RCA Shorting Plugs

Elizabeth, I’ve never understood why some people put resistors in shorting plugs for analog inputs. As I mentioned earlier in the thread, from the perspective of the input circuit a plug providing a direct short would be little different than if the input were connected to a powered up component having very low output impedance, that is not providing a signal.

Hal, I’m not particularly familiar with the design of integrated circuit chips which provide USB interfaces, but I suspect that what you read to the effect that USB inputs should not be shorted is correct. First, USB interfaces are bidirectional, with communications occurring in both directions on the same differential pair of signal lines when something is connected that can be communicated with. So a USB "input" is also an output. Second, I believe such chips are designed to pull those lines to certain voltages when nothing is connected to them, via internal resistors, and shorting them may affect those voltage states in adverse and/or unpredictable ways. So I would recommend against doing that.

Best regards,
-- Al

@almarg

Thank you!!!! Trust me, I shall heed your advice.

I just installed a raft of Cardas non shorting caps all of which are in my LG HDTV and LG Blu Ray player. But what I really wanted were the new Telos caps that are really cool looking and undergo some special infrared treatment, alas they’re out of my price range.

shorting unused inputs **can only be advantageous, even if only theoretical** (electrical theory).

This is pure BS, because if they’re not used they are not connected to any active amplification circuitry!!
The only advantage they have is to keep dust out????

Cheers George

@elizabeth 

My F5 has a 47kR between the input pin and ground internally. If the unit is wired like that shorting plugs are pretty much useless. That's all you really need to avoid noise and ocillation.