Headphone wire (a question)

[SoftICE]

hi there, I hope somebody could help me . first, sorry for my weak english (that's didn't appear yet, it's coming in the way

I got a stereo headphone with a volume controller (potentiometer) , now I wanna remove the controller and connect the wire, i thought it's easy cuz the wires is colored (red, blue & gold) , so alikes to alikes . but that's didn't work, why? cuz I didn't find any shield on those three wires to remove, all over the cable they are together . I think they are painted with some material or a transeparent insulation that i should remove with a chemical remover . Each wire of the three looks like an unisolated colored copper , they all run in one path but each one is alonely wire !

any help will be nice , thx for readin'

 

[SoftICE]

plz help , anyone know about those wires ? and what to do with them ?

 

[Dean Huster]

They may be coated with a shellac or varnish insulation. Usually a chemical remover will not work with any speed. It's easiest to just use a sharp knife and scrape the insulation off until you have bare copper wire. Often, simply heating the ends of the wire with a hot soldering iron and solder will melt the insulation off.

It is not likely that you have solid wire for a headphone cable because it would break easily. It may be that you have what is known as Litz wire, which consists of flat bands of copper intertwined with paper. This is also difficult to solder and the copper must be separated from the paper first. It's normally easier to find a tiny crimp connector to do this job.

Dean