The house of every modern person cannot be imagined without electronic devices and household appliances, entangling the dwelling with wires, like lianas. Unfortunately, the cable is a thing that is not eternal and is subject to wear and tear. In addition, if there is a cat or dog in the house, the cords have to be changed much more often. We offer you 8 ways to help save wires household appliances from premature wear.
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Please note that repair tips only apply to low voltage devices such as smartphone charging cables and cords from game consoles or headphones. Damaged wires from powerful devices are best replaced completely.
Your a pet loves to chew on cables? Luckily, there is an easy way to keep cords safe from sharp teeth. Buy a roll of vinyl tubing, make a lengthwise cut, and slide the tubing onto the cable.
If you don't feel like messing around with vinyl tubing, opt for spiral piping. The advantage of this method is that you can tie several cords into one bundle at once.
In order to protect the junction of the cable with the connector, you can use heat shrink tubing. Carefully cut two 3 cm lengths from the tube. Drop some silicone glue (there are tubes with adhesive inside) on both ends of the cord at the points of attachment to the connectors and put on the cut pieces of heat shrink tubing. Wipe off any excess glue and hold the heat shrink tube over the flame of a lighter to make it shrink properly. Do not hold the lighter too close or the cord may melt. If you don't want to deal with fire, use a hair dryer on the highest setting.
Some cables, such as those for charging smartphones or for headphones, wear out faster than others. To prevent premature wear, use a ballpoint pen spring with a button. Stretch the spring slightly and slide it over the wire.
You can combine protection with heat shrink tubing and spring:
A damaged cable can be soldered again. In particular, you can use plastic soldering iron Bondic, with which damage is repaired in just a minute. It is enough to clean the wire and solder the damaged place with the help of the LED lamp built into Bondic.
Damaged or worn cable insulation can be repaired with liquid electrical tape such as PlastiDip. Just stick new insulation around the exposed wire and let it dry.
Almost every user of ordinary headphones is familiar with the unpleasant situation when after a month / six months / a year (or more, depending on the quality and high cost), the headphones are ordered to live a long time. It occurs mainly due to the fact that the wiring in a particular one is subjected to frequent and strong kinks while in a pocket or bag. Usually this is its very beginning, near the plug. As a result, the insulation of the cores deteriorates, and the cores themselves break. The design of the plug aggravates the situation, as in the photo above. Actually, all the trick below applies to such headphones. For example, I have this Sennheiser CX-55, but before that there were 2 pairs from Nokia with the same design.
How to postpone this unpleasant moment? First, let's look at various designs plugs to understand what manufacturers are doing to soften the kinks in the wire as soon as it comes out of the plug. Let's take a look at the photo:
As you can see, our experimental plug number 1 is practically not protected by anything and the wiring can freely bend in the pocket at least 180 °. This is facilitated by a fairly solid body of the plug, which is very difficult to bend, so it is mainly the wire that bends. With such excesses, he is unlikely to live long.
Plug number 2 is much better at protecting the wire from kinks, thanks to the curved tip and perforations on the body that allow it to flex more freely, preventing the wire from extreme kinks by taking on some of the fold. You are lucky if you have such a plug: headphones will live happily ever after.
Plug number 3 is collapsible, sold at any radio parts store and attached manually. Although it is straight, it protects the wire from sharp bends with a soft spring. It was he who gave me the idea of how to protect the wire coming out of the first plug. You just need to supply it with the same spring!
To do this, we disassemble the old fountain pen, take out the spring and put it on the wire. We do this not according to the principle of a spring ring on a keychain, but through the middle of the spring. It's very simple, you'll figure it out on the spot. To protect the soft wire, we additionally strengthen it with electrical tape in the place where we will put the spring on, otherwise the tip of the spring, where the rings are pressed tightly, can dangerously wrinkle it. Remove the tape after the operation.
It remains to bring the spring to the plug and put on it. In the end, everything looks more than aesthetically pleasing, and the wiring is protected from dangerously sharp bends.
