1. buy a plug
In order to use the microphone you need a “3.5 mm stereo-plus-mic jack” like this one:
Note that it has three – not just two – insulating rings.
2. prepare wires
Beneath two layers of coating there are four differently colored wires.
Color | Function | Position |
---|---|---|
green | left speaker | tip |
blue | right speaker | ring 1 |
bare | ground | ring 2 |
red | microphone | sleeve |
This is the configuration I used and it worked fine for me. However, there seems to be a different configuration where microphone and ground connectors switch places.
3. Solder
First you need to remove the insulation. I used a pocket lighter to remove this stuff. But be careful, it burns pretty well.
Now you might put the plug cover and a piece of heat shrink tube in place (see step 5).
Then you can carefully solder the connectors onto the corresponding pins. If you have problems soldering check out this comic by Andie Nordgren.
4. Test
At this point you should test the new plug (e.g. with your phone). Make sure right and left audio channels are in the right place and the mircophone is working.
5. Insulate
Now you have to make sure no uninsulated wires or pins are touching each other. I used a good amount of hot glue but you can also use clear nail polish. The hot glue brings extra stability and keeps the wires in place.
6 Finish
Additionally I used a piece of heat shrink tube for more stability. Shrinking the tube (again with a pocket lighter) melted part of the hot glue so I could screw the cover easily on the plug. This is the result:
Julian
October 7, 2012 — 1:12 am
Where did you buy the replacement jack from? I’m having a real hard time trying to find one.
miraculablog
October 7, 2012 — 1:44 pm
I bought mine at my local conrad store (in Germany).
However, at Amazon you can find them here and here (I’ve tried none of them). Stereo plugs (with only to insulating rings – search for ‘1/8″ stereo plug’) seem to be more common and less expensive. You can use one of these too but note that you can’t use your microphone with one of these.
Ethan Smillie
February 14, 2015 — 12:46 am
For those who do not know how to solder the wires on to that particular kind of jack. This video works wonders
http://youtu.be/-_bDblDewdw
Rod
October 27, 2012 — 12:26 pm
Hello, thanks for the tips. Does the button remote still work with the tip you bought?
Thanks again.
miraculablog
October 27, 2012 — 12:40 pm
Sadly, no. It worked for a while but has a loose contact now (well, sometimes). It seems to me that the inner pins of the plug are rotating when you’re rotatating the plug inside a plug socket. This happens between the insulation rings. Maybe a more expensive plug wouldn’t have this problem.
DanneJoh
May 18, 2017 — 11:34 am
Mine also didn’t work. Sent weird signals to my phone activating vioce call and “OK Google”. So I just connected it to a 3-Pin Stereo Plug (without microphone). Now the speakers work perfect and I dont really need the buttons and microphone to work.
Thanks for a thourough and clear description 😀
Sam
January 3, 2013 — 6:47 am
Are your headphones the plattan or the plattan plus type?
miraculablog
January 3, 2013 — 10:50 am
They’re the plattan type.
pravash
January 2, 2014 — 6:36 am
is the process any different for plattan plus
miraculablog
January 2, 2014 — 10:13 am
I honestly don’t know. But my guess would be that every plattan product with a microphone is wired the same way.
Rod
January 3, 2013 — 11:35 am
I repaired mine using the original plug, plus added a spring from a pen to stengthen the joint between the wire and plug.
Headhones and remote working fine since a month ago.
Contact support at Urbanears if you need wiring diagrams for the plattan plus, they are very helpful.
miraculablog
January 3, 2013 — 11:36 am
Thank you the hint!
maurice
November 8, 2014 — 11:17 pm
Hi Rod, and Christine,
I also have a Plattan Plus, 5 wires, broken plug. Bought a new TRRS plug, but I cannot get the remote working. If you would like to e-mail me, and/or post on this blog the wiring diagram you got from urbanears, that would be really helpful to fix my plug.
Support-at-urbanears.com is a bit silent on their end.
Kind regards.
lundstrj
March 23, 2013 — 2:09 pm
Thank you for this publishing this. Spared me the trouble of figuring out what cable goes where. My headphones are now fixed and working as expected.
Nautica
May 5, 2013 — 4:21 am
I dont get this
Nautica
May 5, 2013 — 4:22 am
U smart pple do but I dont
thomas
May 11, 2013 — 2:43 pm
great!
Manuel Grundner (@biohaz999)
September 20, 2013 — 6:23 pm
Thank you 🙂 Music with color is back!
