Pinout of headphones with microphone. DIY computer headset (headphone) repair Pinout of headphone wires

The pins on the headphone jacks are arranged in a certain way. In order to repair a faulty headset, you need to know the pinout of the headphones, or the wiring diagram, which is carried out in accordance with accepted standards.

Connector types

To transmit sound in analog signal format, there are special jacks in mobile devices, stereo systems, TVs, PCs and other equipment where a headphone plug is connected.

The most commonly used is the Jack connector, used in various sizes depending on the area of ​​use.

1. Jack 2.5 mm (micro). The smallest type. Used in devices where other types are not suitable due to their miniature size, including walkie-talkies, spy microphones;
2. Jack 3.5 mm (mini). The most commonly used version of the headphone plug is mainly for transferring audio signal from the player to the headset. The same connector is used in AUX cables to transmit a signal from a smartphone to speakers;
3. Jack 6.3 mm (large). These are original Jack connectors. Originally used for telephone switches. Their design in 1878 was designed to provide a connector that could be easily inserted and removed while still being reliable. It was the connection standard for all professional audio devices until other, safer connectors with which it coexists, such as XLR, became available. Although the large Jack has not lost its relevance and is used to connect loudspeakers to amplifiers and guitar heads to cabinets.

Additional Information. There is another size - Jack 5.33 mm. It is used for aviation helmet microphones.

ForJack3.5mm there are three types of plugs:

1. TS Point-to-Point Contact - Does not support stereo audio or microphone. This means there is no left or right mono. Both sides of the headphones will produce the same sound. Not used in modern devices;
2. The TRS three-point contact supports stereo audio but does not support microphone. You can listen to music in stereo, but you cannot make calls using this connector;
3. The TRRS four-point contact, in addition to stereo, has a microphone input when connected to a control button. This is the main type of connector for a smartphone.

Pinout diagrams

When the question arises of how to solder headphone wires, first of all, you need to familiarize yourself with their pinout diagram. For connectors with markingsTRS:

• T – means tip;
• R – ring;
• S – connecting sleeve.

TRS audio jacks are designed for standard stereo headphones without a microphone. Everything is simple here. The main difficulty is finding the right, left wires and ground. When making repairs using the circuit, you need to solder each one to its own contact.

When it came time to add a microphone channel, two connection ideas competed, which later evolved into two TRRS standards. One is called CTIA, the other is known as OMTP. Some manufacturers have chosen to insert a new contact between ground and the audio right channel input (OMTP), others have simply added it at the bottom of the sleeve (CTIA).

If different devices use different headphone pinout standards, then perhaps headphones with a microphone from a smartphone will not work with a laptop and vice versa.

Important! To overcome this problem, you can listen to music using stereo headphones with a TRS jack. They work with both standards, since the microphone position is overlapped with ground.

When the mobile device and headphones are incompatible due to different standards used, then before soldering them, you need to check the pinout diagram.

Models using different standards:

1. OMTP (left sound-right sound-microphone-ground): old Nokia, Samsung, Sony, Sony Ericsson (2010 and 2011 Xperia);
2. CTIA/AHJ (left sound-right sound-ground-mic): Apple, HTC, LG, Blackberry, latest Nokia, latest Samsung, Sony, Microsoft;
3. CTIA/Style AV (left sound-right sound-ground-video CVBS): Apple iPod up to 6th generation), XBox 360 E.

Headphone repair

Signs of headphone problems:

• periodic loss of sound on both headphones or complete loss on one of them;
• the appearance of extraneous noise and rustling when you plug the plug into the socket or move it;
• sound distortion due to the loss of certain frequency ranges (can occur when the “ground” is broken);
• Mono sound remains in stereo headphones;
• The microphone does not work with the headset buttons.

With sufficient skills in working with electronics and knowledge of the circuit, how to solder headphones, you can repair them.

