Background
This headphone/microphone set was purchased for use with PC/Laptop about 15 yeatrs ago to use on Skype calls. At some point in the past 5-6 years they started to work intermittently with the right ear not working unless the wire was moved and held in place indicating that the wire had broken inside. They were put into storage for a time when i could repair them or cannibalise them for something else. I have a possible use of these headphones, converting them for use as a headset for a desktop phone but first i had to get them fully working again.
After carefully removing the foam cover from the ear piece i was able to prise the ear piece from the head band. This revealed the wires connecting to the lead carrying the microphone and earphones.
I was able to push the lead through the strain relief sleeve to get to the length of wire i suspected was damaged. I had previously connected the headphones to a sound source and manipulated the wire until i found the damaged section.
I carefully cut open the outer insulation revealing the inner wires.
When i found the damaged section of wire, i cut it out and prepared the wires for reconnection.
This photograph shows the two wires that were damaged. The 'stretched' sections can clearly be seen.
The red wire was completely broken and some experiments with a multi meter on the resistance setting showed that the wire could be made to conduct by manipulating the damaged section making the frayed copper wires contact one another.
This replicated what happened when the connecting wire was manipulated when connected to a sound source.
Here the wires have been tinned with solder and connected together. Each connection was covered with a sleeve of heatshrink to insulate it from the others.
To prevent the delicate wires inside the earpiece being damaged i used a cable tie to prevent any tugging or pulling getting to the newly repaired joints.
In this photograph the wires have been repaired, The heatshrink has been applied and heating to grip the wire.
The connecting cable has been slid back through the strain releif sleeve until the cable tie prevented it going any further.
The repaired wires are about to be carefully re-installed in the plastic casing and the earpice clipped back in place.
This is a photograph of the fully repaired and re-assembled headphones complete with the inline control unit which controls the volume and allows the microphone to be muted.
The headphones were connected to a PC and tested successfully.
There were no parts required for this project, just a couple of hours of my time to test, identify the problem and repair it.
The headphones can be used again and i have plans to build a simple converter box which will allow them to be used as a headset for a phone.
I think a very good example of Reduce, Re-use, Recycle principle in action.