JorgeS
December 12, 2013 — 2:22 pm
Man, i’d like to know where can i find this component here in germany 3.5 mm stereo-plus-mic jack or to see if u can give the german name to find it out on amazon or ebay or whatever store here in german thanks a lottttttttt
JorgeS
December 12, 2013 — 2:33 pm
do you think that this one
http://www.ebay.de/itm/KLINKE-STECKER-4-POL-3-5mm-AV-PLUG-PLASTIK-KNICKSCHUTZ-/140982871548?pt=Audio_Zubeh%C3%B6r&hash=item20d33be5fc
or
http://www.ebay.de/itm/KLINKE-STECKER-4-POL-3-5mm-AV-PLUG-METALL-KNICKSCHUTZ-/130754060310?pt=Audio_Zubeh%C3%B6r&hash=item1e718ca016
can work ????
miraculablog
December 12, 2013 — 2:36 pm
Yes, they should both work fine (the first one looks exactly like mine). The German Term you are looking for is “3,5mm Klinke”. “4-polig” refers to the three black rings around the plug. You need three (not two) of them in order to use your microphone.
jorgeS
December 18, 2013 — 2:19 pm
I bought it and ive trying to do it on my own but its kind of difficult because I dont know how to sold properly :/ and its driving me crazy
miraculablog
December 18, 2013 — 2:26 pm
Oh, I know this feeling… You could look for a local hackerspace or repair café. There usually meet a lot of friendly and experienced people who could teach you how to solder and give you a helping hand.
I’ll keep my fingers crossed!
jorgeS
December 18, 2013 — 2:29 pm
Hahaha I will try to ask in my uni… but dont think im f offenburg ill find something like that haha thanks anyway
miraculablog
December 18, 2013 — 2:34 pm
There seems to be the hackerspace section77 but no repair café (yet).
line
December 30, 2013 — 2:11 pm
Hi, my plattan stopped working quite recently, but I think the wire is the problem, not the plug (can still receive a liiiittle bit of sound, and when I twitch and curl the cord the sound changes). Any creative ways I can fix this would be very much appreciated!!
miraculablog
December 30, 2013 — 3:50 pm
This sounds like you have to replace the whole wire (at least everything beneath the loose contact). I never opened my plattan, but you may find a hackerspace or repair café near your location. People there are very friendly and may help you to fix your headphones. You can find images from the inside of the plattan at the Head-Fi-Forum. I wish you good luck!
pravash
January 2, 2014 — 6:26 am
hi, will this process work for plattan + denim. Mine has stopped working and i m pretty sure its the jack.
@ndy
February 16, 2014 — 1:33 am
Hi there!
I have a pair of Urbanears Tantos that I want to replace the connector on and I wondered if you could tell me a little bit more about how you dealt with your cable.
Did you have any trouble with the material around the cable? Did it unravel or spring back when you chopped the original connector off? How did you ensure that it stayed inside the connector after the replacement, instead of riding loose up the cable?
Many thanks for your tips!
@ndy
mywpadmin
March 22, 2014 — 11:23 am
The Material around the cable gave me no headache. I used a pocket lighter to make sure it doesn’t unravel. As it is made of synthetics you have to be a bit careful but it works very well. It stayed inside the connector just fine without me doing anything special.
Etienne
May 14, 2014 — 7:18 am
Simple and useful, thanks a lot! =)
Ignacio
July 24, 2014 — 11:51 pm
Hi mate! It work like a charm! nice tutorial… greetings from argentina,.
David
January 18, 2015 — 9:07 pm
Thank you, worked fine!
swedski
August 16, 2015 — 11:15 am
Hello Thanks for the info
One note
I had to switch the blue and red in the configuration and the jack worked perfect.
Thanks
DP
October 18, 2015 — 9:31 am
Did your remote have any problems when you switch the configuration?
steviehs
February 10, 2016 — 11:36 am
Thanks for documenting this! I just found it after I checked the the wiring by myself. An alternative to the plastik cover of the plug is to cover the whole stuff with sugru afterwards. I described this in my blog post (http://www.stevekist.de/?p=85), where I also linked your article.
James wox
August 7, 2016 — 4:56 pm
The wires inside my platter won’t take to solder at all! It seems like they’re not copper but some almost kind of synthetic fabric material, I’ve been messing around with it for a while now, but the blue and green wires don’t seem to be conductive, even the shield in the cable won’t tin! Any ideas? Did you tin the cables before you attached them to the plug?
Miracula
August 7, 2016 — 7:48 pm
I think I remember a very thin plastic coating around the wires that I had to remove. I don’t remember doing anything else to the wires (four years ago by now). I am by no means an expert in these things. If you have any problems soldering try to contact your local hacker space, maker space or repair café. People there tend to have a lot of experience and are friendly and helpful in most cases.
Christian
September 8, 2016 — 8:02 am
The cable has five wires. Because you have 2x GND (one for the mic and the other for left and right speaker). You have only the GND from the speakers connected. That´s why your button is not working. Take a look at my blog.
http://juka-blog.de/urbanears-plattan-kopfhrer-reparieren/
Hector
November 28, 2017 — 4:02 am
My left and right channels are flipped, and i cant hear left sounds, except o
If I push down my phone call button
PANKAJ GUPTA
June 2, 2021 — 7:58 pm
For the red one you mean the thick wire right?
Miracula
June 3, 2021 — 6:05 pm
No, the red one is insulated like green and blue. The thicker wire (without insulation) I labeled as “bare”.