The iPhone charging cable is its Achilles heel. At the same time, it is striking that a lot has already been said and written about the problem, and Apple does not seem to be going to change anything. However, why - if in the “pink” universe of the “apple” giant, any user can buy a new i-smartphone every year and, what a coincidence, this is the warranty period that the charging cable has.
However, we all understand what Russian realities are - to acquire new iPhone every year not every user can afford it. Frankly, not even all users of i-smartphones can easily shell out 1,500 rubles from their pockets for a new original cable, and therefore the request - how to fix the charging wire from an iPhone on your own - is very popular. Well, in this article we will tell you everything about iPhone wire repair.
Why is the i-smartphone cable so flimsy? And it's all about some truly maniacal desire for beauty by Apple, at a time when it is objectively worth thinking about reliability. One involuntarily recalls an excellent Russian proverb about a fool who was forced to pray to God. It's about the same situation here. The top insulation layer of the iPhone charging cable is made of beautiful material very pleasant to the touch - a kind of soft touch in a rubber version. In general, it gives aesthetic pleasure, but the trouble is, it is very flimsy!
What is the result? About a year later, very unpleasant “lacerated wounds” appear at the places of the cleanest folds, and if they are not healed in time, the problem will worsen, first the internal insulating layers will become unusable, and then the wiring itself, after which, of course, the cable will no longer be able to function. .
Preventive measures
And now, when the iPhone no longer signals the start of the charging process, the user has a question - how to fix the charge. Although, frankly, it's too late. After all, if you take some preventive measures, you can extend the life of the cable for a long time and you won’t have to resort to complex repairs. So if your cable is still intact, read this section carefully.
Simple and tasteless
For those who are very far from technology and repair, we want to offer a very simple way to protect the charging cable. All you need is two springs from fountain pens - you need to put them on both sides of the cable. We bend one end of the spring and wind it up, and when we wind it completely, we bend both ends of the spring a little, as it were, inward to hold it more securely, only as carefully as possible, otherwise it will end up damaging the cable you want to protect.
Well, what happened? Accordingly, it does not look aesthetically pleasing, but how simple and potentially saves you 1,500 rubles. By the way, if you are now thinking - why do I need an original cable for 1500 rubles, I will buy a Chinese one for 150, we hasten to warn you. Firstly, 99% of non-original cables do not work with iTunes, they charge - they charge, but you won’t be able to connect to a PC - here again some cunning Apple schemes are to blame. Secondly, a cheap cable is still much less reliable than the original one, and if the latter is guaranteed to last a year, then a non-native one can order a long life in a couple of months.
More reliable way
Don't like the spring method at all? Okay, we offer more reliable and more aesthetically pleasing. Only here, probably, the majority will have to get acquainted with the new concept - “heat shrinkage”? What it is? tubule from special material, which has an excellent property to decrease in diameter when heated. She's here to help us fix it. What else is needed? Any source of fire - a lighter works best.
So, first of all, we take the cable and go to the store for heat shrink (you can find it in any electronics departments) desired diameter. And what do you need, you ask? Above, we indicated that when heated, it will decrease, however, by no more than half, so we need to find such a heat shrink that, when compressed, will capture the cable “in a vise”, but at the same time put it on the Lightning connector. In general, millimeters 6-7.
Heat shrink need diameter found? Excellent, the matter remains small! We will protect the cable from both sides, so from the Lightning side (it is smaller than USB) we stretch two pieces of heat shrink 5 centimeters each. Now we take a lighter and hold the heat shrink tightly on the cable, heat it up. Do not forget about our task - it should sit tight and tight. By the way, if you want maximum reliability, from the side of Lightning overlap the heat shrink so that it covers part of the connector, it will not work from the USB side - it is too big.