How to change the plug on the headphone cable:

1. When the connector itself is faulty, the wires at the connection point are damaged, or the user is thinking about how to replace one plug with another, in any case the cable must be cut off from the plug;
2. Now the cable is prepared. A stereo headphone cable has 2 wires: one for the left channel, the other for the right. They can be any color (often red and green). Each of them is surrounded by a copper wire - “ground”. It is necessary to separate the “ground” from the red and green conductors, so that you get only 4 wires, of which 2 copper wires must be twisted together;

1. Sometimes the cable design is different. For example, one conductor will be surrounded by copper wire, and the other will be surrounded by striped red and green conductor. In this case, it is the red-green wire that is the “ground” and must be connected to the copper wire;
2. To remove the insulating coating from the conductors, you can use a regular match. Do not heat the wires for too long; they may become too black and brittle. The varnish coating cannot be removed with a sharp object; it can be used to clean off residues;
3. After unscrewing the connector housing, 3 contacts (TPS plug) will be accessible inside;

Important! Before soldering the plug to the headphones, you need to thread the cable through the top of the connector, and then reinsert this cover into the metal base. If this is not done, you will have to re-disconnect and solder the wires to the plug.

1. The time has come to tin the ends of the wires (treat them with a soldering iron with a small amount of solder to improve the connection);
2. Before you solder the wires, you must remember that soldering is not welding, it is intended to ensure reliable electrical contact. Therefore, it is important to make a good mechanical connection between the wire and the terminal: insert the wire into the hole, wrapping it a couple of times. The ground wire is usually connected to the large external connector, the other two are connected to the remaining contacts according to the diagram;
3. Here you can check whether the wiring is prepared correctly. To do this, connect the headphone plug to the audio device jack and check whether stereo sound is heard. The sound may flicker or crackle, but this will all stop after soldering the contacts. If the sound is not audible at all, you need to check again that the connections correspond to the pinout diagram;
4. Then solder the wires to the contacts;

Important! The plug must be securely fastened. When it moves during soldering, it can cause unreliable contact.

1. When soldering is completed, you need to crimp the contacts using pliers and then make sure that each soldered wire is separated from each other. If they touch, you may lose sound from one or both earbuds, or end up with mono instead of stereo.

Headphones with microphone

If your smartphone headset malfunctions, you will have to deal with the TRRS connector and cable, which often contains five wires and a plastic cord to strengthen the cable.

How to solder a headphone cable with a microphone, you need to look at the corresponding diagram. It depends on the standard used.

ForiPhoneWhen you open the cable, you can find the following wires:

• red – right audio channel signal;
• red-copper twisted - “ground” for the right audio channel;
• green – left audio channel signal;
• green-copper twisted – grounding for the left audio channel;
• red-green sheath with a copper wire inside: the copper core is the microphone wire, the sheath is the “ground” of the microphone.

When replacing the plug on such headphones, all grounding wires are connected to a common contact, and the rest are routed according to the diagram. Subsequent manipulations are the same as when soldering a three-pin plug.

Three- and four-wire headphone cables are the most common at the moment, but sometimes, after opening the cable, you can find six wires or even more. In this case, you need to test the wires with a multimeter to determine where the right and left audio channels are. Earth can often be identified by its color.

Video

The headphones are connected to the plug using wires. To ensure that the repairman does not confuse them during repairs, the insulation on the conductors is of different colors, and they are connected according to certain standards.

Headphone wire pinout

Typically, headphones are connected using a pin plug. It is called a “jack”, and on modern equipment a 3.5 mini-jack is connected to the headphone cable. This means that the diameter of the pin is 3.5 mm. In some devices, speaker systems are connected with a 2.5 jack plug, as well as miniUSB and mikroUSB connectors.

Pinout for connecting 2.5 and 3.5 jack plugs

In simple stereo headphones and acoustic devices, the connection cable contains three wires soldered to the plug. Three-wire plugs are called TRS. The slip rings on the pin are numbered from end to cable:

1. at the end of the pin there is a left channel, a wire with green insulation is soldered to it;
2. the right channel is connected to the middle slip ring with a red wire;
3. The common or ground is connected to the nearest contact from the cable by a conductor that is coated with clear varnish and therefore has a copper color.

Reference. Old headphone plugs had only two terminals.

