He was lucky that the headphones used standard rubber insulation. It's common for headphones to use bare copper wire coated with some sort of insulating lacquer, that can't be stripped mechanically.
The best way I've found to remove such insulation is to light it on fire, which would be frowned upon during a flight.
There's an old trick there (not for use on commercial flights...), if you place the enamelled copper on an asprim tablet and briefly touch them with a soldering iron, it almost magically becomes clean solderable shiny copper.
(Source: I rewound _so_ many CD Rom drive motors into model airplane motors back before you could buy them easily... I think my knowledge of that asprin trick predates that by a decade or more though...)
Off-Topic: any chance you've got some literature on the subject of turning CDROM drive motors into model airplane motors? This sounds like a great hack for HN ..
That's not me, but that's pretty much exactly the process... It was pretty common maybe 10 years back - these days there's a huge range of purpose-build brushless motors available from places like HobbyKing.com for such small amounts of money that I suspect _nobody_ of spending all that time to make their own (at least not in the "saving a few bucks for my hobby" class, I think the top end competition guys are probably hand making motors still...)
Man, I was thinking that would be such a pain to use because whenever I hack something together like that it's super sensitive to jostling, but tying it off like that is just brilliant! I'm going to use that.
Also:
> The finished product worked beautifully, despite now only providing monaural audio and is about five centimetres shorter, which is still perfectly usable since the seats hardly recline.
I would consider the monoaural audio to be a benefit! When possible, I try to set my phone to force mono. I'm considerably more likely to be distracted by stereo effects than entertained by them.
You can also just use normal headphones, but not push them in all the way into the socket. You'll only get mono (through both speakers, but only a single channel), but if you don't have an adapter it works and your headphones are probably a lot better than what's on the aircraft.
The third pin is to provide power for active-noise cancellation headphones. Most airlines usually only give them out in business and above now.
I've always wondered why they don't just supply these on the plane. One adapter would last much longer than one pair of shitty airplane headphones that most people toss after the flight anyway.
Glad you liked the hack! With some bad stereo signals, I've found the audio dialog to be softer in one of the two channels, and the music in the other, so if you're watching that sort of film you might not get the best mix!
don't worry, my first thought without that was, "holy shit what kind of an idiot is doing this on a plane". skin color doesn't matter, that is not normal in-plane behavior.
Or, just stick a regular 3.5mm headphone jack into the two-pronged hole half-way in. The contacts line up in such a way that one channel touch both inputs. Just turn up the volume a bit.
In most airlines the announcements are at fixed volume, independent of the movies. That means you can put the video on full volume and turn it down inline. No more announcements screaming in your ear :) (and better sound quality as a bonus)
Yes, I too travel with both of these. The volume control is convenient, but I originally bought it after breaking a couple of my headphone connectors. Now I break a $5 part instead of a $50 part. (Shure's with removeable cords are great, but the cord is still $50)
Both your link, and the link above, are two components I recently purchased after my own experiences. Just funny to realise I wasn't the only one who encountered this...
"Hey, do you have some tweezers I can borrow?"
"Tweezers? Um, no. I have an extra pair of headphones, though. It looks like you're having trouble with yours."
"Oh, uh, no thanks--I just need some tweezers."
The reason this is so cool is because it's a perfect example of problem solving, and how our determination kicks in when we have an innovative solution. Even if that means skipping over the easiest or the most common solution.
Hehe, ironic response about missing the obvious, since the first thing the hacker did was check it wasn't the headphones that were faulty :-)
Asking a co-passenger for a spare set of phones would have left him with the same problem: the plane socket was only feeding audio from one hole, not both.
I used to climb, yes, and I've learned a lot of knots. I used a figure-eight for one of the reasons it's used in climbing: the bend radius isn't as sharp, thus putting less strain on the knot.
Anyone know anything about those USB connectors? I was on a flight some time ago and noticed that my device said that USB debugging is now connected (Android), when I plugged it in, so I don't think it was only for charging. Don't remember which airline it was.
