My cousin has this decent pair of headphones, but he decided the wire was too short. So instead of buying an extension wire, he went ahead and cut the wire about 5 inches from the jack, and cut the entire wire off a pair of cheaper headphones. Clever idea, I guess, but the end result was absolutely no audio signal. He did a pretty clean job connecting the wires by twisting the matching red and green wires together, and wrapping each side individually with electrical tape. But there's no sign of sound coming through at all. He doesn't want his parents to know so he came to me (being the "tech guy" in the entire family) hoping that I could fix it back to normal. Well, I know just as much as fixing this problem as he does, so I'm coming to the net for help. What should I do?
The red and green (and often the ground) wires in those cheap skinny wires are actually insulated on the outside by some wierd enamel stuff. Just twisting them together will result in 0 conduction whatsoever. I find that the best way to strip them is to squash it with the tip of your soldering iron and hold it there for a while, then pull the wire out, which often removes enough of the enamel. Put plenty on solder on each wire and then solder the joints. Twisting them together will give you crap inconsistent sound. Hope this helps.
Some of the enamel coating can be removed by running some sandpaper along it, but you'll still need to solder the wires together to establish a good connection.
Hmm, sounds like a good reason to get one of those ColdHeat tools (don't have a soldering iron now). Unless anyone has an objection; especially for my current problem. I've heard good things about that tool.
i find a regular lighter and a razor works great for stripping the enameled wires. Burn it the scrape. and get a real soldering iron , don't use the colkd heat. I always use my soldering iron, never the cold heat.
It's called litz wire. Each strand is individually insulated. I've had the best luck with a lighter. Only some types have insulation that melts at soldering temps. The rest you have to burn off. The only problem with burning is off is that it hardens the copper, making for a very brittle connection. As for tools, i reccomend a simple (plug in) soldering iron. Those cold heat things make me suspicious. I think they eat AA's really fast.
DO NOT BUY A COLDHEAT. They are absolutely awful, to big and clunky for small jobs, and no-where near powerful enough for normal soldering. With fresh, good batteries and ultra-fine lead solder, the stuff only melted after a few minutes. I would suggest a solderpro 120 gas iron, the gas mean portable, and it can be used for smd soldering or aluminium soldering (up to 300W!) Anyway, back to the question, if you heat a big blob of solder on your (good) soldering iron, then dip the wire in and hold it for ages (2 minutes plus) then it will eventually stick, and you won't have the brittle wire problem.
Don't worry I didn't get it yet... I was looking through Amazon and then Home Depot and saw mostly little screwdriver looking soldering irons that look like this one: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00002NB9K/ref=nosim/002-2589202-4276037?n=228013 I don't really think I need portability, or a giant tank for giant metal. I suggested the ColdHeat because I didn't know much about soldering to begin with, thinking that it was the only alternative to a tank. So what about one of these pens instead?
Go to ratshack, and buy one of their $9.99 finger burners. What i started with. Most soldering irons plug in, actually.
That one looks quite good, but for the same price (£40) I would get the solderpro, they are so useful. Otherwise, get a cheap iron, because they are just as good for a beginner.
One hint: for stripping enamel wire, use a lighter. Some practice may be necessary to avoid melting the wire. I would also avoid the ColdHeats. While they work as advertised, the ceramic tip cracks too easily. Weller makes a small battery powered iron that uses a metal tip, although I've never used it.
If you use a lighter, it tends to burn the copper and make it brittle. My way takes ages but it works.
I'm glad I never tried this on my own. I'll avoid the drama and just get an extension. LoL. I'm tempted to try this out just to see if I can do it or not, though... My mom has an old soldering iron lying around.
I always burn the ends with a lighter for 20 seconds or so, then I twist the two ends I want to solder together together and put them on a flat surface and just put them in a huge blob of solder and let it sit wet like that for maybe another 20 seconds or so - then I lift it up out of the blob and solder sticks to the connection.
