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EEE / How to Repair Dodgy or Broken Headphones: Part-12

« on: April 22, 2017, 12:17:10 PM »

Slide your shrink tube over the repair. Warm with a heat gun to shrink it. Aren't you glad you slid it over before your soldered?
The tube should shrink down to a quarter of its original size, fitting snugly to protect and strengthen your newly repaired section of cable.

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EEE / How to Repair Dodgy or Broken Headphones: Part-11

« on: April 22, 2017, 12:16:50 PM »

Solder the connections. Use a soldering iron to melt a small dab of solder over the wires. Repeat for each splice. Let cool.
Bare wires without insulation usually have a thin coat of protection. Sand this off or burn it off with the soldering iron before you solder. Avoid breathing in the fumes.[6]
Once cooled, wrap the two pairs of joins in electrical tape to ensure the red and white ends are kept separate from the ground wire.

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EEE / How to Repair Dodgy or Broken Headphones: Part-10

« on: April 22, 2017, 12:16:26 PM »

Splice the wires. This means you'll be joining the wires together. Make sure to connect wires with the same color insulation (or no insulation). You have two options: a pigtail splice and an in-line splice.[5]
For a pigtail splice, hold the two exposed sections of wire that you want to join parallel to each other, then twist them together to create a join. This is quick and easy, but the repair will be bulkier.
For an in-line splice, hold the wires so that they overlap end to end. Twist the wires in opposite directions. This is more difficult but the repair is easier to hide.

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EEE / How to Repair Dodgy or Broken Headphones: Part-9

« on: April 22, 2017, 12:16:06 PM »

Slide on a shrink tube. This is a rubber tubing that looks just like the rest of your headphone cable. Slide it onto the cable for later. After your repair, you'll slide this back over the open area to protect it.
If you had to cut the wire several times to find the problem, slip on a tube over each cut.

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EEE / How to Repair Dodgy or Broken Headphones: Part-8

« on: April 22, 2017, 12:15:32 PM »

Cut the cord. Cut the cord in half. If the wire inside is shredded, cut on either side of it to remove the problem. If you do this, remove the same amount from the left and right cords. Uneven lengths of cord can cause electrical damage to your headphones.[3]
If only one of your wires is broken, you might want to skip to soldering the wire, without cutting or splicing.[4] This will save time, but the repair will be less sturdy.

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EEE / How to Repair Dodgy or Broken Headphones: Part-7

« on: April 22, 2017, 12:15:08 PM »

Strip off insulation. Use wire strippers, or carefully run a knife around the outside of the cable. Remove ½ inch (1.25 cm) of the outer shielding. Extend the cut in either direction until you see a broken wire. This is the area you'll need to repair.
If your cable looks like two cables glued together, each one will contain an insulated wire (the signal) and a bare wire (the ground).
Apple headphones and other headphones with single cables have two insulated wires (the left and right signal) and a single bare ground wire.

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EEE / How to Repair Dodgy or Broken Headphones: Part-6

« on: April 22, 2017, 12:14:43 PM »

Test the cable. Wear the headphones and turn on audio. Bend the cable 90 degrees across the top of your thumb and run it along the length of the cable. When the sound crackles or cuts in and out, you have found the problem.[2] If the problem is near the plug, see Fixing the Plug for repair instructions. Otherwise, continue to the next step.
When you know that you've found the site of the break, mark it with a piece of electrical tape.
If you already found the problem with a multimeter, skip this step.

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EEE / How to Repair Dodgy or Broken Headphones: Part-5

« on: April 22, 2017, 12:13:50 PM »

5
Test with the multimeter. The multimeter will beep if there are no breaks in the wire. Use a sharp knife to cut the insulation from the wire, following the instructions below. Be careful not to cut the wire inside.
Make a slit next to the plug, and one next to the earpiece.
The bare copper wire usually has a clear protective coat. Gently scrape it away with a knife.[1]
Touch the wire in one slit with the black multimeter lead. Touch the other slit with the red lead. If it beeps, the problem is in the plug or earpiece.
If it does not beep, make a slit halfway along the cable and test each half of the cable.
Make another cut in the half that does not beep. Repeat until you've found two points a few inches (several cm) apart that do not cause the multimeter to beep.
Continue on to Fixing the Cable, skipping the test step.

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EEE / How to Repair Dodgy or Broken Headphones: Part-4

« on: April 22, 2017, 12:13:32 PM »

Set up a multimeter. If you haven't found the problem yet, use a multimeter. You can find one at a hardware store. You'll need a sharp knife as well, so children should ask an adult for help. Set up the multimeter as follows:
Set the multimeter to test continuity, marked by ))) or a similar symbol.
Plug the black lead into the hole marked COM.
Plug the red lead into the hole marked with an Ω, mA, or ))).

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EEE / How to Repair Dodgy or Broken Headphones: Part-3

« on: April 22, 2017, 12:13:09 PM »

3
Borrow a friend's earpiece. If you can't hear anything, unplug your cables from the earpiece. Plug them into a different earpiece. If you can hear sound now, go to Fixing the Earpiece.
If you cables don't unplug from the earpiece, continue to the next step, Set up a multimeter.

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EEE / How to Repair Dodgy or Broken Headphones: Part-2

« on: April 22, 2017, 12:12:30 PM »

Try pushing the plug. If you can only hear audio when you push the plug end of the headphones, skip down to Fixing a Broken Plug.

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EEE / How to Repair Dodgy or Broken Headphones: Part-1

« on: April 22, 2017, 12:12:08 PM »

That horrible day has to occur at some point -- when your headphones or ear buds finally start calling it quits. Luckily, you don't have to rush out and buy a new pair! You may be able to fix it yourself, after a stop at an electronics store. The parts you'll be repairing are delicate, so there is risk of damage. But if your headphones are already broken, you don't have much to lose.

1
Listen while bending the cable. Bend the cable while you listen. If you can hear some audio through your headphones, move on to Fixing the cable, below.

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