Clip+ headphone jack worn out

[melman1]

My Clip+ is almost 2 years old and surely no longer under warranty.

The headphone jack is practically unable to hold the plug in place. Any tension on the cord, and the plug will pull out. It's becoming a major nuisance. I've tried trapping the cord under the clip before I put it in my pocket, but that usually doesn't work. Any ideas?

[CrowdAds]

[JK98]

How about using a headphone with a right angle plug, then you could wrap a rubber band around the player, around the headphone plug.

[Mikerman]

How about a headphone right-angle plug or extension cable that you can keep plugged into the Clip plug, and then attach/detach your headphones to that?

[Mikerman]

(Also, depending on where you are, the warranty could be 2 years--lucky EU! Only 1 year in the U.S., though.)

[NXTreme]

If you have any skill with a soldering iron, or have any friends that do, you could replace the headphone jack. I popped my Clip+ apart just now and it looks possible. The hardest part would probably be finding a headphone jack that would match the footprint exactly. I checked Digikey and from what I could see, there was nothing that matched the footprint of the headphone jack exactly. Mouser might have something that'd work.

[WalkGood]

IIRC there's been many that have looked to source the part and have been unable. Aside from buying a bricked Clip and salvaging the hp jack, you could solder in a short cable terminated with a female 3.5mm hp jack.

[Jon_B]

I tightened up one of my pair of headphones by gently squeezing the jack plug with pliers so it was slightly oval. That way it was a tight fit in the socket. Probably not worth trying unless you have a spare pair of headphones that you don't mind ruining.

[WalkGood]

Originally Posted by Jon_B

... Probably not worth trying unless you have a spare pair of headphones that you don't mind ruining.

Not really ruining it as you could always replace the headphone jack, although I personally wouldn't go this route.

[NXTreme]

Originally Posted by WalkGood

IIRC there's been many that have looked to source the part and have been unable.

That's nice to know, so I don't go wasting more of my time looking for the part . I imagine that there'd be a company in China willing to do a run of say, 1,000 of these for fairly cheap and then someone could be in charge of distributing them, though that might be going a bit overboard.

You could also try desoldering the jack and wedging a little piece of something behind the headphone clips so they'd stick out a bit more. I popped my Clip+ apart (again ) and it looks possible, maybe even without de-soldering anything.

[TPD]

You could try taking off the case and bending the contacts inside the headphone jack inwards a little, so they'd press more tightly against the plug. I did this before realising the jack itself had come unsoldered at a couple of points.

[melman1]

Are people really taking these things apart? and trying to solder?

[skip252]

Yup, there's some real and handy and creative people that hang around here. What the heck, if it's all ready busted and not under warranty why not?

Not exactly the same thing but one of the mods was able to fix his. The thread on that is here. If you look at the images of the teardown you'll get an idea were the clips are and where to start prying.

No way to tell if you'll be able to save yours. There's been a few times that I've thought something was beyond repair and some creative gluing and shimming fixed things right up. Other times it was just a lost cause or would have cost more to fix than replace. Knowing soldering basics is a big plus but the tools are dead cheap and you can find directions all over the 'net including Youtube.

[melman1]

Interesting to see that it "can" be taken apart. But I know that I "can't" take it apart. I can't solder under a microscope, and every time I've tried to take apart anything like this, I've wrecked it.

I can work on anything that's designed to be worked on. But, nothing really is anymore.

[Pennhaven]

Originally Posted by melman1

I can work on anything that's designed to be worked on. But, nothing really is anymore.

Well, they might not be designed to be worked on easily, but they're "work-on-able" enough for factory technicians to "re-certify" defective ones that are RMAed. So really all a person has to have is some appropriate tools and the approximate skill set of those technicians. And I think you can rest assured that the factory repair techs are not highly paid masters.

My point being, that while not everyone can fix one of these, there are still plenty of people can.

[TPD]

Originally Posted by melman1

Are people really taking these things apart? and trying to solder?

I've taken mine apart, haven't soldered yet though. Two little drops of solder would fix my problem, but a folded up piece of paper does the job in the meantime. I'm tempted to try and make a new custom case for it, using the same screen and button layout but moving the headphone jack to the top, removing the clip, adding a higher capacity battery and an internal micro->normal SD adapter. Just talk so far though :P

[razorblader]

Originally Posted by TPD

I've taken mine apart, haven't soldered yet though. Two little drops of solder would fix my problem, but a folded up piece of paper does the job in the meantime. I'm tempted to try and make a new custom case for it, using the same screen and button layout but moving the headphone jack to the top, removing the clip, adding a higher capacity battery and an internal micro->normal SD adapter. Just talk so far though :P

I've been contemplating the exact same thing and probably even merging it with the Digizoid ZO in the process. Let's see when I'll have another of my more destructive days, lol.

[baccilus]

Have you tried wrapping a metal foil around your headphone jack? That way it will become a tight fit without any permanent damage to either the clip+ or the Headphone.

[skip252]

Originally Posted by baccilus

Have you tried wrapping a metal foil around your headphone jack? That way it will become a tight fit without any permanent damage to either the clip+ or the Headphone.

Take a look a headphone plug. The bars and rings that you see match to areas inside the headphone jack.

Wrapping the plug in foil will block any chance of a proper connection. There's also a fair chance the short circuit this would create would fry the headphone jack or the connecting circuitry causing permanent damage.

[WalkGood]

skip252 while what you say is entirely possible but doubtful at this low voltage, most that have tried this foil wrap trick have reported that the iem’s/headphones become mono rather than stereo or it just doesn’t work.

[skip252]

Thanks for the info, WalkGood. So the chance of permanent damage is low but this wouldn't be a good fix to restore full function, right?