In some models, the connection is made not with a three-core cable, but with two two-core cables. In this case, conductors with insulation of the same color from each cable are connected to a common terminal, and the remaining ones to the right and left contacts.

The wires are soldered to the terminals or contact pads located in the insulating shell. The ratio of solder leads and slip rings is determined by a tester or visually.

The design of the 2.5 jack plug differs from the 3.5 jack only in size.

Pinout of wires in a headset with a microphone

In addition to headphones designed only for listening to music, there are headphones with a built-in microphone and buttons for talking on the phone or Skype. The cable of such devices has from four to seven cores. Additional wires are needed to connect a microphone and control buttons.

Wiring in the 3.5 jack connector

In addition to the name “jack”, such connectors are called TRRS. They have two pinout options: OMTP and CTIA. In both versions, the pin has four slip rings and leads. The difference in wiring is in the connection of the microphone and the neutral wire, which are connected to pins 3 and 4.

If you use CTIA instead of an OMTP connection, the sound will be muffled and the microphone will not work.

The color of the insulation on the wires is standard, although variations are possible, especially in cheap Chinese models:

• general or zero – colorless (copper);
• there is a blue wire going to the microphone;
• left channel – green;
• the right channel is red.

Pinout of miniUSB and mikroUSB connectors

Some mobile phone models are equipped with miniUSB and mikroUSB connectors instead of a headset jack. If you need to connect conventional acoustics to such a device, you need to make an adapter or cut off the old plug and solder a new one.

These plugs differ from each other only in shape and size; the connection of the cores in them is the same:

1. common or “ground”;
2. microphone,
3. control buttons and volume;
4. right channel;
5. left channel;
6. not used.

The numbering goes from left to right, with the connector facing towards you.

Reference. When using stereo headphones without a microphone or external speaker system, pin “2” is not connected.

Some companies, for example, Samsung, equip their devices with 10- and 20-pin connectors. The wiring diagram for such devices is available on the Internet.

Headphone repair

If you have minimal skills in working with a soldering iron and a tester, broken wires can be repaired.

Troubleshooting

In working headphones, the sound should be clear, without crackling or loss of sound, and the voice of the speaker at the other end of the line should also be without crackling or interruptions. If this is not the case, then there are two possibilities: a malfunction of the device or headphones. To check, the headphone plug should be connected to a known working device:

• problems remain - a malfunction in the headphones;
• the problems are gone - the device is faulty.

You can do the opposite: connect known-good headphones to the device:

• the problems are gone - the stereo headphones are faulty;
• The problems remain - the device is faulty.

In most cases, the reason is broken wires to the plug or “rocker” (volume control buttons) or to the speaker. The earphone or rocker should be disassembled and the wires soldered, and the plug should be changed or repaired.

Before soldering the wires going to the plug, determine the location of the break. This is done with a tester or multimeter turned on to check resistance:

1. connect the tester to the plug; bend the wire, following the tester readings;
2. when the cable bends at the break point at the plug, the device readings will change;
3. If the break is permanent, then there may be a malfunction or break near the earphone.

Continuity of wires

If the cable inside the plug breaks or it is impossible to remove the protective sheath from it, it is necessary to determine whether the wires match the speakers, microphone and control panel. In this case, different connection schemes are possible:

• the microphone and the rocker are connected using one pair of wires or different ones;
• sometimes the microphone is connected with a shielded wire;
• There is one common wire for all elements or one for each part.

First of all, before soldering the headphone wires, you need to find the ends going to the speakers. This is done with a tester or multimeter turned on to measure resistance:

1. strip the wires to 10 mm of insulation; if there is a shielded wire among them, then it goes to the microphone;
2. put on headphones and start ringing the wires one by one;
3. when connecting the tester to one of the channels and the common conductor, a crackling sound is heard in one of the phones;
4. to the left and right channel - in both.

If the headphones do not have a microphone, then the cable is soldered to the plug, and in the headset, after dialing the speakers, the wires going to the microphone and buttons are determined:

• 4 wires. The remaining one is connected to the microphone;
• 5 cores The remaining two are connected to each other and do not communicate with the speaker - they are connected to a microphone and soldered to the common terminal and the microphone terminal. If they are ringing with stereo headphones, then this is the control panel, and the microphone and both wires are connected to the microphone output;
• 7 cores These are two pairs - to the microphone and to the buttons. Soldered by color in parallel to the common and microphone terminals.