You get to choose connection mode when you connect to any computer. The entertainment system tries to connect to your media storage so that you can play your own music/videos. (this system is often just a Linux terminal) You can always use the charging-only USB cable if you're worried about the data connection of course.
I guess it's a case of defense in depth. Software may have vulnerabilities that still allow for data connections despite the prompt. But no data wires being physically present cannot have that problem at all.
There are "charging only cables" available that basically do the same stuff: They have the data-pins bridged in some strange way to persuade the phone and charger to consume/provide maximum charge current.
Be careful with those --- the cable is lying to the phone about whether the thing you've plugged it into is a fast charger or not, so if it's not, you can end up drawing way more current than it's rated for.
A well designed USB charger will just shut down if this happens. A non well designed USB charger is another matter.
I remember at least one system where the USB port allowed you to plug in USB stick and then let you listen to the music you had on it. So it's just a proper USB host.
Mine seems to say that anytime you connect it to any computer, even if that computer doesn't even have ADB installed, much less running. Probably a subtle defense-in-depth encouragement to leave debug off when you aren't actually intending to use ADB.
I wonder if it's left in from before they had the PC fingerprint check, and nobody ever bothered to take it out.
You're implying TSA employees are trained properly. I've had to surrender small items that are not prohibited due to incorrect assumptions that airport security have made.
I had a grooming kit with a pouch containing assortment of small things like nail clippers, tweezers, and tiny safety scissors that I carried with me on every flight. Gradually, the pouch became completely empty as TSA agents confiscated more and more of my items.
Yup, shortly after 9/11 I flew to Hong Kong and I forgot that I had my mini screwdriver kit (small screwdrivers for electronics, smaller than my pinky finger) in my bag. It got confiscated, to my disbelief.
Yes, HK searched my mini screwdrivers, and the security guy checked the size of the ends against his pinky finger, and since they were the same size, he let them slide.
Your parentheses make a good point: we don't know why if the OP was flying from/to the US at all. Other countries have different regulations. I've been allowed to carry a Swiss Army Knife onto a European flight because neither of its two blades was longer than 6 cm. (I've also had a bread knife confiscated because its blade was longer.)
That's cool. Reminds me of being a kid in the 70s and switching though the channels on a 747 flight - one channel was playing all music backwards, and finally recognized one as Dolly Parton's 'Jolene' https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b9re90HG2dw
Try this as a Muslin and you are (probably) dead...
Actually, try this as a non-white person and you are dead...
Actually, try this, and you are dead (not sure how the author got away with it).
Once I was flying to the United States and in the middle of the flight the screen in front of me printed a familiar image, Tux, the famous penguin icon of Linux (the entertainment system was rebooting or something). I thought it was interesting so I decided to take a picture, the woman that was sitting on my side asked me what was that and why was I taking a picture, so I smiled and said "Somebody hacked the plane", as you can guess she didn't get the "joke" and started (nervously) to look for one of the flight attendants, 3-5 minutes later she went to the bathroom but oh surprise (or maybe not) she returned with two of the flight attendants that started asking for my passport and to allow them to check my cabin bags. They were cool after I clarified the situation, but this was a lesson for me to 1) don't try to do stupid things in a plane, 2) don't joke with nervous people.
I just remember the story of this mathematician that was writing some formulas in the plane and the person on his side thought that he was planning a terrorist attack. This is why it surprises me that the author of this article was able to get away with his "experiment" just like that.
EDIT: Re-reading the article, he says that "the flight staff weren’t angry that I had cannibalized their headphones" and then continues with "If you work for Emirates, let me know and I’ll give you the seat and flight number". Considering this I will assume that they weren't angry because a) its a rich airline so they assume that people taking their flights are "harmless", or b) Middle East citizens are used to plane hijacks (this is actually a really bad joke, and I will accept the downvotes with resignation).
> its a rich airline so they assume that people taking their flights are "harmless"
It's your average airline that spans from Europe to Australia from bases in middle east. Nothing really rich about it. (although, it is quite comfortable)
Emirates has some of the highest revenue and cost numbers per average seat kilometre [0]. It's also subsidised to a large extent by the UAE [1]. I don't find the word "rich" to be very descriptive, but "high end" could easily apply in this circumstance.
