What is this Myster...
 

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[Closed] What is this Mystery Box™?

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Doing a clearout at work and among the many millions of feet of random cables and bits of old hardware, I found a small plastic box with a 3.5mm mono jack coming out of it. No markings on the outside, so I unscrewed it and inside is just what my google-fu tells be is a diode, probably of the zener variety.

[url= https://farm1.staticflickr.com/607/23376720911_c0e23a8f1b_b.jp g" target="_blank">https://farm1.staticflickr.com/607/23376720911_c0e23a8f1b_b.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/BBHNGg ]qEFK4_N2qji5G1JdfZ_JhQ8tOycDx15aEld5TD8OwYM[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/willhyde/ ]W Hyde[/url], on Flickr

Any ideas what it does?

(edit to add flickr link since dropbox isn't playing nicely)


 
Posted : 02/12/2015 2:47 am
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I'll go with an undercover microphone, you think it's not plugged in...? well thats what they want you to think 😆

I've got no real idea, but I too have an average of about 44 miles of spare cables, 122 random chargers in various stages of usefulness, 67 plugs, 450 million little wire wrap clips (used to keep cables together whilst in the packaging) 86 Apple boxes and bags and finally 54 Apple in ear earphone sets ..
Mad eh...


 
Posted : 02/12/2015 3:43 am
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It belongs to Miss May of the home office please return to where you found it and carry on as usual.


 
Posted : 02/12/2015 3:45 am
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Looks like a bog standard Mk3 Paranoia Inducer to me


 
Posted : 02/12/2015 7:11 am
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Not as good as the mrk4 which is to the left of shot.


 
Posted : 02/12/2015 7:29 am
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I'm going for a thingy to stop hum in some sort of amplifier

Yes, that - not a brain-warping MI5 neurofrequency interference module at all (they have red & dark grey wires, not black like that)


 
Posted : 02/12/2015 7:31 am
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scaredypants - Member
I'm going for a thingy to stop hum in some sort of amplifier
Yeah, googling brought up a few references to speakers and headphones, but none featuring a doobrymawotsit quite like this one.

But... why is the cable so long? Surely it'd only need to be a few inches at most.


 
Posted : 02/12/2015 7:40 am
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It has to go a long way for that microphone to be concealed internally.


 
Posted : 02/12/2015 7:49 am
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So the twin wires are some sort of high-gain antenna? Sounds plausible I guess 😀


 
Posted : 02/12/2015 7:55 am
 DrP
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IR receiver?

DrP


 
Posted : 02/12/2015 8:03 am
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Wow, I've not seem one of those in years. We used to use them all the time.


 
Posted : 02/12/2015 8:04 am

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