Unfortunately, this wire protection method is only available to users of iPhone 5 and newer i-smartphones. The fact is that the Lightning connector appeared in the iPhone 5, while earlier "apple" gadgets were equipped with a cable with a different connector, much wider than Lightning. So you just won’t be able to pick up such a heat shrink so that it crawls through the connector, and when it sits tightly on the cable
Real renovation
It should be noted that many preventive measures with heat shrink are used even when the cable is already in need of a real repair. That is, in fact, it’s not a matter of sculpting heat shrink on top of an already torn cable, this is not a very reliable measure, but this type of repair also has a right to exist. However, we are sure that if the insulation is already broken, a more serious repair is needed and one heat shrink will not do here. In this situation, you will need:
- soldering iron and related materials (rosin, solder)
- wire cutters
- sharp knife
- unnecessary old USB cable (it doesn't matter which connector is on the other side)
- insulating tape
- heat shrink (well, yes, where without it) of two diameters - the minimum and 5-6 millimeters
- source of fire
As you understand, the work will be serious. However, if you own a soldering iron, everything will be quite simple for you, and if you only plan to make friends with this wonderful tool, you will have to sweat a little. So let's get started.
Preparing the USB cable
You can buy a USB cable, but we recommend digging through old electronics at home. This cable is the most popular, and therefore it is likely that the search will be successful. We emphasize that it doesn’t matter at all what will happen on the other side, because as soon as the necessary wire is found, we must take the wire cutters and cut off what is there. That is, we should get a cable with a USB connector on one side, and a cut wire on the other. Next, we'll deal with the cut side:
Preparing the iPhone Charging Cable Connector
Good news! It doesn’t matter if you have an iPhone 5 or an older model - this repair is universal for any cable - both for Lightning and for the previous one.
We connect the USB cable and iPhone charging wire iPhone
Well, the matter remains small, to connect the two prepared elements, for this you need to solder the wires of the corresponding colors to each other - green to green, black to black, etc. But! Before soldering, you must first put a heat shrink with a diameter of 5-6 mm on the cable and a heat shrink of the minimum diameter on each wire.
When all the wires are soldered, we put heat shrink on each contact and heat it.
Then, to be sure, we fasten the wiring with electrical tape and stretch the heat shrink on this structure larger diameter, heat it up.
That's all! Repair completed.
We tried to describe the process in as much detail as possible without leaving dark spots, but if something remains unclear - watch this video -
Hard case
Unfortunately, the above instructions will not work if the cable is torn too close to the connector and the integrity of the metal wires is already broken - in this case, it will not be possible to solder to the wires, you will have to solder to the microcircuit itself hidden inside the connector - this means that you will need to completely open it. Not everyone dares to do this. But if there are daredevils, we recommend watching this video - it will help you in this difficult task.
Let's summarize
As you can see, repairing an iPhone charger if the insulation is already torn is not so simple. Although, if you prefer a "free" repair using only heat shrink, which, in fact, is really only good in quality preventive measure, you will probably argue with this statement.
However, our recommendation is that if you have an iPhone 5 and newer i-smartphone models, protect your cable with heat shrink immediately as soon as you start using it, or when its life is approaching a year. Remember? This is exactly what Apple guarantees. As for the iPhone, which was supplied not with a Lightning cable, but with a wider one, grit your teeth and put on a spring from the handle, although it will not look very good. But if you didn’t keep track and the cable broke - this applies to all models of i-smartphones, then immediately carry out repairs to the conscience, if not on your own, then we are sure that among your friends there will definitely be someone who is friends with a soldering iron, ask them for help !
I have always considered myself a very neat person and took good care of cables and gadgets in general. Despite years of use, they looked like new. I handled the cable from the iPhone 5s even more carefully, because it was very expensive, and I could not replace it with another one at that time: all other Apple devices in the house were still charged from the old 30-pin cable.
However, this did not save me. Exactly one year later, the insulation at the ends of the cable cracked, starting to fall off in pieces. At some point, I freaked out and tore off the remnants of the white eco-friendly coating, completely exposing the metal braid of the cable. But even after that, he regularly charged and synchronized the iPhone, only occasionally shocked a little. Throwing it in the trash did not raise my hand, and I decided to make a new insulation for the cable. After all, he deserved it.