How to solder headphones to a plug

The plug is made of soft plastic, and the pin with slip rings is poured into it. To repair, the case will have to be cut and then connected using heat-shrink tubing of a suitable diameter.

A break in the wire going to the plug can be repaired by soldering:

1. cut the cable;
2. carefully cut the sealed plastic case and remove the plug itself from it;
3. remove cable residues from the housing using a thin drill;
4. the cable going to the headphones is stripped to the length required for soldering;
5. use a tester to check the functionality of the headphones;
6. tin the ends of the cores by 5 mm;
7. put the notched housing through the previously drilled hole onto the cable;
8. solder the wires to the metal middle of the plug, according to the colors of the insulation or the results of ringing;
9. the middle with a soldered cable is placed in a plastic case;
10. A piece of heat-shrinkable tubing is put on top and heated with a hairdryer.

The plug on the headphones is also replaced.

Advice. It is better to take the heat-shrink tube in the same color as the wire.

Headphone speaker repair

If there is no sound from one of the speakers, the reason may be a broken wire connecting to it. To repair a faulty earphone, you must open it. In large models, the cover is attached with screws, and in small ones - with latches or with glue. Such speakers are opened with a knife inserted into the gap between the covers.

The soldered wire must be secured inside. To do this, a knot is tied on it, or it is glued with superglue.

The disassembled speaker is assembled and, if necessary, the covers are glued to each other.

Knowing how to replace the wire and how to change the plug will help you save on purchasing new stereo headphones, and in order to solder the plug to the headphones, you need to know the pinout of the wires.

Video

The pin-type TRS connector (the name is derived from the English abbreviation tip, ring, sleeve) is often used in various audio devices. It has several design options, the 3.5 mm jack (also known as a mini-jack) is aimed primarily at headphones of initial or medium quality playback, and can also be used in microphone circuits, radios, players and various multimedia gadgets. This type of connector is also quite popular in mobile phones.

General view of the 3.5 jack connector

Design features 3.5 jack

TRS has three pins of standardized sizes, allowing stereo signals to be reproduced. On the pin part of the connector plug, the diameter of which is 3.5 mm, there are three contact areas, which are located sequentially one after another and are separated by insulating washers.

Signals from the left and right channels of stereophonic broadcasting are supplied to the head of the tip and the ring that follows it; the ring closest to the body is intended to connect the ground common to these channels. An additional groove is made on the end part of the tip, which gives it a clearly recognizable characteristic shape. This design allows you to fix the plug in working condition due to the corresponding design of the spring-loaded contact of the socket part of the connector.

Pin assignment of 3.5 jack connector

Cable for TRS connector

A homemade connecting cord is used in cases where the length of the purchased product is not enough. The functions of the cable can be performed by almost any two-wire cable with a braided screen. Both twisted pair and untwisted wires are suitable for signal transmission.

Layout of cable wires according to contacts and their connection

Due to the small number of working contacts 3.5 jack pinout not very complicated. Standard wiring is shown in the figure below.

Standard wiring 3.5 jack

The 3.5 mm TRS jack finds limited use in professional devices, which are characterized by a balanced connection used to improve quality. This situation changes a little and takes the following form:

Balanced wiring 3.5 jack

In both cases, soldering is used for connection. Its implementation is facilitated by the presence of holes for inserting cores on the channel contacts of the cable side. The ground contact is connected under the clamp. The cores are pre-serviced.

Quite often it happens on the headset broken wire, suitable for the plug - according to experts, this is the most common defect that occurs due to frequent kinks and various mechanical damage.

Inside the cable there are several very thin and delicate wires that can easily break from strong tension or jerking. Is it possible to repair a headphone plug on your own, and what is needed for this?

