I have a very good quality stereo headset that I use with my phone. It gives me great sound and I sound good to my callers. I paid about $125 for it.
The jack on it died, and I’ve been trying to repair it. It’s been frustrating because the wires are very very tiny. And fragile. So I’ve been losing wire as I struggle with this, and what’s left to work with is pretty short. As long as I’m at this I would like to add wire to it, but after searching I can’t figure out how to figure out what the wire/cable is called, how to get what I need.
As long as I’m at it, here’s a few more questions/frustrations:
The ground wire(s) are wrapped around an inner core of plastic, which is making it exceptionally difficult to successfully wrap the wire around the screw on the jack. Can I remove the plastic core from that part and just twist and wrap the actual wires?
And is there some magically tool or technique or secret to getting these tiny, fussy wires wrapped around tiny screws? I thought that would be faster and simpler than soldering, but I’m starting to think it’s really not and I might try soldering.
Why are electronic wires like this (speakers, headsets, other wires) created as bundles that can separate and split? Why not solder them together? Why not use a bigger fatter wire?
I don’t think you are going to have any luck finding replacement wire off-the-shelf. Your best bet is to find another headset and cannibalize it’s cord. The typical way one connects coaxial cable is to strip the outer insulator back, then carefully unbraid the shield and twist it together, then strip the inner insulator enough to expose the inner conductor. In this case, you may have two inner conductors. I wouldn’t try using screws, but you may need a pretty small soldering iron.
The reason the wires are separate strands is to provide flexibility. Bigger wire isn’t used because people don’t like big, fat wires pulling on their headsets.
ETA: Oh, and whatever you decide, make sure you use heatshrink tubing to insulate and mechanically strengthen your connection.
>The ground wire(s) are wrapped around an inner core of plastic, which is making it exceptionally difficult to successfully wrap the wire around the screw on the jack. Can I remove the plastic core from that part and just twist and wrap the actual wires?
You mean, can you strip the insulation off the center conductor before wrapping it around the screw? Yes, of course. You HAVE to. Otherwise, it won’t make a connection to the screw.
What you are using is coaxial shielded audio cable. Lots of coax is made for radio frequency uses, which requires that it be bigger and perhaps have a foil layer just inside the outer wire; you don’t want that. You want audio cable. If you are talking about stereo headphones with a single cable coming out of the hack, you want two conductors inside a shield or perhaps two separate shielded coax cables. You need to get wire that looks more or less like what you already have.
Taking cable off of another pair of headphones does sound like a good strategy, especially if you bring the plug along with it.
A better way to get the outer cable away from the inner conductors is to do this:
Strip the outermost plastic layer away, by bending the cable and gently cutting the outermost layer with a new razor blade. This takes a little practice, perhaps. You need to take advantage of the fact that plastic under tension will cut with magical ease as you lightly drag the blade against it, whereas the wire doesn’t. Note that the wire isn’t all that difficult to nick. It is better if you have extra wire or a scrap piece to practice with. The outermost layer, by the way, is called the “jacket”.
1.5) If the outermost layer of wire is braided, you have to do the next few steps. If it is simply twisted, all in the same direction, then you don’t, you just unfurl it a little. It’s actually called “served” if it’s twisted like this, by the way.
Push the outermost braided wire layer back towards the rest of the cable, from the very end (which is now stripped). It will bunch up and get more open, like a Chinese finger trap.
Get a small pointy object, preferably not very sharp, and work it into one of the little windows that opens up in the bunched up braided outer layer. Enlarge that window. Now bend the cable so the window is at the outside point of the bend, and work your pointy object into one side of the window, under the inner wire(s), and back out the other side of the window. You are trying to get under the center wire so you can pull it out of the window.
I already gave this part away - pull the center wire out through the window.
Now you have the center wire and the outer shield, parted just past the end of the outermost plastic layer, and pointing in separate directions where you can work on them.