How to make a new braid
Now, fabric-braided cables are considered the most reliable, and this is no accident (remember the old Soviet irons). The fibers of the fabric give the cable elasticity and do not break down over time. Ordinary threads are not suitable: they are too thin and not very strong. For our business, threads for knitting and floss are ideal. They are much stronger and due to the greater thickness they will not have to be wound for ages.
What you need
The beauty of this method is that everything you need can be found at home. If there is no heat-shrinkable tube at hand, then, in addition to the thread itself, we will at least need any glue and scissors or a knife (or strength to tear off a piece of thread).
Thread - 3-5 meters.
Scissors or knife.
Heat-shrinkable tube - 5–10 centimeters.
Lighter or matches.
Any glue.
Choosing a thread
I will say right away that any thread for knitting will do, even very thick ones. The main thing is that it is wrinkled and it can be wrapped around the cable like a tape. If you are lucky and your wife, mother or grandmother offers you not one, but several options, then choose based on the following criteria:
Material. Yarn can be of different composition: natural and synthetic. Throw away your hipster ways and give preference to synthetics: they are stronger, do not get dirty and do not get frayed.
Thickness. It is better to choose the average thread thickness. It takes longer to wind a thin one, and a thick one will lie down in uneven turns.
Colour. It's up to you, but keep in mind that the fabric braid attracts dirt even more than native insulation (especially natural). A beautiful white Apple-style braid runs the risk of quickly becoming gray.
Preparing the cable
Before you put a cable in a new braid, you need to prepare it. If a old insulation collapsed in only one place, it can be left. If it falls off in pieces (as in my case), then it is better to remove it completely, otherwise the turns of the thread will lie loosely and the braid will ride. Also pay attention to the condition of the screen (metal braid and foil): it often breaks at the very connectors. You can restore it by tightly winding a couple of layers of ordinary threads.
We wind
The winding process is quite simple, but has its own subtleties. So that the ball of thread does not hang out and does not interfere with you, it is better to immediately cut off about three meters and, for convenience, wind it around something like a matchbox.
We start at either end, straight from the plastic. We tie a knot and tightly wind the thread turn to turn with a slight overlap, so that each subsequent slightly overlaps the previous one.
To protect against kinks, we form thickenings at the edges of the braid. We wind two or three layers, gradually increasing the thickness and making a smooth descent 3-4 centimeters long, so that it looks like in the photo. Depending on the thickness of the thread, there may be more or less layers. You can make it thicker if you want. This will not be very accurate, but it will be reliable.
Further - easier. From the formed thickening, we simply wrap the cable along the entire length to the very end. Take your time and try to pull the thread as tightly as possible: the quality of your cable will depend on this. Remember the overlap! The coils should lie on top of each other, turning into a continuous canvas. Press the braid with two fingers and pull along the cable. If the coils have fallen apart, then the overlap is insufficient.
We finish the winding in the same way as we started. We wind up to the plastic, go back 3-4 centimeters and repeat a couple of times to make a thickening that will save the cable from breaking. Try to lay the turns more evenly - so the transition will be neater and stronger. The free end of the thread does not need to be tied yet.
Fixing the edges
There are two options: heat shrink and glue. I tried both and I can say that you can not bother with the tubes - glue is enough. I'll tell you both, take your pick.
The diameter of the heat-shrinkable tube must be selected based on the thickening at the end of the cable (and vice versa). 6- and 8-mm tubes work well. Cut two pieces a couple of centimeters long and put both on the side of the Lightning connector. One will remain on it, and the second must be dragged through the entire cable to the other end.
Now gently heat the pieces of heat-shrinkable tubing put on so that they tightly fit the thickening of the braid and its ends do not unravel. This can be done with matches, a lighter or by bringing it to the stove, but it is better to ask your wife, mother or grandmother for a hairdryer as well. With it, you do not run the risk of overheating or smoking a pipe with a child (especially if you have it white).
