"Paul Mennen" writes:

Probably the RCA style phono
plugs and jacks would have worked.

I was surprised to see that my old DME uses an RCA jack for power (as I
recall).

Once I used a typical 3 conductor
1/8" audio plug/jack combination and it didn't work. Shorted out nearly
every time.

Yeah, that makes sense. If you had used the "ring" as the ground and
the "tip" as the supply (leaving the other tip segment(s) unused) you
shouldn't have this problem, but if you put both the supply and ground
on tip segments or use the segment nearest the ring, you're in for
trouble. It's still not a great connector for power though.

I'm really warming to the idea of using XLR connectors. They're hardly
bigger than standard cigarette lighters and they're so readily
available.

--kyler