USB power lead VS TheLog

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USB power lead VS TheLog

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October 22, 2012 at 11:21 am

#699344
1

thelog

@thelog

Member
Ok so my headphones that I only just replaced have become damaged. This time it is the USB plug, it has frayed at the plasticy bendy bit where the wire goes in. This is because it has to permanently bent so that the headphone jack can be plugged in. (design floor if you ask me they should have made the split in the cable further down) Anyway now there is bare wire showi ng and the plug is basically hanging off, stripped right down past both the layers of insulation and showing bare copper (or whatever it uses) I know it is not dangerous cos it only conveys 4.6V aprox so I aint gonna be getting shocked despite what this guy said on yahoo Q&A. I have kinda bodged it to be okayish to use without danger of it braking off rendering the headphones useless. I have got two Tesco plastic toothpicks and run the on each side parallel to the wire and wrapped them in insulation tape. This has formed a splint type thing which is stopping the lateral movement of the wire prevening any further damage to that part. Clever if I might say so myself : )

Anyway my question is ……. how easy is it to rewire a USB (power only) plug?
October 22, 2012 at 1:12 pm

#959123
1

DaftFader

@daftfader

Participant
USB’s are pretty hard, I’ve tried it before and failed, they are normally molded plastic so once opened never go back together again properly. If you only just got it, it should still be under garentee, so I’d just send it back and get a new pair.
October 22, 2012 at 2:26 pm

#959119
1

Pat McDonald

@pat-mcdonald

Participant
@thelog 501181 wrote:

Anyway my question is ……. how easy is it to rewire a USB (power only) plug?

The easy way to do it is to take an old USB printer lead, cut off the connector, and solder it to the bit that needs the power. The zero volts (ground) and power are on either side of the 4 pins, and the wires are usually colour coded as black (ground) and red (+5 Volts).

If you get good at using stuff like heat shrink sleeving, Milliput (cross between plasticine and expoxy) and maybe the old epoxy resin to stiffen the thing, you can get quite a tough little new connector.

Miles cheaper than buying a new one… but you need patience and pretty good soldering skills/practice.

I did manage to put a new USB head onto a Sony MP3 player… thing was glued together, had to slice it very carefully open and reglue it after I’d put a new USB head on it (again, chopped apart an old printer lead to get the viable USB connector).

I have to say, USB is fiddly, but it’s a lot less messing about than the old serial connectors… you needed three hands and Use of “The Force” sometimes with that old skool tech.
October 22, 2012 at 2:38 pm

#959116
1

cheeseweasel

@cheeseweasel

Participant
You can buy rewireable usb plugs too if you fancy fitting a new end, but Pat’s suggestion is probably easier in terms of soldering.
October 22, 2012 at 3:08 pm

#959120
1

Pat McDonald

@pat-mcdonald

Participant
@cheeseweasel 501203 wrote:

You can buy rewireable usb plugs too if you fancy fitting a new end, but Pat’s suggestion is probably easier in terms of soldering.

Nice product! Might be a bit chunky or wrong size for thelog’s needs but definitely nice kit for sorting out busted mini USB heads. 😀
October 22, 2012 at 3:20 pm

#959118
1

know_hope

@know_hope

Member
im not that tech but isnt usb not that great a design, just gets broke
October 22, 2012 at 3:28 pm

#959121
1

Pat McDonald

@pat-mcdonald

Participant
@know_hope 501217 wrote:

im not that tech but isnt usb not that great a design, just gets broke

Well… it’s consumer aimed. Not designed for space avionics or similar. The previous serial plugs (D-Types) date from the 1950s, so it was about time.

A lot, if not all, consumer kit, is designed to break easily. Disposable materialism is like that, unfortunately. Which is probably why styles like Steampunk are popular – a reaction against disposability.
October 22, 2012 at 3:55 pm

#959117
1

cheeseweasel

@cheeseweasel

Participant
@Pat McDonald 501220 wrote:

Well… it’s consumer aimed. Not designed for space avionics or similar. The previous serial plugs (D-Types) date from the 1950s, so it was about time.

A lot, if not all, consumer kit, is designed to break easily. Disposable materialism is like that, unfortunately. Which is probably why styles like Steampunk are popular – a reaction against disposability.

I don’t know what one is doing on a pair of headphones anyway. In an ideal world all headphones would be fitted with one of these…

[ATTACH=CONFIG]152430[/ATTACH]

PHWOOOAR!!!
October 22, 2012 at 3:58 pm

#959122
1

Pat McDonald

@pat-mcdonald

Participant
The USB on thelog’s headphones are for powering the internal amplifiers on it. He did say the audio was going through a seperate connector.

Yes, quarter inch jacks are tough. 🙂
October 22, 2012 at 5:57 pm

#959124
1

DaftFader

@daftfader

Participant
@cheeseweasel 501227 wrote:

I don’t know what one is doing on a pair of headphones anyway. In an ideal world all headphones would be fitted with one of these…

[ATTACH=CONFIG]82993[/ATTACH]

PHWOOOAR!!!

My mate was just staring at me blank for about 5 minits the other day when I was going into detail about how good my new xlr to 1/4 inch wires were lmao .. I have a bit of a fetish for wires :laugh_at:
October 23, 2012 at 8:30 am

#959113
1

thelog

@thelog

Member
I don’ have the receipt for the cos I had a set but the broke too s I bought a new pair and returned the old ones and forgot to photocopy the receipt. Cheers for the the advice fellas
October 23, 2012 at 8:31 am

#959114
1

thelog

@thelog

Member
@cheeseweasel 501203 wrote:

You can buy rewireable usb plugs too if you fancy fitting a new end, but Pat’s suggestion is probably easier in terms of soldering.

That looks really good cheers cheese
October 29, 2012 at 12:51 am

#959111
6

General Lighting

@general-lighting

Moderator
Staff
@cheeseweasel 501227 wrote:

I don’t know what one is doing on a pair of headphones anyway. In an ideal world all headphones would be fitted with one of these…

[ATTACH=CONFIG]82993[/ATTACH]

PHWOOOAR!!!

thats a British Telecom (or Post Office if you are really old skool) type 316 “B” pattern jack plug, I actually need some of them as the jackfield in the new control room at Ipswich Community Radio uses them (unlike everything else in the building, which uses “normal” type A ones) – though it makes sense as the idea is you can plug in test equipment there without creating clicks/hum/noise into the circuit (not good if it is the on-air input!)
October 29, 2012 at 1:35 am

#959115
1

leveret

@leveret

Participant
cheers for the rapidonline link, i’ve bookmarked it – looks far better than messing around with maplins, rs or farnell !
November 9, 2012 at 12:08 am

#959112
6

General Lighting

@general-lighting

Moderator
Staff
the older of the two chaps who did our link transmitter for Ipswich Community Radio (one was my age and the other a bit older) got us some proper patch cords with BT 316B brass jack plug (I did carefully clean them with brasso and isopropyl alcohol even before photographing them, as I could not yet get any “bank cleaning tape”). When you get hold of kit like that it should be treated with appropriate respect (those brass plugs are hard to find). in the BBC engineers got bollocked if they let them get dirty. Similarly at the Post Office and British Telecom (it was a matter of national pride for everyone involved to get the signal onto the airwaves without noise and distortion).

this station could stay on air even if the Orwell burst its banks from North Sea storms, at least if we do not get more than 100mm of water (I worked out last week how much we could take))

OK UK Power Networks might have to lend us a genset, but I would hope Sir Li would oblige, our Chinese presenters probably have met him at some point 😉 )

all this kit (other than the jackfield) is custom built and made in England…
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