Headphone connector repair

Buy a large illuminated bench magnifier (since you have already come to terms with eyesight). Also use a handy-andy bench clamp (or pair of them) to get everything aligned before heating the iron...

Mike.

Optivisor! I just cobbled together a headphone cord to a RCA phono plug cord this morning. Trying to sell some Pioneer HDM700 speakers at our yard sale and had to connect an audio source to an amp.

Mikek

Soldering to tiny foil (tinsel) wires is difficult. What I do is wrap the wire with one strand of fine bare copper wire salvaged from a piece of stranded wire. I wrap the fine bare wire around the foil wire, and then solder to the bare wire, not the foil wire. The wrap does not need to be tight, with all the turns jammed together, but rather a loose spiral with the pitch equal to about twice the foil wire.

I can supply a photo if my description is too muddled.

Nice idea, I'll try that.

IME, the fiber "strength members" twisted in with the wires are a big part of the problem. Using my trusty magnifying visor, I carefully separate out all the non-electric strands and hold them out of the way with tape. Separate out enough so the strands will be at least an inch longer than the length you'll need for attaching the wires; more on that later.

The wire strands are far too small to sand without damage, and it's not necessary once the plastic strands are out of the way. Just use a well-tinned hot iron (750 F at least; 800 is better) and a dab of flux and the insulation will burn right off and the wire will tin.

After the wires are soldered to the plug (and check the connections by listening; red is not always "right") free up those fiber strands you so carefully taped out of the way before. With a bit of slack in the wires (for strain relief), give the fibers a couple wraps around the back part of the plug and apply a drop of superglue (if it doesn't go off, sprinkle a pinch of baking soda on it).

Now look around, spot the plug's back cover lying on the bench, curse loudly, and start over, but this time slide the back cover on the cable

Doing it that way makes very reliable connections, and the fiber strands take any tension off the fragile wires when the cable gets pulled.

Isaac

Yes. I am guilty of this. :-(

Ditto, but my solution was not to start over. I cut a wide slit along the length of the plastic connector cover with a hack saw or Dremel tool cutoff disk. The slit was wide enough that I could slide the wires through the slit. I then screwed the plastic cover onto the plug, and filled the slit with hot melt glue. A little sanding it looked almost as good as if I had done it correctly in the first place.

It happens most often with 100pins amphenol connectors.(dont ask me how I know....)

Now you may progress to Stage 2 Error: Remembering to put the shroud on, then discovering you put it on backwards ...

I'm impressed. In some other groups I've been asking about a one-piece stereo to mono headphone adapter. I want one with a built-in switch but even though it's not available I don't think I'll be doing that to fit one!

If, as in link, it has a mono socket, what is the "mono/stereo" switch going to do?

Mike.

It would allow stereo headphones to play mono in both channels (rather than in just the left channel) from a mono socket.

I committed a Stage 3 error today repairing one more: I put two shrouds on. And only noticed until I had soldered up the plug.

They're solid metal.

I give up.

You're going to need a stereo socket for that! (I had hoped you would work that out for yourself with my prompting!)

Mike.

One scenario I need to handle is when I want to play the output from the headphone socket of a mono dictation machine on both channels of stereo headphones.

At other times, the need is to pass through a stereo signal from a stereo socket to stereo headphones and then to switch over to hearing dual mono in the headphones.

It's all lovingly discussed in the thread in uk.d-i-y. :-) MID:

Sorry, I don't feel loving enough to read that. If you don't understand the need for a stereo socket, I give up!

Mike.

Getting off topic but I've changed a bunch of high pin count ICs (through the hole type) and got most of pins soldered when discovering that one pin decided to stay out of it's hole..

I couldn't recommend anyone reads through all that thread but you ask for some further info which was covered in detail there.

My dictation machine has on't a mono headphone socket so I don't have any choice about it.

It would probably be easy to break into the unit and put in a small stereo/mono toggle switch. Better than doing that after amplification.