To repair headphones yourself, we will need:

• non-conductive glue or epoxy resin;
• a special heat-shrinkable tube is an alternative to electrical tape;
• old fountain pen;
• tester (multimeter);
• soldering iron with a thin tip and all accompanying components (tin, rosin);
• side cutters;
• mounting knife;
• lighter.

It's better to use fabric glue if you can't find epoxy resin, which only needs a few drops.

Repair algorithm

You can repair a lot of things yourself - the main thing here is the desire and ability to work with various tools. Let's look at the whole process step by step.

1. Using side cutters, we bite off the plug, stepping back from it by 2-3 cm.
   
   
2. We take out the headphone plug and a piece of old wire from the sealed connector - to do this, we simply cut the shell along the seam with a sharp mounting knife.
   
   

   Now we can see where the wires are soldered to the plug - we take a photo for memory, so as not to confuse anything later. However, there is standard wiring, coming from the headphones: copper (yellow) color - general, green - left earphone, red - right.

   

3. We remove the cut wire leading to the headphones from the varnish coating, clean and tin the ends of the wire, and connect the grounding of each channel together.
   
   

   We check the plug for a short circuit, having first removed any remaining tin. The channel layout is shown in the photo:

   

4. We take the old handle, disassemble it and use only the tip - from it we will make a new housing for the plug we disassembled.
   
   
5. Cut off with side cutters to the required length heat shrink tube, which, instead of electrical tape, will protect the wires from sharp bending at the very exit of the new plug.
   
   
6. We put the future housing on the wire, then the tube, and proceed to the final installation. How to solder wires so as not to mess anything up? There is a photograph taken earlier for this.
   
   
7. Before packing everything into a tube with heat shrink, we do a check - put on headphones, use the multimeter probes to touch the contacts of different channels one by one, and rustling or clicking noises should be heard. You can try to stick the unfinished structure into phone jack and turn on the radio. If you connect to an MP3 player to listen to music, you can use the balance to check how each channel works.
8. If the test result is positive, we put a tube over the soldering area and, using an open flame of a lighter, “squeeze” it so that it firmly covers the open part of the plug, as shown in the photo.
   
   
9. We dilute a few drops of epoxy, apply it to the tube, put on the body, and set everything aside for several hours for the components to completely polymerize.

That's the whole process of how to fix headphones from a mobile phone or laptop headset.

Wiring diagrams for wires with more than two cores

Users often wonder whether it is possible to repair headphones of a more complex design when there are more wires inside? One plug can accommodate a different number of wires - it depends on headphone class:

• mono - 2 wires, it’s difficult to confuse anything here;
• stereo and mono - three wiring and different connection diagrams;
• stereo headsets - 4 pcs.;
• headsets or headphones with microphone - 5-6 pcs.

Now we will tell you in more detail about each class, except the first.

Three cores

Each earphone must have two wires in the same braid or in different ones - this is a plus and a minus. Sometimes at the end, when connecting to a plug, designers combine the negative ones into one harness and get 3 pieces at the output. To make it clear to all users, we provide a detailed wiring diagram for the plug, where you can see exactly where the wires need to be soldered according to their color design.

There is no strict standard for coating with colored varnish. For example, the left channel wires can be blue, white or green.

Four wires

There are two different options here.

Important! At first glance, the microphone wire looks like one wire, but in fact there are two of them: a very thin wire in a PVC sheath is wrapped on top with a copper wire with colorless enamel for protection.

5 cores or more

Different types of headsets of the latest class may have from 5 to 10 separate veins, so it will be much more difficult to navigate. The signal wire from the microphone is always braided in one color, and the rest come in all sorts of shades. No specialist can tell you exactly which wire should be soldered where. How to replace the wire from the plug on the headphones in this case? The only method that works here is this: we check each vein with a multimeter to determine whether it goes to the left or right speaker, then we find the common ones and combine them into one flagellum.

You need to solder it to the plug according to the diagrams that we showed, or find a separate diagram on the Internet that is suitable for your case.

Repair your headset or headphones for your mobile phone using this method and save money from your household budget.

Pinout refers to the arrangement of pins on the headphone connectors in accordance with the device diagram. This information is necessary to determine the location of the headphone malfunction and restore its inoperability.

