How to fix this headphone cable?

is there a special kind of tape or what should I do?

Heat shrink tubing, heavy duty shit

  On 6/10/2011 at 12:24 AM, chassis said:

Heat shrink tubing, heavy duty shit

that sounds perfect thanks a lot.

it's only a matter of time before it breaks though. get a soldering iron and a new plug, it shouldn't be too hard to figure out. though it is one of those three-ring dealies so i'm not sure how you'll go.

agreed with chassis.

if it does break though, don't stress it. just find the end of a cable for something else with the same plug (it doesn't really matter what, it wont affect the sound quality) hack it off a couple inches away from the plug, strip off part of the tubing, then the same ammount of the tubing on the smaller wires, put them under a flame to melt off their coating, and then do the same process to the damaged cable above the damage. once you've done all that, solder the corresponding cables to eachother. if I remember correctly, red is right, green is left, and white or exposed cable is ground. if you have two ground wires on one of the cables, and only one on the other, just split the one ground equally and solder it to the two grounds on the other side separately. then all you have to do is put thin shrink tubing over each of the exposed wires separately so they can't touch, and then heavy duty over the whole bundle. it's not pretty, but I've done it a few times to different things, and it's a reliable, sturdy fix, and it sounds just like it did before you started having problems with the cable.

It currently still works fine even so it looks like it is not going to last for long. There is also a microphone and a remote with volume buttons inside this so it might get pretty complicated to tear it apart.

welp, my bad.

ya I thought that what it was from the 3r+t plug. have fun! :D

It won't get complicated, it's a TRS plug. Probably the simplest thing you can solder. Ever.

And don't melt the casing, use a pair of wire strippers (you're not a neanderthal). Melting the outer sheath would melt all the interior casings together. If you're going to use shrink tubing, you need to put the shrink tubing on the wires before you start soldering and slide them down a bit, because our universe is constrained with things like that. A much easier and just as effective solution is using electrical tape, just wrap them individually after you solder each wire. And it doesn't matter which wire is which channel (or mic in your case), red -> red, white -> white etc. But please do tin your wires before you solder them together. I'm not going to explain here, but look it up. Highly necessary.

Although, this break may be a little too close to the plug to simply be wire-wire, in that case you'll just have to get a 4 conductor TRS from Mouser for $.5 (gasp). Then you'll have to figure out which channel is which and solder appropriately, but it's just as easy. You can even get one with the wire already soldered on so there's a really nice stress release on the plug and shit like this won't happen again, and you'll get a little extra length in the area that needs it.

It's just that condescendingly easy.

  On 6/10/2011 at 2:17 PM, never the machine forever said:

It won't get complicated, it's a TRS plug. Probably the simplest thing you can solder. Ever.

 

And don't melt the casing, use a pair of wire strippers (you're not a neanderthal). Melting the outer sheath would melt all the interior casings together. If you're going to use shrink tubing, you need to put the shrink tubing on the wires before you start soldering and slide them down a bit, because our universe is constrained with things like that. A much easier and just as effective solution is using electrical tape, just wrap them individually after you solder each wire. And it doesn't matter which wire is which channel (or mic in your case), red -> red, white -> white etc. But please do tin your wires before you solder them together. I'm not going to explain here, but look it up. Highly necessary.

 

Although, this break may be a little too close to the plug to simply be wire-wire, in that case you'll just have to get a 4 conductor TRS from Mouser for $.5 (gasp). Then you'll have to figure out which channel is which and solder appropriately, but it's just as easy. You can even get one with the wire already soldered on so there's a really nice stress release on the plug and shit like this won't happen again, and you'll get a little extra length in the area that needs it.

 

It's just that condescendingly easy.

as the connection still works I should try heat-shrink tubing first and see if it lasts before tearing it apart with wire strippers no?

What you can't fix with a duct tape you can fix with more duct tape.

  On 6/10/2011 at 2:31 PM, o00o said:

  On 6/10/2011 at 2:17 PM, never the machine forever said:

It won't get complicated, it's a TRS plug. Probably the simplest thing you can solder. Ever.

 

And don't melt the casing, use a pair of wire strippers (you're not a neanderthal). Melting the outer sheath would melt all the interior casings together. If you're going to use shrink tubing, you need to put the shrink tubing on the wires before you start soldering and slide them down a bit, because our universe is constrained with things like that. A much easier and just as effective solution is using electrical tape, just wrap them individually after you solder each wire. And it doesn't matter which wire is which channel (or mic in your case), red -> red, white -> white etc. But please do tin your wires before you solder them together. I'm not going to explain here, but look it up. Highly necessary.

 

Although, this break may be a little too close to the plug to simply be wire-wire, in that case you'll just have to get a 4 conductor TRS from Mouser for $.5 (gasp). Then you'll have to figure out which channel is which and solder appropriately, but it's just as easy. You can even get one with the wire already soldered on so there's a really nice stress release on the plug and shit like this won't happen again, and you'll get a little extra length in the area that needs it.

 

It's just that condescendingly easy.

 

as the connection still works I should try heat-shrink tubing first and see if it lasts before tearing it apart with wire strippers no?

You're going to fix it now or later.

Here's a useful article if you are dealing with that damn acrylic coating. http://www.tested.com/news/how-to-make-any-pair-of-headphones-smart-phone-capable/2292/

  On 6/19/2011 at 9:55 PM, heliumbaboon said:

Here's a useful article if you are dealing with that damn acrylic coating. http://www.tested.com/news/how-to-make-any-pair-of-headphones-smart-phone-capable/2292/

thanks. that will help if its going to completely rip apart