3.5 mm RCA Audio Input Jack

[The Long Ranger]

I assume there ain't one?

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[FULLSCALE]

I don’t believe so, but I’ve never gone out of my way looking for it either. Many phones don’t even have that sort of output anymore so I doubt it’s too common anymore.

 

[P. A. Schilke]

I assume there ain't one?

Hi Steve,

The reason is that RCA jacks are not for automotive. They are for houses where things do not move, vibrate etc..(well maybe houses move in California do both). Not a robust connection, but aftermarket radios certainly still have them. When we piloted the Ranger Tremor as a nitche vehicle, we delt with RCA connectors... the builds were off line at the assembly plant and the installers gripped about how poor these connectors between the Amp, Sub Woofer, door speakers and the head unit were. We built about 2000 Ranger Tremors and I have never seen one in the field. Ranger Edges, and so on yes but Tremor...nope...wonder what happened to them....They could buzz the door panels of a vehicle three rows back at a stop light...

Best,
Phil Schilke
Ranger Vehicle Engineering
Ford Motor Co. Retired

 

[The Long Ranger]

My 2010 Ranger had one. Our 2012 LaCrosse had one, the 15 Focus has one and wife's new Cadillac has one. I have weeks of recorded music on MP3 players. I like them because they are direct hard inputs and are independent of the rest of the media inputs. Not a problem though. I'll just transfer it to thumb drive or Bluetooth.

 

[VAMike]

I think you're talking about two different connectors. An RCA is a coaxial connector with a center post and a spring ring on one side and a metal tube with an insulator (usually color coded these days) and a central hole. They were developed for phonograph connections and later used for the white/red/yellow vcr connections and red/green/blue computer monitor connections. They're one of the oldest connectors still in use, dating from the 1940s.

A 3.5mm jack is commonly called a headphone jack and used for that purpose. Originally a two conductor cylinder with one conductor on the tip and another on the barrel, separated by an insulator, there are now versions with additional conductors for stereo or audio/video. There's a smaller 2.5mm version which has mostly disappeared. This is another really old connector, dating to the 50s, and it's a miniaturized version of the quarter inch connectors developed for telephone exchanges and still used for some audio applications. Those are, as far as I know, the very oldest electrical connectors still in use, dating from the 1870s.

I don't think the ranger has either type of connector.

 

[dmeyer302]

My 2010 Ranger had one. Our 2012 LaCrosse had one, the 15 Focus has one and wife's new Cadillac has one. I have weeks of recorded music on MP3 players. I like them because they are direct hard inputs and are independent of the rest of the media inputs. Not a problem though. I'll just transfer it to thumb drive or Bluetooth.

You can almost certainly plug your existing MP3 player into the truck using USB.

 

[The Long Ranger]

Drop the RCA, that's a different application. Just 3.5 mm mini cable jack.

 

[The Long Ranger]

You can almost certainly plug your existing MP3 player into the truck using USB.

True on the newer ones. I have a couple of older ones that load from USB but playback through the jack. But at least I'm not using the 'Walkman' any more!

 

[VAMike]

True on the newer ones. I have a couple of older ones that load from USB but playback through the jack. But at least I'm not using the 'Walkman' any more!

If you pick up something like https://www.amazon.com/SanDisk-Cruzer-Low-Profile-Drive-SDCZ33-032G-B35/dp/B00812F7O8 you can copy the MP3s to it, leave it plugged in to the truck, and it's all less than $10

 

[RedlandRanger]

If you pick up something like https://www.amazon.com/SanDisk-Cruzer-Low-Profile-Drive-SDCZ33-032G-B35/dp/B00812F7O8 you can copy the MP3s to it, leave it plugged in to the truck, and it's all less than $10

Great idea - but I would opt for a USB 3.1 drive instead of a USB 2.0 drive - access speed will be much greater - I assume (hope) the truck supports USB 3.0:

https://www.amazon.com/SanDisk-16GB-Ultra-Flash-Drive/dp/B077VXV32

 

[VAMike]

Great idea - but I would opt for a USB 3.1 drive instead of a USB 2.0 drive - access speed will be much greater - I assume (hope) the truck supports USB 3.0:

https://www.amazon.com/SanDisk-16GB-Ultra-Flash-Drive/dp/B077VXV32

You'll never notice a speed difference, but you're a lot less likely to break the drive or the port if you stick with a low profile version that only sticks out a quarter inch.

 

[Godzilla_Driver]

Yeah, you're out of luck. I went down this path earlier this year. I have a decent MP3/DAC player and some nice high quality MP3's I wanted to play. I'd prefer a hard connection to wireless or even USB. My MP3 player does not get picked up as a mass media device. Basically I just have a lot of edge case things coming together to bother me so I looked for even a headphone jack. There isn't one unless you replace the head unit. I might do that in the future if the 2019's get left behind on the Sync updates or it annoys me too much but for now I just live with it.

 

[PAUL J CAIN]

True on the newer ones. I have a couple of older ones that load from USB but playback through the jack. But at least I'm not using the 'Walkman' any more!

I still use the walkman model wm-a45

 

[PAUL J CAIN]

I still use the walkman model wm-a45

works seamlessly in my ranger using usb or BT

 

[The Long Ranger]

works seamlessly in my ranger using usb or BT

I was referring to this one!

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