Types of headphone connectors

Modern headphones designed for connecting to mobile devices, audio equipment, and televisions mainly use three standard sizes of connectors according to the diameter of the connection socket:

• 2.5 millimeters – micro Jack;
• 3.5 millimeters – mini Jack;
• 6.25 – big Jack.

Big Jack has found application in audio equipment and power amplifiers. It is also used in karaoke devices. Micro-jack is used in miniature players; previously it was often used in small phones.

In modern smartphones, mobile and household appliances, mini-Jack connectors are most widely used. Based on the number of contacts, mini-jack connectors are classified into:

• two-pin;
• three-pin;
• four-pin.

Type of headphone jacks

Since the beginning of the 2000s, two-contact headphones have lost their relevance: most radio receivers, even the simplest ones, where they were mainly used, have switched to the stereo reception standard.

Three- and four-pin headphones have separate channels for playing back right and left channel signals. At the same time, they are compatible with a mono signal, in which case the right and left headphones are connected in parallel, providing mono sound.

The four-pin connectors additionally have a microphone input combined with a control button. In most cases, such connectors are used to connect headphones to smartphones.

Headphone circuit

Electrical diagram of three-pin headphones.

Jack connector wiring diagram (sectional view).

In most high-quality headphones, the conductors leading to the headphones are made of shielded cable. It consists of a central insulated core and a screen in the form of a braided cable.

Recommendations: How to solder a headphone plug
, How to disassemble headphones: instructions with step-by-step photos of repairing all elements of the headset
, Headphone wiring

The central core can be additionally made of varnish insulation, with silk thread woven in for greater resistance to fracture and stretching. The process of soldering such conductors in case of damage is technologically complex; it is necessary to have skills, special flux and low-melting solder.

The three-pin headphone jack has the international TRS classification. The definition of the abbreviation is clear from the figure below.

If the headphone connector is broken, or the conductors in it are broken, you can replace the connector with a new one. Standard headphone connectors are usually non-separable.

It is necessary to purchase a dismountable connector, check that the color of the conductor matches the connection diagram and, using a soldering iron, solder, flux and a knife, first tin the wires, then the contacts for connecting to the connector, and then perform the desoldering.

Wiring is carried out in accordance with the installation diagram.

The four-pin connector is TRRS classified.

The pinout of TRRS connectors can be made in two versions: CTIA and OMTP.

Four-pin headphones usually have a microphone and a button. Pinout diagram for four-pin CTIA connector.

Pressing the button blocks the microphone.

When purchasing headphones with a four-pin connector for your mobile device, you need to determine what type of connector is needed. As can be seen from the pinout shown in the figure, the “common” and “microphone” pins are “confused” in these types.

The same brands of phones, but made in Chinese, may have headphones with OMTP pinout. If you connect the wrong pinout, the sound in the headphones will be distorted and the microphone may be damaged. In this case, it is necessary to resolder the connector contacts in accordance with the diagram.

Adapters from one standard to another are available for sale.

Checking the headphone pinout of non-standard connectors

In some mobile devices and GSM phones, in most cases, from previous years of production, phones with original special connectors were used. In such cases, using search engines you can find the original pinout of the headphone connectors. It may have different connection diagrams, for example, shown in the figure.

If the headphones of such devices fail, you can cut the headphone cable, purchase a new headset, and install new headphones in accordance with the diagram.

If there is no information on the Internet, you can independently determine the pinout of the headphones. To do this you need to do the following:

• disassemble the housings of the dynamic headphone system; for this you can use an active solvent;
• ring the terminals of the headphone speakers, zero resistance will correspond to the common wire;
• ring the contacts of the connector with the common wire, the contact number at which the multimeter shows a resistance close to zero will be the contact for connecting the common wire;
• similarly, you should make a call to the opposite contacts of the headphone speakers;
• for a headset with a microphone, search for connections to the connector contacts for each output separately.

TRS type connectors have a standard pinout. Poor audibility in the headphones may be the result of a break in the common wire or a mismatch between the output impedance of the mobile device amplifier and the impedance of the dynamic headphone system.