Headphones get damaged easily because they get subjected to the sun, rain, and being stored in your backpack’s bottom. However, if it gets destroyed, you shouldn’t worry that your investment is lost since they can be repaired with ease. But where do you start?
If you’re asking yourself such a question, here is an outline of the steps to follow when fixing your headphones without using a soldering iron.
Therefore, you get to save your hard-earned money on money you would have otherwise spent buying a new pair of headphones on a minor issue. Let’s dive straight in on the steps to follow when repairing your headphones.
Step 1: Cut The AUX Cable
The first thing you should do is cutting from the connector at least 5 to 7 centimeters. It would be better if this cut was greater, but you must never cut it short. If you failed to this, there’s no way that you can fix this issue. Moreover, you should make this cut if the junction is far from the connector.
Step 2: Take Out The Rubber Sheath
You should remove the rubber sheath by carefully cutting it. While doing this, you don’t need to put in a lot of pressure on the blade, and the sheath will start diverging because of the bending.
Slowly turn the wire as you continue to make the cuts, and after passing the circle, go ahead and take out the sheath. You should maintain caution when doing this as your main goal is to remove the sheath instead of cutting through the wires.
Step 3: Clean The Varnish
Manufacturers usually intertwine the copper wiring with the nylon thread to make it more robust. It’s usually referred to as kapron, and it and the varnish burn well. You should thus bring the end of your wire into contact with the fire for a split second. Once you do this, it quickly flashes and starts lighting up faintly. Give it time to burn 1.5 to 1.5 centimeters, after which you can blow on it.
After extinguishing the fire, you’ll see small residue left behind by the kapron and lacquer. You can easily clean using your fingernail, thereby allowing you to peel off all the intact wiring. However, you should try and not leave the wiring for an extended duration on fire or else it might burn and fall off.
Step 4: Focus On Your Headphones
You should proceed to cut he headphone wires at the point where they exit from the connector. If you want to take out the broken section completely, it’s recommended to cut 2 to 3 cm over the connector. You can also do the cut as high as you wish.
After doing this, you should expose the headphones to the wiring and clean using varnish and follow the same cleaning routine as with the AUX cable.
Step 5: Determine The Wires That Require Twisting
Once you open the headset, you’ll see a total of five wires. Three of these wires are responsible for the headphones, whereas the two others are for the microphone. You’ll see the thin microphone wire and over it a disheveled ground gold wire. After doing this, the next task is twisting together the needed wires.
All this is relatively straightforward, with the three AUX cables going to the three headphones. The standard colors to look out for include;
- Right is red
- Left is blue or green
- The ground is yellow or golden
Nonetheless, there are a few exceptions you need to observe when repairing your headsets. For instance, the blue is on the left; green is the right one, and red is for the microphone or a mixture of these colors. The gold color is always ground, and the same applies to any color combination that has gold.
You should thus start by twisting the gold wires first among themselves. After doing that, proceed to twist the AUX cable wiring to that of the repaired headphones. This means the red wiring of the AUX-cable connector should be fastened to the headphones’ red wiring for the right headphones to sing. In some cases, the colors might differ, as shown by blue getting twisted with red or another color.
Although there are different color options, the one constant thing that you should always observe is gold is the ground.
Isolate The Wiring
After clearing the wiring free from all the varnish, there’s no insulation left. If you decide to close the twist existing between each other, it’s now up to you either to cut off one channel or make a mono. But for you to achieve this, it’s necessary first to isolate them and avoid any closure.
You should start by isolating every twist separately, and doing this will also reinforce the joints. Using a wide scotch tape, join together everything in layers of 3, 4, or 5 with this all down to your individual preference.
Complete The Whole Process
Now it’s time to test whether all your efforts have led to a desirable outcome. Because the process of repairing your headphones without a soldiering iron is relatively simple, you’ll only need to spend about 15 minutes. When doing this repair, the most important thing to observe is to do everything you’re expected to do. As a result, you get to enjoy using your headphones without spending a dime thanks to your ingenuity.
Conclusion
Headphones are very fragile, thereby making them prone to damage. However, the cost of replacing your headphones each time one gets destroyed is prohibitively expensive in the long run. Because of this, it’s best if you found of ways of doing the repair of your headphone as a DIY project and saving your hard-earned money.
The most popular way of doing so is by using the soldering iron, but this isn’t the only solution. If you had no idea where to start, reading this detailed guide on fixing your headphones without a soldering iron has given you valuable tips. With this knowledge, you can now embark on the task of repairing your headphones and get them back in excellent working condition.
