How To: Prevent your Earphone / Headphone's cord from breaking

Doge

(This little guide is aimed at the total beginner. Most people will know all the terms in this guide already.)

Does this awful problem look familiar to you?...




Then this little guide is for you!

The reason the cord frays above the plug on a lot of headphones,
is because the top of the plug lacks good "strain relief".

Good strain relief is what gives the cable flexibility at the top of the plug:




Recently I came up with the idea of using Heat Shrink Tubing on the top of the plug to prevent this from happening.
after a quick google i see the idea already exists on life hacker:

http://lifehacker.com/5967672/prevent-your-iphone-or-ipod-headphones-cord-from-breaking-with-a-little-shrinkwrap




Heat shrink tubing is exactly what the name implies, its a flexible tube of plastic that shrinks when heat is applied to it.

You can buy it in Maplin, on ebay or from numerous sites online.
Its available in different shrink ratios also such as: 2:1 or 3:1.


Here's what you need:

1. Heat Shrink Tubing (Ensure it's wide enough to fit around your plug. 7mm or greater diameter recommended. Measure the width with a ruler or Digital Calipers)
2. (a) a lighter OR (b) a Butane Lighter OR (c) a Heat Gun

A butane / jet lighter (the windpoof ones with the Blue flame) would be better than an ordinary lighter, and these can be bought for about 2 - 3 euro delivered online
The yellow flame from normal lighters can set fire to the cable so be careful

I will link to a cheap Heat Gun in the post below.

Step 1:
Place the heat shrink over the cable so that half of it is covering the Plug, and half is covering the cable just like in the photo above.

Step 2:
Using a lighter or heat gun, apply the heat to the heat shrink tubing.
Move the lighter or heat gun around so the heat is not in the one spot for too long.
Important - make sure you have the lighter or heat gun at least 2 inches away from the heat shrink, otherwise it may get too hot and melt!

Take away the heat as soon as the heat shrink is nice and tight around the plug and cable.


And you're done!

Doge

Recently, I came across a really cheap 300 Watt heat gun from sparkfun n the U.S. for $10 called the Heaterizer:

https://www.sparkfun.com/products/10326



Have a read off the manual, it's hilarious.

I read that it's a generic chinese heat gun, so I went searching for an alternative that I could buy from the U.K.

Turns out that the same heat gun is sold in the UK as an Embossing "Heat tool" marketed for arts and crafts.

Just do a search for heat tool on ebay or amazon.

I went for the "Papermania Ultimate" Heat Tool as this model has a switch for half power 150W and full power 300W which the rest don't have.

It was £9.99, with free UK Shipping + €3.50 Parcel Motel:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Papermania-PMA-Signature-Ultimate-Heat-Tool-Black-/181367685763?pt=UK_Papercraft_Tools_Accessories_2&hash=item2a3a5b4283




I received the item fine, but the seller is a disaster to communicate with, they had broken english and took a while to reply as well as confusing everything I said!

If you want better communication go with another seller.

This tool kicks ass for shrinking Heat Shrink!

Doge

If it's too late and you already broke your cable and want to repair it with a soldering iron, I have found some nice compact plugs from this seller




He includes a nice length of 5mm diameter heat shrink with each plug free, and I found him awesome to deal with, answered many of my questions.

You can also buy these plugs on dealextreme but without the free heat shrink.

He sent me a nice soldering guide photo here:




I much prefer these compact plugs to the more common bulky types you find in the likes of Maplin and on ebay:




I might post up another guide on how to repair broken headphone cables using a soldering iron.