I have a lightweight headset I use to listen to audio on my computer. Problem is, the wires have been chewed by some critter or other (either during our most recent mouse invasion or one of the parrots) One of the wires was chewed enough that the copper strands were exposed and prickly, resulting in drop outs and “drop ins” on stereo feeds. This made Broomstick Very Unhappy. It’s like chewing on tinfoil as far as I’m concerned, fingernails on a blackboard. Rather than beat my head against the wall or hulk out I decide to attempt to fix it.
So, I went into the Other Half’s laboratory (I have visiting privileges) for tools and such. I cut out the cm or so of damaged wire. I stripped the insulation off undamaged wire. I twisted the copper strands together. I soldered the wires together.
Well, the good news is that I am no longer getting intermittent sound on that side of the headset. The problem is that I am getting nothing on that side.
there would be 2 wire conductors, likely in a coaxial cable (one wire surrounded by another separated by an insulating layer). both wires need to be unbroken and they cannot touch one another (they need to be insulated from one another).
repairing small coaxial cables (especially those for lightweight audio) is a difficult task for the inexperienced, it is easy to break the wires and cause the insulation to fail. making a durable repair is difficult. making a good looking repair is difficult.
I never try to repair headphone wires these days. They just make the wires too damn small.
It’s hard to tell from your description, so you may already understand this:
There are three wires in your headphones. There’s a left signal, a right signal, and a ground. These go up through a single 3 conductor cable from your computer, and at some point they split into two 2 conductor cables. The one cable has the left signal and a ground wire, the other cable has the right signal and a ground wire, and both ground wires are connected together to the one ground wire coming from the computer.
If the break is before the two cables split, then you have to solder both of the inner conductors (left and right signal) as well as the outer shield (the ground) together, and make sure that none of them touch each other. If the break is after the split, then you only need to solder that earpiece’s signal wires together and the ground together.
These are usually co-axial wires. You’ll have the signal wire (or wires, if you are soldering before they split), which is really, really thin, inside of a plastic sheathing. Because the wire is so thin it is very difficult to strip the sheathing without breaking the wire inside, but it can be done. Outside of the plastic sheathing you’ll have the ground wire, which will be strands of copper wire wound around the sheathing.
If you use some heat shrink tubing, you can strip the inside wires, solder them together, put the heat shrink over the solder joint and shrink it with a hair dryer, solder the ground, put a second piece of heat shrink tubing over that and shrink it, and you’ll have a nice sturdy connection.
OK - think I know where I went wrong now, and that makes sense. The break is after the split into right and left signals, and I probably have the ground and signal wires touching.
I don’t care if the repair looks pretty or not - it’s partly an educational exercise for me (can she do ti? Can she do it??).
the wires in the small audio cables are small and fragile. when you solder them the solder joint is rigid. the wire flexing on either side of the solder joint will cause the wire to break at that point, often in not too long a time. so after the repair is done (good contact of wires and wires not touching) then you need to stiffen the area about half an inch (at least) into the good cable on each side. you can stiffen the joint and area to each side with wraps of electrical tape.
Thin, flexible headphone cables usually contain enamel-coated wires instead of more standard wire coated with plastic insulation. So just soldering the wire together without removing the enamel may not be enough to make an electrically conductive joint.
First sand the ends of the wire with fine sandpaper, or you can sometimes burn off the enamel with a lighter. Then solder the wires together.
It’s generally much easier to just replace the whole cable than to try fixing damaged wires. Open up the earpieces and see where the cable is attached, and connect the new one there. (Note that many companies charge an excessive amount for replacement cables – for cheap ones, replacing the whole headset might be more cost effective.)
I have stripped the enamel coating off tiny wires by burning it off in a tiny pool of molten solder. I’ve been told that an aspirin tablet, a soldering iron, and the to be stripped wire in the same place works too. The fumes are very toxic, though. Google it!
Some of the smaller wires also have strands of plastic fiber mixed in, sometimes even braided into the copper wire, I suppose for strength, they may shrivel with heat, they will not solder. I have not found a satisfactory solution for the finest ones. Seperating the copper wire strand by strand will solder, but usually breaks immediately, missing the longitudinal reinforcement, thermoretractible sheathing is not enough. I had given up on this one, outside of replacing the entire Y wire, but I would love to see a solution.