Shortening earphones

Ro: maaan!

Hey. I assume this is the right forum for this type of thing. Basically I want to shorten a set of earphones down to the bare minimum, just to get rid of slack. Just wondering is is a simple matter of cutting out the desired section and then matching up like with like on either end? Or are there hidden difficulties that I would surely run into making it not worth all the effort?

nanook

just a thought but why dont you fold the excess cable and tape it.

Ro: maaan!

Have tried. Makes it too heavy and stiff. The reason I want it is to connect to an extension with a remote control on it which reaches from a pocket to just about my neck. The remote is heavy enough without adding to it, and the stiffness doesn't help if it's coming from a fixed position. Which it is as the remote would be clipped onto a shirt or the like.

Homer

Yes in theory it is possible to do but certainly not something you should try unless you are fairly competent in amatuer electronics and in particular soldering?

If you want to do this the right way, you need a soldering iron and a couple pieces of heat shrink in two different diameters -- one for each of the wires inside the cable, and one of the cable itself.

Cut the cable at an appropriate point, away from any strain areas, and put the large diameter heat shrink on one end, sliding it a bit away from the area you're going to be working on. Strip back the insulation an inch or so on each side to expose the wires within. Strip the insulation off half an inch off each end of each wire. Slide a small length of heat shrink over one end of one wire, solder the two ends together, move the heat shrink over the join, and hit with a heat gun. Repeat on the other wire. (The one thing to be careful with here is that if you leave the heat shrink too close to your solder join, the heat conducted through the wire will prematurely shrink it; if you run into this problem, you might have to settle for electrical tape.)

Then slide the larger heat shrink over the entire join, and give it a good blast of heat. This will protect your joins and help give everything some strength, and looks alot better than a big pile of PVC tape.

Another possibility you might consider, which might be easier to do right, would be going to an electronics store and buying a stereo plug of the appropriate size, You could then just cut the headphone cord to the length you want, and attach a new plug to the raw end.

Again this requires soldering for strength and reliability.

Hope that makes some sense to you?!

Otherwise ask somebody who is competent with a soldering iron to try it for you I guess?!