DIY cable tester

[Royalston]

Hi
My 'good' studio headphones died in one ear today...I was wondering how to test whether its just the detachable stereo cable or something else.
Can someone point me to a way to test cables please? Thanks

Royalston

[calpolyengineer]

rig up two stereo jacks and send voltage down one side and connect the other side to a 4.7k(ish, just whatever you hav e in that general range) resister then to an LED then to ground.

Or you could just bust out the DMM and check the continuity.

-Joe

[Royalston]

Hey - thanks for the quick reply!

ummm...I tried the DMM, but Im not sure  was doing it right...

What should I do with it? (and what should the DMM be set to). Im still inexperienced in the debugging /testing world...
Im just touching the tip (its a mini TRS jack) to the red node of the DMM and then the black node of the DMM to the other tip (of the other end of the cable...)
Then the same for sleeves, and rings....
If its set to measure voltage, there would need to be a voltage drop across the two points- so if its working I'd get a reading of zero - yes? (I understand I may be completely wrong here!

Damned if I know what Im going to do if its not the cable.... They dont build senheiserheadphones to be opened up and explored...

Thanks again
Royalston

[waldo041]

i don't know if it will work for you, but you can use a speaker with the correct input( ie 1/4 inch jack or whatever suits your cable) and a 9 volt to test cables.
once you have the proper connection to a speaker the nine volt battery, when pos and neg are touch to the other end, will make the speaker's woofer either go in or go out. it will stay in either state until you remove the battery. if it does nothing your cable is dead. turn the cable like a jump rope, making sure to keep it plugged in at the speaker, and you can test for any shorts.

hope this helps.

peace,
waldo