2.5mm 360 Headset Jack to 3.55mm Headphone Jack for Turtle Beaches

My goal is to create a patch cable so that I can listen to music while still hearing game audio.

Step 1: Turtle Beach X42s.

While this headset is incredible, with 4 channel surround sound, it lacked the ability to play music while in game. This project seeks to remedy that issue.

The headset has a 2.5 mm jack meant to transport voice chat data between the controller and the mic/speakers.

Step 2: Materials Needed

Parts:

Spare 360 headset
Spare headphones (not pictured)

Tools:

Wire cutters/strippers/crimpers
Soldering Iron
Screwdriver with #1 Phillips bit
Wire connectors (optional, but preferred)
Electrical tape (not needed if using connectors)

Step 3:

Image 1: 3.5 mm Headphone Jack

Cut the headphones cord close to the rubber grommet leading into the ear pieces. The red wire is the right channel, the white is the left, and the exposed copper is the ground. I actually used the cord from an old set of PC speakers, so your result/colors may be different. Strip a medium length section of each wire. I found that using a lighter to melt the plastic and fiber off worked wonderfully.

Image 2: 360 Headset (2.5 mm Jack)

Cut the 360 headsets cord between the jack and the volume/mute box. This is the step I should have done differently. I would have desoldered the connections from the volume/mute control board, if I had the foresight to do so.

Image 3: Volume/Mute Control Board

The board has the different wires labeled. There should be four of them, as follows.

Left to Right:

Copper = [G] Mic Ground (-)
White = [M+] Mic Positive (+)
Blue = [SP+] Speaker Positive (+)
Black = [G] Speaker Ground (-)

Step 4: Connecting

Image 1:

Connect the Blue SP+ wire to the Red and White wires on the headphone jack line.

Connect the Copper G wire to the Copper wire of the headphone jack line.

Thats it...you now have a way to listen to music while playing a game. All thats left is testing.

Step 5: Testing

Connect the 3.5 mm jack to an mp3 player, a phone, or a computers headphone jack.

Connect the 2.5 mm jack to the controller input on the Turtle Beaches.

Start playing music. Make sure that the audio is coming through clearly.

Thats all. Youre good to go. Enjoy.

Step 6: Afterthoughts

This took about an hour, including the disassembly and cleanup. Theres a few things i will be looking into in the future:

- Using a 2.5 mm splitter so that i can use the mic simultaneously.

- Integrating the volume/mute control board.

If you have any comments, suggestions, ideas to expand upon this design, i am open to feedback.

Enjoy the tunes, and good gaming.