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<DIV>Last Sunday I wrote that I had purchase a few sound dongles from bargain
cable USA when they sold them on eBay. They no longer sell them on eBay,
but they do still sell a USB sound dongle on there website here: <A
title=http://www.bargaincableusa.com/virtual-7-1-channel-sound-card-mic-in-stereo-out-p/a-229.htm
href="http://www.bargaincableusa.com/virtual-7-1-channel-sound-card-mic-in-stereo-out-p/a-229.htm">http://www.bargaincableusa.com/virtual-7-1-channel-sound-card-mic-in-stereo-out-p/a-229.htm</A>
for $3.98 with free shipping. I ordered one last Sunday and received it
today. It’s not exactly like the one’s I purchased earlier from them, but
it does have a soldered chip that can be soldered too. I took some
pictures and uplinked them here:
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<DIV><A
title=https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/49683698/USB%20sound%20dongle/2016-07-09%2013.53.40.jpg
href="https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/49683698/USB%20sound%20dongle/2016-07-09%2013.53.40.jpg">https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/49683698/USB%20sound%20dongle/2016-07-09%2013.53.40.jpg</A></DIV>
<DIV><A
title=https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/49683698/USB%20sound%20dongle/2016-07-09%2013.56.39.jpg
href="https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/49683698/USB%20sound%20dongle/2016-07-09%2013.56.39.jpg">https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/49683698/USB%20sound%20dongle/2016-07-09%2013.56.39.jpg</A></DIV>
<DIV><A
title=https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/49683698/USB%20sound%20dongle/2016-07-09%2013.56.57.jpg
href="https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/49683698/USB%20sound%20dongle/2016-07-09%2013.56.57.jpg">https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/49683698/USB%20sound%20dongle/2016-07-09%2013.56.57.jpg</A></DIV>
<DIV><A
title=https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/49683698/USB%20sound%20dongle/2016-07-09%2013.57.08.jpg
href="https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/49683698/USB%20sound%20dongle/2016-07-09%2013.57.08.jpg">https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/49683698/USB%20sound%20dongle/2016-07-09%2013.57.08.jpg</A></DIV>
<DIV><A
title=https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/49683698/USB%20sound%20dongle/2016-07-09%2015.48.48.jpg
href="https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/49683698/USB%20sound%20dongle/2016-07-09%2015.48.48.jpg">https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/49683698/USB%20sound%20dongle/2016-07-09%2015.48.48.jpg</A></DIV>
<DIV><A
title=https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/49683698/USB%20sound%20dongle/2016-07-09%2015.49.11.jpg
href="https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/49683698/USB%20sound%20dongle/2016-07-09%2015.49.11.jpg">https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/49683698/USB%20sound%20dongle/2016-07-09%2015.49.11.jpg</A></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>The chip on the PCB has no marking that I could see. I modified the
USB sound dongle by soldering a red 30 ga wirewrap wire to pin 13 of the chip
and a white 30 ga wirewrap to the volume down switch (same as pin 48 of the
chip). I connected a set of headphone with built-in boom mic to the mic
and audio output 1/8 jacks and test it on one of my spare Allstar nodes and it
worked fine. Grounding pin 48 caused the node to keyup as expected.
When the node was keyed from another node, pin 13 switches from 0 VDC to 3.21
VDC as expected. Microphone in and audio out worked as expected. I did no
further testing.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>So at this point I can say the dongle I received worked to the extent I
tested above on Allstar. Of course YMMV.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>If another purchases any of these sound dongles, please post your results
when you receive them. As I typed this message at 4:30 PM central time on
July 9 their website said they have 485 of these sound dongles in stock.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>BTW, I have no affiliation with bargain cable USA in any way except that I
purchased a few USB dongles from them.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Good luck,</DIV>
<DIV>73,</DIV>
<DIV>Steve_WB8GRS</DIV></DIV></DIV></BODY></HTML>