Alright, be honest... #damage control

[Crassly]

Gonna start by apologising if this thread is in the wrong place, I looked through and this seemed like the best place to ask. I also tried searching for this information all over google and these forums. So here goes...

 

I've made a terrible mistake! For the past year I have been the proud and happy owner of a pair of Asus Orion Pro headphones, they broke earlier this week due to a break in the wire right near the 3.5mm Jack. Its my second pair after the first pair stopped working in a similar fashion. I was looking at having to buy yet another pair or an alternative when I found a lifehacker article and this youtube video.

 

http://lifehacker.com/repair-a-broken-headphone-plug-1125238344

 

And with no proper research and the bare minimum of preparation I got my shiny new plug and got to striping the wire. As you have probably guessed things went sour really quickly not only was the original plug molded resin and really difficult to remove once I revealed the wires it looked nothing like the ones shown in the video:

 

I revealed 4 absolutely tiny enamel covered wires: red, blue, green, stripey green/gold

closest picture I could find: http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i259/flee0308/IMAG0053.jpg

 

I don't have a clue what each of these cables are, except maybe green/gold which I'd assume is ground, its now that I actually stop to consider that I don't even know what type of 3.5 jack this is.

 

I don't even have a method to remove the enamel, so soldering will be tricky to say the least.

 

And that's my whole story! Be honest am I boned? Can I still make this work? Is there a professional service for repairs of this kind? What would you recommend?

 

Many thanks.

[Dude]

Welcome to LTT! Now stop playing the pronoun game with your thread titles!

Anyway, I doubt you could make that work.

[Enderman]

It is possible, but headphone cable wires are usually extremely thin, and very difficult to resolder without causing even more damage. I would recommend just buying new headphones. (maybe with a removable cable?)

[Crassly]

Yeah, I figured as much. It certainly seems like a lost cause, seems I'll be looking for a new pair. Its such a shame though, these headphones are everything I want and at the perfect price range and besides this dumb cable there isn't even a scratch on them. Time to start saving up I guess.

 

Thank you for the welcome! I know how annoying it can be to see people asking for help with their first post. I've been a subscriber to Linus for quite a long time now and while I'm no tech wizard I hope to stick around and give just a little back to the community.

[NotSoEpicMods]

It's doable, I've had to do it to save a $25 pair of headphones before cus I couldn't afford to buy new ones for a month. But I did have the tools to do the work low heat solder, flux, fine tipped soldering iron and liquid electrical tape and a plug with cord from some adapted I had. It was a pain in the butt stripping the wires down though.

[Cheese4395]

Gonna start by apologising if this thread is in the wrong place, I looked through and this seemed like the best place to ask. I also tried searching for this information all over google and these forums. So here goes...

 

I've made a terrible mistake! For the past year I have been the proud and happy owner of a pair of Asus Orion Pro headphones, they broke earlier this week due to a break in the wire right near the 3.5mm Jack. Its my second pair after the first pair stopped working in a similar fashion. I was looking at having to buy yet another pair or an alternative when I found a lifehacker article and this youtube video.

 

http://lifehacker.com/repair-a-broken-headphone-plug-1125238344

 

And with no proper research and the bare minimum of preparation I got my shiny new plug and got to striping the wire. As you have probably guessed things went sour really quickly not only was the original plug molded resin and really difficult to remove once I revealed the wires it looked nothing like the ones shown in the video:

 

I revealed 4 absolutely tiny enamel covered wires: red, blue, green, stripey green/gold

closest picture I could find: http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i259/flee0308/IMAG0053.jpg

 

I don't have a clue what each of these cables are, except maybe green/gold which I'd assume is ground, its now that I actually stop to consider that I don't even know what type of 3.5 jack this is.

 

I don't even have a method to remove the enamel, so soldering will be tricky to say the least.

 

And that's my whole story! Be honest am I boned? Can I still make this work? Is there a professional service for repairs of this kind? What would you recommend?

 

Many thanks.

 

Do you have a multimeter? You could ohm the wires out and figure out which is ground, left channel, and right channel. Generally these things are pretty common although people do stupid things like not make ground black.... Hahaha anyways if you still have the other end you can ohm out the wires and the contact points and easily from there determine the ground, left channel, and right channel. This is the easiest way.

[Cheese4395]

And honestly, these kinds of solder jobs are ez pz. Try doing some 0402 smd/smt components on a pcb and then we can talk haha. But like I said I did some of these and they are generally pretty simple as long as you know how to solder. Of course I did this at my job so we had nice soldering irons but I'm sure you can do it.

[Crassly]

Do you have a multimeter? You could ohm the wires out and figure out which is ground, left channel, and right channel. Generally these things are pretty common although people do stupid things like not make ground black.... Hahaha anyways if you still have the other end you can ohm out the wires and the contact points and easily from there determine the ground, left channel, and right channel. This is the easiest way.

Thanks for responding, the problem is that there are 4 wires (example in the OP). Even though I've searched over the net I've found no other examples of this layout of cables. I can borrow a multimeter and probably find the ground, left/right but what bothers me is this 4th cable. And also the enamel coating on the wires themselves which I'm not even sure how to begin to strip.

[Cheese4395]

Thanks for responding, the problem is that there are 4 wires (example in the OP). Even though I've searched over the net I've found no other examples of this layout of cables. I can borrow a multimeter and probably find the ground, left/right but what bothers me is this 4th cable. And also the enamel coating on the wires themselves which I'm not even sure how to begin to strip.

Two of them are ground. It's to make sure that the wires don't overheat because of the current going through them.