Chosen Solution
So, the cable for my headphones tore in the middle. It has these tiny wires with fiber that are coated in enamel and there’s 3 of them — red, green and copper. I assume they correspond to left, right and ground, but I don’t know which is which.
I tried to solder them together twice. Once I fixed my left ear, once I fixed my right ear. First try I tried burning off the enamel to the point the wire came out black, second try very lightly so you could make out the color. Then I twisted them together and attempted tinning them. Either way, the solder doesn’t want to stick to them at all. This is pretty much the only method I found of doing this online. Am I doing something wrong? Should I try again? Any advice would be appreciated.
I’ll try to help. You’re right about the colour coding. The plain copper will be the common, going to both earpieces, with the green and red going to right and left respectively. Probably. I don’t think there is a colour code standard for ‘phones. Anyway, you need to reconnect the tiny tiny wires. The conductors are very thin as you have noticed and they are twisted/bound with fibre. This is to maintain flexibility and prevent the conductors from breaking when repeatedly twisted/flexed. They are not meant to be soldered, but I have done it - you need to remove all the fibre to leave the copper then carefully scrape off the laquer to reveal the bare metaL. as you have discovered, any heat on the fibre from the soldering iron will cause burning and this will get on the copper wires you carefully exposed. You need a steady hand, close-up specs (if you wear them) and soldering flux. You have to do it quickly, everything must be super clean and held ready in position. Alligator clips can help with positioning if you don’t have spring tweezers. Alternatively… if you don’t mind a bit of a bulge in the cable you could use small crimp ferrules. In any case you will want to cover your repair somehow… heat shrink sleeve is the best method. You can use the soldering iron close-ish to the join to shrink it. Remember to slide your sleeve on first, before you make the connections. You will need to sleeve two of the three conductors, then an overall sleeve. Inevitably it is a bit bulky. So yes the ARE repairable, with care, patience and a steady hand.
