Help for headphone cable soldering needed!

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eHam.net Forum : Elmers : Help for headphone cable soldering needed!

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Help for headphone cable soldering needed!	Reply
by KE0CU on April 17, 2009	Mail this to a friend!
I am modifying my nice Sennheiser HD 280 Pro cans to get rid of the long, unneeded coiled cable. So, after cutting the cable and examining the wires, I found they are very hard to work with because each of the 4 wires in the cable is enameled (?) and is wrapped around a fiber core. Running the wires through a hot, liquid solder drop doesn't seem to (easily) burn off the enamel like "regular" enameled wire - the kind you wind around toroids. So I "flamed" them with a match and that nicely got rid of the fiber, but they were still hard to tin with solder. Finally, I got them slightly tinned, but then the wires were too brittle and they easily broke. Wow, what a pain. How do the pros who put these headphones together do it? I think I'm missing some "secret" steps. I checked in at the Headwize Forums, but they are down. Anybody got any advice? Thanks! Hank/ke0cu

RE: Help for headphone cable soldering needed!	Reply
by AA4PB on April 17, 2009	Mail this to a friend!
Those kind of wires, often used in headsets and microphones for their flexibiility, must be connected with crimp connectors. I have gotten by with wrapping several turns of solid copper wire around the ends, crimping that with pliers, and then tinning and soldering that to the connector. Its kind of messy, but it might get you by until you can get the proper crimp type connectors.

RE: Help for headphone cable soldering needed!	Reply
by KE0CU on April 17, 2009	Mail this to a friend!
At least in my HD 280 Pros, the exposed wires, after I have stripped off the insulation, is non-conductive as if they are enameled. Crimping won't work in this case. Thanks, anyway.

RE: Help for headphone cable soldering needed!	Reply
by WA3SKN on April 17, 2009	Mail this to a friend!
I have seen some metals used that don't accept regular solder, and are either "spot-welded" or crimped. There is also the possibility of replacing the entire length of wire with something more user friendly. Good luck on the project! -Mike.

RE: Help for headphone cable soldering needed!	Reply
by W9XAN on April 17, 2009	Mail this to a friend!
Sounds like they are still using the same wire they used years ago, when I worked with their products. You have already found the first part, flaming the fiber core and enamel. Next clean up the fragile remainder a bit with a few light strokes, in the 'away' direction only, with 320 or 400 abrasive paper. This will somewhat improve solderability. Take a piece of 26 gauge (or so) bare solid copper wire about 3/4" long and attach it to the insulated part of the wire so that about 1/4" overlaps the stripped conductors, using small heatshrink tubing. This provides support for the fragile conductors. Last, gently wrap the conductors around the solid wire and solder. This will produce a fairly durable end which can be soldered to a normal connector.

RE: Help for headphone cable soldering needed!	Reply
by W0FM on April 17, 2009	Mail this to a friend!
Unfortunately, this falls into the "if I had only known" department that catches each of us eventually. We used to call that wire "tinsel wire" and it was used a lot in the telephone business. Still is used in a lot of microphone and (as you've learned) headphone coil cord manufacturing. I've not seen any tinsel wire that was enamel coated, but I've not seen everything. I've experimented with ways to connect the wires for years and best I could come up with was to crimp them as suggested earlier. I did have some luck capturing the flat tinsel wire under the screw head on a terminal block and connecting a solid copper wire to the corresponding terminal screw. Then use the copper wire to connect to wherever you intended. Hind sight is 20/20. I no longer cut coil cords unless I can inspect the wire in the connector or in the body of the instrument to confirm that it is not tinsel wire. It's a pain. Good luck. 73, Terry, WØFM

RE: Help for headphone cable soldering needed!	Reply
by KE0CU on April 18, 2009	Mail this to a friend!
Just wanted to follow-up with my coiled cable splicing issue. After a lot of experimenting, I ended up doing something like W9XAN suggested: After stripping the insulation off the individual wires, I "flamed" them briefly, then I cleaned them with brake fluid (mostly acetone and xylene)to get as much enamel and residue off as possible. Then I wrapped each one together with a short length of copper wire and soldered that. It wasn't an "easy" solder, but it made the connection well enough to work. That is some weird wire! This was all complicated by my wanting to keep this joint all within the confines of am 1/8 inch inline phone jack from RS. It was a pain, but I guess I learned a lot! Like at Christmas time when the dog chewed the Wii cable I had just gotten the grandkids. The stores were all out of the replacements (which were too expensive, anyway), so I solder/spliced that back together. You ever look inside that cable? Thanks for all the suggestions and support! Hank/ke0cu

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