Lazy people and those who do not have heat shrink can fix the ends of the braid with glue. A bubble of ordinary PVA or any other can be found in every home. Saturate the thickenings at the ends with it and fix it by pressing with two fingers (you will wash your hands later). When the glue dries, it will hold the turns of our braid no worse than heat shrink. The advantage of this method is that it is suitable not only for Lightning, but also for the old 30-pin connector, which will not fit any heat shrink.
If you are not lazy and you have heat shrink, you can first coat the ends with glue, and then put heat shrink on top.
In the described way, I brought four cables back to life and gained some experience. You will do better if you don't repeat my mistakes. Here's what you need to pay special attention to:
Too big bulges. Don't overdo the edges of the braid, otherwise they will turn out rough and ugly.
Long pieces of heat shrink. Like the previous mistake, this one will also make the cable less flexible and unkempt.
Small overlap. If you make a mistake here, you will not continuous coating, and a falling apart spring made of threads.
Natural thread. Eco-friendly yarn gets dirty more and becomes shaggy over time.
Double thread. If two strands are used different colors, the braid will turn out not only durable, but also beautiful.
What is the result
For two months, such a simple and uncomplicated cable upgrade proved to be just great. It is more flexible, it is not scary to pull it, throw it into a backpack. Appearance also not the most lame.
I fixed my Lightning this way, my wife's old 30-pin cable, and then my sister's Lightning. When writing the article, I also decided to make a braid on a Mac charger, although it is still quite new and with a whole cable. It takes a minimum of time, and brings maximum benefits.
Spend half an hour and make yourself an eternal cable. It's worth it!
I have always considered myself a very neat person and took good care of cables and gadgets in general. Despite years of use, they looked like new. I handled the cable from the iPhone 5s even more carefully, because it was very expensive, and I could not replace it with another one at that time: all other Apple devices in the house were still charged from the old 30-pin cable.
However, this did not save me. Exactly one year later, the insulation at the ends of the cable cracked, starting to fall off in pieces. At some point, I freaked out and tore off the remnants of the white eco-friendly coating, completely exposing the metal braid of the cable. But even after that, he regularly charged and synchronized the iPhone, only occasionally shocked a little. Throwing it in the trash did not raise my hand, and I decided to make a new insulation for the cable. After all, he deserved it.
How to make a new braid
Now, fabric-braided cables are considered the most reliable, and this is no accident (remember the old Soviet irons). The fibers of the fabric give the cable elasticity and do not break down over time. Ordinary threads are not suitable: they are too thin and not very strong. For our business, threads for knitting and floss are ideal. They are much stronger and due to the greater thickness they will not have to be wound for ages.
What you need
The beauty of this method is that everything you need can be found at home. If there is no heat-shrinkable tube at hand, then, in addition to the thread itself, we will at least need any glue and scissors or a knife (or strength to tear off a piece of thread).
Thread - 3-5 meters.
Scissors or knife.
Heat-shrinkable tube - 5–10 centimeters.
Lighter or matches.
Any glue.
Choosing a thread
I will say right away that any thread for knitting will do, even very thick ones. The main thing is that it is wrinkled and it can be wrapped around the cable like a tape. If you are lucky and your wife, mother or grandmother offers you not one, but several options, then choose based on the following criteria:
Material. Yarn can be of different composition: natural and synthetic. Throw away your hipster ways and give preference to synthetics: they are stronger, do not get dirty and do not get frayed.
Thickness. It is better to choose the average thread thickness. It takes longer to wind a thin one, and a thick one will lie down in uneven turns.
Colour. It's up to you, but keep in mind that the fabric braid attracts dirt even more than native insulation (especially natural). A beautiful white Apple-style braid runs the risk of quickly becoming gray.
