Jack audio 3.5mm PJ 215 (PJ 325) pins

Question

I'm doing a simply audio frequency power amplifier circuit on breadboard. The input is the audio output of laptop or smartphone. I need to bring the input into the circuit:

I have this thing, it has 5 pins:

I'm going to use it to connect the audio to the breadboard. However, I don't know the roles of these 5 pins. After searching for it, I found out it is called Jack Audio 3.5mm PJ 215 (PJ 325) and found this datasheet image:

So its pin out diagram is:

I don't even know what does this image describe. When searching, I have read something like there is one pin connect to left channel and one to right channel of audio, but it's not clear. Can you explain to me about this jack audio: Which pin do what thing, and how should I connect it to my circuit?

Answer 1

The diagram is pretty much self-explanatory:

The connections to 2 and 4 are opened when a pin is inserted (this can be used to disable speakers, for example). Think of the plug being inserted and the contacts bending from a pivot point on the right and opening the switches. You can ignore 2 and 4 if you don't need them, and connectors are available (as you can see) without these pins.

There are 3 remaining pins. Tip, Ring and Sleeve, connected to 5, 3, and 1 respectively. The chevron shapes represent the shape of the contacts which touch the sides of the male 3.5mm plug when it is inserted.

If you look at a pinout guide, Tip is typically Left, Ring is Right and Sleeve is the common.