This is a set of old tutorials on how to fix audio jacks, moved from my other site. It includes videos and info on how to fix broken jacks.

How to fix/change audio jacks

I’ve created a few videos to show how to change an audio jack on headphones/cables etc. The first video shows how to splice a cable, and is applicable if you for instance has cut your headphone cable by accident and need to get it back together. It can slo be used if you need either a shorter or longer cable and need to use the same plug and not a new one. The second video shows how to attach a whole new plug.

Before you watch you should know a little about types of wires. The best kind is the ones used for the cabl ein the videos, they have individual rubber insulation for each lead in the cable. No problem soldering these, just remove the insulation. Then you have painted wires. To get rid of the paint insulation, add some solder to the tip of your iron to make a small bubble to “boil” the tip of the wire in (hold the wire in the bubble). This should get rid of the paint and leave you with a soldered tip to work with.

You can normally see what kind of wire a cable has by its thickness and price. If the cable is very thing, it’s most likely made with painted wires. If it’s cheap, it’s normally the bad kind of paint. Koss PortaPro and most stock earbuds have this kind. Expensive ones normally have the good kind of painted wires. An example of this is the Beyerdynamic DT231, which with it’s 3 m cable is due for a shortening in most people’s cases.

How to splice an audio cable

How to put on a new audio jack

Don’t know what solder point leads to what audio channel?

First, download this file. The first 5 seconds of the audio file plays using both channels. The next 5 seconds is left channel only, while the last 5 seconds is right channel only. Solder the ground channel on the plug,
then connect it to what’s player the above file. Hold one of the loose wires to one of the sodler points and experiment until you find what wires goes where to make it fit with the 15 second clip.

You can also try to find out what goes where by finding what solder point leads to what part of the jack plug. Often, especially on male jacks (plugs), you can easily see what solder point leads where, which
saves you a lot of trouble.

Player jack failures

It’s not a given that it’s the headphone’s fault that the connection is failing, it might be the player. Normally you can get it replaced, but if the warranty is up, there is still hope. Changing the jack isn’t very likely to be doable, because there is more or less a different kind of jack for each player. Here are some things you can
try to make it work without changing the jack.

Broken Game Boy Color. It doesn’t work at all, but it has an audio jack so it’s perfect to show some of the ways you can fix such a jack. Note that no matter what kind of device you’re attempting these steps on,
disconnect the battery/power before you start (if possible).

The very first thing you can try is simply to find something pointy and try to bend the connectors that connect to the plug towards the center. Many times jacks liek this fail because after a while they get bent out and the plug from the headphones dont touch the metal connector in the player. Since the type of jack depend on the player, these pins might or might not be easy to access, so worst case scenario is that you use a needle and go in through the jack hole and try to bend them out from the inside. On other plugs, like this, you can do it from the outside of the jack. If it doesn’t help the connection, try the next step.

Sometimes, there is a loose or simply bad solder point on the jack, either due to maufacturer’s error, or due to long time use. It’s pretty easy to see if the soldering isnt perfect.

Solder it back on, and you might just have fixed the problem. Make sure not to short circuit anything by accidentally soldering two solder points together. If this doesn’t help your problem, try the last step.

An audio extention cable can be bought in any electronics store for a few bucks. Cut off the end, remove the solder, and solder it to the PCB (the plate that all the electrical stuff is soldered to). Make sure you
do it in a way that let you fit it inside the casing of the player, depending on what player it is it might or might not be easy. On small devices it can be difficult to track the three channels (left/right/ground) from their positions inside the jack and to the PCB. remember the little picture further up on the page, of the male
jack and the L/R/G’s pointed out. Left channel will be the connector furthest in, the middle is the right channel while ground is the connector nearest the opening on the jack. If you can find the right solder points on the PCB, and they are big enough to be soldered, then hopefully it works and your problem is fixed.