the Spektrum/JR transmitter to the Reflex USB adaptor has a 2.5mm connector (headphone) on one end and an RJ6 connector (telephone) on the other one.

[gordohigh]

You need the dongle which has the circuit board that opens up the software on your computer. This is so nobody can use a pirate copy of the software without paying for it. So yes, that is the correct cable minus the dongle.

[thestunt23]

I have the dongle, but have yet to open it up. I dont like the way my cord looks on both ends. I would like to fix if I can.

I dont know if this would work or not but tell me what you think.

I have been told the end that plugs into the TX, is a standard mono headphone jack. If I were to buy a extension for a headphone jack and a extension for a USB connector I could keep the cord coiled up safe.

What do you think? Would it work?

[Gary JP4]

The 1/8" sub-miniature jack on the supplied cable sucks. Mine started having a bad connection and not responding almost immediately. It is not made of very good material to continue making a good connection for long. They XTR even acknowledge this on their web site and suggest that you can replace the jack. They will replace your cable for free but you still get the same connector. They will replace you dongle for free too but you have to have one to send back first and wait.

You can cut the wire, strip back the covering exposing two wires, strip the ends of each wire, and replace the connector with a good hi-fi gold connector. You can get one at Radio Shack, or other electronics supplier. It is a mono jack (not a stereo jack which has three connectors) and only has two wires coming to it. The red wire goes to the center (tip) connector and the black goes to the outer (base) connector. You don't even have to solder if you don't want. You can get screw connectors on the jack from Radio Shack.

You could replace the phone jack too if you wanted. It is an RJ-11 plug connector. You can get them and the crimping tool almost every where. Radio Shack, Home Depot, Lowes, Walmart, etc.
http://www.tech-faq.com/rj-11.gif
Looking down on it with the pins up and exposed and the cord comming out toward you like the one on the left (the cord would be comming out the bottom) red would go into the second pin from the left, black the third. The outer two pins are left blank.

[thestunt23]

I am not having any problems with the cord yet. It is just kind of loose on both ends. I was wondering if before it goes bad if I could get a mono headphone extension and a USB extension and just leave my cord coiled up, safe.

Would that work, do you know?

Thanks.

[Gary JP4]

I am not sure what you mean by "just leave my cord coiled up, safe".

Do you mean not use the dongle (the little box with the USB on one end and the female RJ-11 on the other. If so, No, you have to use it for copy protection. If you don't use it Reflex wont work at all. That is the way the apply copy protection so you cant just copy or download the software and use it. Basically, you have to buy the dongle for $200 or whatever.

If you are thinking they wear out from plugging in and out so you want to put an extension on the USB on the dongle (electronics for copyright protection), and one on the sub-miniature jack but not the RJ-11 so you don't wear them out plugging them in and out. Well yes but I don't think it buys you anything.

I don't think the USB or the RJ-11 are problems with wearing out. The sub-miniature is. If you put an extension on it it will still jiggle around and wear. I left mine plugged in half the time and it was a problem in the first hour of use.

You need gold connectors for dependability. I think USB and RJ-11 connectors are all gold plated.

[thestunt23]

What I mean is one end of my cable is USB. I am thinking about getting a USB extension cable, and plugging in my XTR cord to the extension cable. The other end of my XTR cable is a mono headphone jack. I was thinking about getting a extension cable for a mono headphone jack and plugging that into my XTR cable.

So my XTR cable would still be connected, it would just have a extension on both sides of it. So if my extensions are long enough I can leave my XTR cable coiled up on top of my computer. That way I don't have to worry about hitting the back of my TX and breaking the mono headphone cable, and I don't have to worry about hitting the USB end and breaking that.

[Gary JP4]

OK then. I wouldn't bother with it. You will have to replace the mono jack anyway. The USB connector is plenty strong to start with.

[Funky]

Thanks Gary!!!! I have been having problems with my cord for months. It would cut out occasionally, but finally it got so bad I quit using the sim. I decided to order another cable when I stumbled across this thread a few days ago and PM'd Gary about the replacement plug. He sent me the link for the plug and now that I installed it, it works perfect!! No more cutting out!!

Thanks Gary :thumbup:

http://www.helifreak.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=34437&d=1199324202

[Gary JP4]

Way to go Funky! I am glad it is working. I haven't had any more problems for months now that I replaced mine.

The problem is that most cheap jacks like the one that comes on the XTR dongle and that are not gold plated develop resistance problems due to oxides forming on the metal. Cleaning helps for a little while but then the problem comes back. With music it is just scratchy when you move around. With data transmission it results in errors and missing data. With XTR it results in errors and stop start motion of the Sim.

Here is the link for anyone else looking for a gold plug from RS.

http://www.radioshack.com/product/in...entPage=family

And the part number is 274-868