Fix Your Busted Headphones!

A few weeks ago, my favorite pair of headphones started acting strangely - at first I thought it was my playback devices, but the problem seemed too consistent across all of the devices to be rooted there. I got my hands on a a really dinky pair of ear buds, and sure enough, it was actually my headphones that were busted. The cord was in good shape and the earphones were in enclosures, so I figured it was the plug. The plug is often the most abused part of your headphones, and the rubber that supports the wiring can sometimes get damaged too.

For this project you will need the following:

• wire snips/strippers
• soldering iron
• solder/flux
• replacement jack

Yep. No turning back now - just go for it. Then use your wire strippers to remove the wire casing around the cord. My headphones had coated wires within the main cord housing, if your headphones are like that too, you will have to strip down enough insulation to wire to solder the new jack into place.

Disassemble your new headphones jack and thread the housing onto the existing headphone cord (see images)

I used a 'helping hands' clamp tool to hold the new jack in place while I threaded the three wires into place. With the archaic set of headphones I was using, it didn't particularly matter which wire was fed into each pin - I tried all possible configurations,  I put the white wire in the long pin, and the red and black wires in the smaller pins. Gingerly, heat each pin, and solder into place.

Go through checking the strength of your solders, then crimp down the plug into place.  Slide the enclosure back down, and screw into place.

Now, pump up the jams. Do the robot.

robot v.1.1 from Audrey Love on Vimeo.