Preparing the cable
Before you put a cable in a new braid, you need to prepare it. If the old insulation has collapsed in only one place, it can be left. If it falls off in pieces (as in my case), then it is better to remove it completely, otherwise the turns of the thread will lie loosely and the braid will ride. Also pay attention to the condition of the screen (metal braid and foil): it often breaks at the very connectors. You can restore it by tightly winding a couple of layers of ordinary threads.
We wind
The winding process is quite simple, but has its own subtleties. So that the ball of thread does not hang out and does not interfere with you, it is better to immediately cut off about three meters and, for convenience, wind it around something like a matchbox.
We start at either end, straight from the plastic. We tie a knot and tightly wind the thread turn to turn with a slight overlap, so that each subsequent slightly overlaps the previous one.
To protect against kinks, we form thickenings at the edges of the braid. We wind two or three layers, gradually increasing the thickness and making a smooth descent 3-4 centimeters long, so that it looks like in the photo. Depending on the thickness of the thread, there may be more or less layers. You can make it thicker if you want. This will not be very accurate, but it will be reliable.
Further - easier. From the formed thickening, we simply wrap the cable along the entire length to the very end. Take your time and try to pull the thread as tightly as possible: the quality of your cable will depend on this. Remember the overlap! The coils should lie on top of each other, turning into a continuous canvas. Press the braid with two fingers and pull along the cable. If the coils have fallen apart, then the overlap is insufficient.
We finish the winding in the same way as we started. We wind up to the plastic, go back 3-4 centimeters and repeat a couple of times to make a thickening that will save the cable from breaking. Try to lay the turns more evenly - so the transition will be neater and stronger. The free end of the thread does not need to be tied yet.
Fixing the edges
There are two options: heat shrink and glue. I tried both and I can say that you can not bother with the tubes - glue is enough. I'll tell you both, take your pick.
The diameter of the heat-shrinkable tube must be selected based on the thickening at the end of the cable (and vice versa). 6- and 8-mm tubes work well. Cut two pieces a couple of centimeters long and put both on the side of the Lightning connector. One will remain on it, and the second must be dragged through the entire cable to the other end.
Now gently heat the pieces of heat-shrinkable tubing put on so that they tightly fit the thickening of the braid and its ends do not unravel. This can be done with matches, a lighter or by bringing it to the stove, but it is better to ask your wife, mother or grandmother for a hairdryer as well. With it, you do not run the risk of overheating or smoking a pipe with a child (especially if you have it white).
Lazy people and those who do not have heat shrink can fix the ends of the braid with glue. A bubble of ordinary PVA or any other can be found in every home. Saturate the thickenings at the ends with it and fix it by pressing with two fingers (you will wash your hands later). When the glue dries, it will hold the turns of our braid no worse than heat shrink. The advantage of this method is that it is suitable not only for Lightning, but also for the old 30-pin connector, which will not fit any heat shrink.
If you are not lazy and you have heat shrink, you can first coat the ends with glue, and then put heat shrink on top.
In the described way, I brought four cables back to life and gained some experience. You will do better if you don't repeat my mistakes. Here's what you need to pay special attention to:
Too big bulges. Don't overdo the edges of the braid, otherwise they will turn out rough and ugly.
Long pieces of heat shrink. Like the previous mistake, this one will also make the cable less flexible and unkempt.
Small overlap. If you make a mistake here, you will get not a continuous coating, but a falling apart spring made of threads.
Natural thread. Eco-friendly yarn gets dirty more and becomes shaggy over time.
Double thread. If you use two threads of different colors, the braid will turn out not only strong, but also beautiful.
What is the result
For two months, such a simple and uncomplicated cable upgrade proved to be just great. It is more flexible, it is not scary to pull it, throw it into a backpack. Appearance is also far from the best.
I fixed my Lightning this way, my wife's old 30-pin cable, and then my sister's Lightning. When writing the article, I also decided to make a braid on a Mac charger, although it is still quite new and with a whole cable. It takes a minimum of time, and brings maximum benefits.
Spend half an hour and make yourself an eternal cable. It's worth it!
