new 4 pole 3.5 mm jack plug, old cable

[skalus]

Hi Guys,

I am asking you for help not only to fix the electronic item but also to save my honor. I promised my younger brother to fix his favouriteGoji headphones with microphone and I can't do it.

The 4 pole 3.5 mm plug I have, has 4 wholes but the cable has 5 (or 6) strands and I simply don't know which one goes where. I attached pictures for ease of reference.

I tried google but I couldn't find any help with the same plug I have so - failure. I also tried to search this forum but search tool gave me no results (if there is a thread with the same problem, sorry for creating a new one).

Any help is much appreciated.

 

[Gryd3]

http://qph.is.quoracdn.net/main-qimg-4b589f6f2a795390476033df660f95b0?convert_to_webp=true

Do you have the original plug?

 

[skalus]

No, unfortunately this would be too easy :/

 

[Gryd3]

tin the tips of the wire you have and break out a multimeter to see which wires have continuity.
The wire that has continuity to all others is most likely the copper shield which should be the ground.
The wire the copper was wrapped around is most likely the microphone (as it would require shielding).
The remaining 3 wires... one for each earphone, and the last may be another ground, but this last part is guess work.

What does your brother use his headphones with?

 

[Gryd3]

If you're daring, you could open the actual headphones to determine what wire goes where... you then have a 50/50 chance of guess if the correct spot for the mic and ground unless you can test it before making your connection.

 

[skalus]

phone and ipod I believe

 

[Gryd3]

Well. The unfortunate part is that I do not know the color code for that headset, nor do I know which of the two pinouts it was setup for.
Only thing I can suggest is testing, and trial/error.
Find the left/right speakerphone first as those have a set spot on the tip and first ring.
I don't have any fool proof advice for the ground and mic connection other than just trying one, and if it does not work, swap it.

 

[KrisBlueNZ]

That's very good advice from Gryd3 there.

The four contacts in the plug are named as follows.



Tip = headphone speaker, left side
Ring 1 = headphone speaker, right side
Ring 2 = microphone signal
Sleeve = common aka 0V aka ground

Use a multimeter on ohms range, or continuity test range, to match the tags to the named contacts.

As Gryd3 said, if the copper is woven or wrapped around the red wire, it's almost certain that this is the microphone. In that case, connect the copper to the sleeve tag, and red to the ring 2 tag.

The other three wires are probably the headphone speakers; most likely, one wire is left, one wire is right, and one wire is common. You can use the multimeter again to figure out which is which. Measure resistance between each of the three combinations. One combination will show twice as much resistance as the other two combinations. Those wires are left and right, and the other is common, which needs to connect to the sleeve tag (along with the copper from the microphone connection).

You can figure out which of the others is left, and which is right, by putting the headphones on and measuring resistance between one of them and the common wire. Whichever side you hear the clicking and scratching from is the wire that you're testing, and the other one is the other side.

Good luck! Let us know how it goes

 

[ramussons]

A small correction. Sleeve is Ground, but Ring 2 is Right Ear and Ring 1 Left Ear. The Tip is Mic (plus "Answer" control).
Proof: Plug in a normal 3.5 mm earphones to a Phone or Ipad and it will work perfectly. The plug with 2 rings is Longer than one with a single ring.

 

[KrisBlueNZ]

The plug with 2 rings is Longer than one with a single ring.

I don't think so! Do you have one of each? Can you measure them?

Edit: Please be SURE before you post "corrections"!