[Camomille]

Hi everyone,
 
I hope this is not a repost, I tried to look up on the forum but didn't find anything relevant. Here's my issue: I'm trying to solder the 4 wires I found in the cable of the cans to a new jack I bought. Problem is, I have no idea where these wires should be soldered. There should be 2 grounds and 2 cables for the left and right "ears" on the jack, I guess. The colors of the wires give me 0 clue: red, blue, green and gold (ground?). Any idea?
 
 
 

 

[MindsMirror]

The left and right channels share the same ground. Does it have a microphone, or remote buttons for controlling a phone? If so, the fourth wire is for that.
 
Use a multimeter to test for continuity between the wires. The one wire that has a path to all the other wires is ground. If you test the resistance from each line to ground, the left and right channel should be similar with a value somewhere close to the impedance of the headphone. The mic will probably be different. I'm not sure how you can identify which is left and right, you might just have to twist the wires to the plug and test it before soldering.
 
I don't think this would be the case, but if there is no mic or remote buttons, maybe it does have a separate ground wire for left and right. In that case just connect both grounds to the same ground on the plug. then you will need to make sure the polarity is right. Twist all the wires onto the plug to test it, it will sound really strange if the left and right polarities are different. If the polarity is wrong, just reverse the wires on one of the channels.

 

[Camomille]

It doesn't have a mic, so I guess there 2 are grounds.
Ok since I have no idea where the colors go, I tried on another, simpler headphones. 2 golden ground, red and blue wires. I'm doing a very poor job (it's my first time!), I tried to solder but the metal keep slipping on the wires, making it very difficult to make the connection. I strongly need advices on these. All I can get from the soldering metal are those blobby dirty stuff. I wonder if the jack is dead now from the poor work.
Anyway, here is where I am so far and I can't get any sound from the cans. It's hideous.
What should I do?
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 

[Camomille]

OK I'm getting there, I managed to ear some sound, BUT it's still very sketchy. If you move a little bit, the sound crackles, stop on one or both ears. It's not stable at all. Maybe because I need to isolate the wires between them?

 

[Camomille]

ERRATUM: there is a sound controller on the wire so I'm guessing the 4th wire is for that. Where should I solder it?

 

[MindsMirror]

  ERRATUM: there is a sound controller on the wire so I'm guessing the 4th wire is for that. Where should I solder it?

That's what I meant by remote buttons, they control your phone by sending a signal in the microphone channel. To utilize that you need a 4 conductor plug. On the plug you already have, just leave it off and cover it with electrical tape so it doesn't accidentally short anything.

 

[Camomille]

Hey MindsMirror, I covered the first plug with hotglue and electrical tape, it worked fine thank you! I'm now waiting for the 4 pole plug for the 2nd headphones. Do you know where I am supposed to solder the wire of the remote button?

 

[MindsMirror]

From google images.
 

The wire for the buttons goes to the mic channel which is the sleeve.