headphone repair

[daviddoria]

I have a pair of headphones, and one earpiece stopped working. I took it apart and resoldered the 2 wires to the lands in the earpiece. They still didn't work... so i busted out the multimeter, and found something crazy. The wire is not conductive??!! I understand magnet wire has enamel around it... but these strands are so small i cant even imagine taking the enamel off from all of them... so how am i supposed to connect it??

Thanks,

David

 

[eyevancsu]

This has happened to me quite a few times, the only advice i have is to slightly scrape the wire and hope some of the enamel came off, then try to solder them and hope it works. Another way i take enamel off, but off thicker wire, is with sand-paper, works quite good for me.

Ivan c.

 

[seeker]

Hi daviddoria,

you might try holding the ends of the wire over a small flame for a few seconds, just long enough to burn off the insulation.
After that, tin the ends of the wire before resoldering to the lands.

Sometimes those small wires can be a real pain :evil:

 

[Electric Rain]

Yeah, I agree with seeker. I have dealt with that stupid coating many many times before. And what I do is burn it off. Works well. I tried using sandpaper on one of these wires before, and when I removed the sandpaper, I was looking at non-striped wire. So I looked down at the floor, and what do I see? Little tiny strands of wire. :evil: Headphone wire typically doesn't use very thick wire. (Just a way to manufacture it cheaper. :evil: ) So, sandpaper isn't a good idea. Burning it will do. And don't be afraid if the wire is black. It should still conduct. :wink: Oh yeah, one more thing. That stupid coating is also a way to make it cheaper. Think about it. You don't have to shield every wire individually with plastic coating. Hope this helps!