Non-headphone uses for the headphone jack

[Claudio Ibarra]

I know there's a trend to get rid of the 3.5mm headphone jack, but what's available in the current ecosystem for non-headphone devices that use that port?

Any good IR blasters? Laser pointers? Other things I can't think of?

 

[N4Newbie]

Accept (magstripe) credit cards for payments: https://forums.androidcentral.com/e...%3A%2F%2Fsquareup.com%2Freader&token=YQreFHjS

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[Claudio Ibarra]

Yup, that's one I have (although I mostly use it as an anchor to the lanyard to easily pull my keys from my pocket).

 

[N4Newbie]

Here's a few more cool ideas: https://techcrunch.com/2016/09/07/applejack/

The article is specifically about Apple's decision to remove the jack, but many of the items discussed work with Android as well.

 

[N4Newbie]

This one looks so cool, I might even buy one for testing here at work...

https://bevel3d.net/

 

[Jerry Hildenbrand]

I've used a light meter and Alcohol blood level tester that used the 3.5 jack on a phone. Both worked really well and results were close to what you see with more expensive equipment. And I always carry a good lapel mic in my laptop bag to use with my phone.

I've built some junk here, too. Things like an IR blaster, a strobe to fire and sync with my camera strobes, and a remote trigger for a Nikon camera. I've got a couple Hijack dev boards here that i want to try and build a little weather station with temp/humidity/wind speed.

But really, the best reason to keep a 3.5m jack is for headphones.