Electronics help

garak112 · 21 Jun 2015 at 19:16

The headphone jack on my mp3 player has been playing up for a while (sound cutting out in one ear), I tried cleaning it out but to no avail.

I've taken the player apart with a view to replacing the jack but can't find a suitable replacement. The jack has 4 pins, two at the front one halfway down on the left side and one at the back on the right side (from underneath). All of the 4 pin replacements have the pins in two sets of two.

Any ideas where I can get a suitable replacement? The only marking on the existing one says 'D3'.

Pho · 21 Jun 2015 at 19:26

Photo?

Have you got a multimeter? You might just be able to bend a prong back in place which isn't making proper contact - audio jacks are pretty simple. The multimeter will let you test if it's all making contact more easily.

itchy · 21 Jun 2015 at 19:45

Could just be loose solder joints. Use a soldering iron to heat the solder contacts up.

Worth a try as most things like that are either, bent prongs as above or loose solder joints.
You should not have to replace it unless something has snapped.

DaleTheWhale · 21 Jun 2015 at 21:05

Tried another pair of earphones to be sure it's the jack?

garak112 · 21 Jun 2015 at 21:14

It is the jack, one of the contacts inside had broken off

itchy · 21 Jun 2015 at 21:15

garak112 said:
It is the jack, one of the contacts inside had broken off

Try a hack job or just get new mp3 player.

Not worth the bother trying to fixit properly.

Tealc · 21 Jun 2015 at 22:51

Yes some players come with a custom jack assembly which is near impossible to fix. I'm sure they design them to fail so they can generate new sales a little ways down the road. We had several iPods go this way and I quite fancied the repair myself but it was a sealed epoxy unit.

AtaRo · 21 Jun 2015 at 23:47

Try the auction site .

itchy · 21 Jun 2015 at 23:54

Tealc said:
Yes some players come with a custom jack assembly which is near impossible to fix. I'm sure they design them to fail so they can generate new sales a little ways down the road. We had several iPods go this way and I quite fancied the repair myself but it was a sealed epoxy unit.

^^^^ This designed to fail and virtually impossible to fix!

garak112 · 22 Jun 2015 at 07:17

Cheeky barstewards.

If I buy a 6 pin connector and remove the unused pins it looks like it will fit, any idea if it would still work?

Tealc · 22 Jun 2015 at 07:26

As mentioned above headphone jacks are quite simple. If you think your replacement will fit then give it a try.

Photos might help someone give more informed advice.

garak112 · 22 Jun 2015 at 07:44

I will admit at this stage that I don't know where it has gone. We had a party Saturday and I left it on the side, I think it was accidentally binned

I think I will order a 6 pin jack and give it a go, thanks everyone.

garak112 · 2 Jul 2015 at 21:18

The answer to the question is yes you can bodge a 6 pin headphone connector into a cowon s9.