I don't necessarily disagree with the high end. But looking at the CASK it's worth noting that they're almost exclusively long-distance flights. I'd like to see the graph from [0] split into long-haul and others. Currently they've got Emirates flying 10+ hours on the same graph as EasyJet doing 30min in Europe. Same for Quantas which does domestic 1h flights as well as international Dubai, or west coast US but is in one bar only. I know these are normalised per kilometer in theory, but there's a threshold when you need 2x the crew, can't really go without entertainment system, etc.
Or specifically why I didn't say rich is that it's not like you have a lot of choice flying long-haul over middle east. You're likely to get a stop-over in Dubai and if you're flying One World, you're likely to have an Emirates code share.
Of the ME3 Qatar is the one that's in oneworld. Though it is Emirates who usually codeshares with Qantas because of their separate partnership agreement.
Despite the media amplification and muckraking, and general 'agitprop', millions of Muslims fly every day without being murdered by other passengers or flight crews.
They are horribly profiled in security, but again, claiming they will be murdered is a bit of an exaggeration.
I think that's a bad decision on N=1 samples. I find international Emirates flights to be one of the most modern and comfortable ones. I mean, you even get power sockets in economy most of the time, which is still pretty rare.
Connectors like these are pretty much a standard for whatever crazy reason as well. (the third hole seems to provide some power, since their noise-cancelling version in business uses it)
I've yet to buy a set of noise-cancelling headphones that didn't come with an adapter for these, which seems like a better option. You'll have a hard time finding airlines that use a standard 3.5mm jack.
Neither Boeing or Airbus specify trivia such as headphone connectors. They provide their airline customers with a list of seat options from approved suppliers and the airline chooses based on their criteria.
A company local to me, Thompson, manufactures seats and competes for customers through both big OEMs.
You're probably right - I just noticed they were different on say, Air Canada vs Qantas and assumed the aircraft type was the differentiation. If I was travelling again I'd just buy adaptors from AliBaba.
Pay for headphones? What airline is that? I've flown on a lot and I've never had to pay for them.
I've always assumed they used the weird connectors to prevent people from taking the headphones with them (since they can't easily be connected to anything except an airline entertainment system)
I've heard that also historically one of the big reasons for the odd jack was to prevent theft (back when headphones were relatively more expensive and all airline headphones were designed for reuse...)
Emirates gives you headphones for free (standard in economy, noise-cancelling in business), it's not like they make money on this. I don't think Boeing and Airbus care about the headphone sales either.
Wait. You insulated some live DC wires with _paper_ and then hid that behind some plastic in an airplane somewhere? I'm way more concerned with the fire hazard you introduced than the profiling stuff others are mentioning.
It's headphones, not some wire hidden behind anything, or anything carrying a significant current. He stripped the wires on the headphones they gave him to listen to the in-flight audio.
Do you have any resources to show how this is potentially a fire hazard? Genuinely curious.. because I often hear people talk about even the most basic electronics as this Big Scary Thing, and in my mind, it is quite simple and harmless.
Easy: Because the wires are wrapped in paper, if you simply light a lighter next to them and hold it to the paper for a few seconds, you have kindling. Then, if you can find something in a plane that's not fire-retardant and heat it with the flaming piece of paper enough, voila: an inadvertent fire.
Why go to the complicated step of insulating a wire with the paper? You could make the situation much easier by just tearing some paper out of your notebook for kindling.
Not sure how one would manage to sneak a lighter onboard though.
The voltage is less important than the amperage with something like this, but that fact only further emphasizes your point, there's literally zero risk of the paper catching fire.
Yup, exactly. A static electricity spark is typically high voltage, but very low amperage, and even it would be highly unlikely to set paper ablaze. A headphone is both very low amperage and low voltage, so essentially impossible without an external catalyst.
The best way I've found to remove such insulation is to light it on fire, which would be frowned upon during a flight.