[birdman]

I'm repairing a 3.5mm plug on a pair of Tomahawk earbuds, and have cut the plug to expose the wires that need to be soldered to the new plug. The colors of the wires have me scratching my head.
 
They're all encased in white insulation. Two wires appear to be dark green, one is red, and one is copper. I've never seen one like this. Normally red and green are to the phones, other(s) would be ground, right? These colors don't make any sense, though.
 
Any help?

 

[arteom]

It doesn't matter what colors the wires are. Do you have a multimeter? Hoping you left some lead wire on the plug you disconnected. Assuming you did, separate the wires on the cut plug end, then remove shielding if necessary. Use the voltmeter to test for continuity. So put one end of the meter on the top ring, then touch each exposed wire, the one that registers is your left earpiece, the middle ring is your right, then the two that register on the bottom ring are ground. You really just need to duplicate the wiring scheme on the new plug. 
 
Let me know if this is unclear. 

 

[birdman]

Thanks, this is totally clear and a big help. Problem is the jack was damaged when it got pulled out of my phone at an angle, and when I pulled it apart before cutting it off most of the connections were severed. There were enough bits hanging on to give me information about two of the wires, though.
 
It appears that the copper-colored wire is a ground, and the red one the right ear-plug. I've only done this a couple times before, some years ago. I'll try holding a wire to a soldering point on the jack and playing music, and see if I can get a live connection, will this work? I'd get the enamel off the wire first. Will have to do this tomorrow.
 
Thanks for taking the time to point me in the right direction.

 

[alpha421]

If you take a multimeter and touch the leads to a pair of wires (positive/ground) and you hear crackling sounds, you'll know which channel those pair of wires are connected to.  Make sure to test first, before wrapping up everything on the plug.  And always perform a L/R, both channel test.  I use this site to test for correct channel wiring:
 
http://www.audiocheck.net/audiotests_stereo.php
 
Good luck.

 

[birdman]

Thanks, I got enough crackling to figure it all out now. Red=right, one of the greens=left, copper and other green-=grounds.

 

[m1abrams]

  Thanks, I got enough crackling to figure it all out now. Red=right, one of the greens=left, copper and other green-=grounds.

I am actually surprised by this color order.  If I was to bet I would have said Red-left, Copper-Right and Greens-return.  Reason for the Greens - return is that one you have 2 of the same color and that just makes sense, 2 green is often choosen for ground.  Reason for Red == left is well because RCA uses RED to indicate left but that is just wild ass guess.
 
I would certainly double check you have the ground defined correctly though.

 

[birdman]

Yeah, I'll double and triple check before I do anything. I was surprised the two greens weren't ground, though they are colored a little bit differently from each other.