Small electronics repair help

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  • craigkim

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    I use a surgical headlight for work. I know next to nothing about small electronics. It is a small LED light which mounts onto my glasses and has an integrated/fixed cable running from the back of the small LED down along my glasses arm then to a small cable to a 3.5mm connector near waist level. The LED light is supposed to be 3 watts. It is powered by an external battery which has a jack input in 3.5mm obviously.
    The battery lists the INPUT from the charger as 8.4 volts then it has a long solid line over three dashes and lists 11.5A. It then lists the output at 7.4V 2600 mAh. There are 3 gold band zones on the pin connectors interrupted by 2 black bands.

    The problem I am running into, over and over again, is there isn’t any built in stress relief design in the cable. As you move the cable gets twisted and torqued where the wire enters the plug into the battery. So at the 3.5mm connector near the battery I keep getting shorts. I have cut/resoldered and shrink wrapped the cable several times, but it always reoccurs.

    My question is: Maybe I can use a coiled type connector as the connection to the battery and then plug the light cable into that. Maybe even just a sacrificial length? I envision a female to male cable type and I would plug the light from the cable into that one. This should eliminate the stress on the cable/battery connection. I am just unsure what and where to buy such a cable. I assume this is a different type of 3.5mm cable/connection to carry 7.4V compared to an audio/headphone cable.

    Can anyone shed some light on this for me and help me figure out what/where to buy? Please?
     

    LeverGunFan

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    Here's a link to an outfit called All Electronics, they sell a variety of surplus electronic gear. If your connectors are of the mono phone plug type, the link I supplied may help, otherwise browse around to see if anything matches.
     

    indyblue

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    Last edited:

    craigkim

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    No, no difference than audio other than the voltage/current capacity which should not be a problem at these low levels of power.

    Something like this? Although has extra conductor it should work.

    https://www.amazon.com/Wpeng-plated...ocphy=9016167&hvtargid=pla-585810184049&psc=1

    View attachment 73761

    Okay, great. Knowing that it is just an audio/headphone style cable is the missing piece in the puzzle to me really. It seems like you have mono 3.5mm cables with 1 black stripe, stereo with 2, and 3 channel stereo with 3. It seems that I need a "stereo" cable. Thanks!
     

    schmart

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    I use a surgical headlight for work. I know next to nothing about small electronics. It is a small LED light which mounts onto my glasses and has an integrated/fixed cable running from the back of the small LED down along my glasses arm then to a small cable to a 3.5mm connector near waist level. The LED light is supposed to be 3 watts. It is powered by an external battery which has a jack input in 3.5mm obviously.
    The battery lists the INPUT from the charger as 8.4 volts then it has a long solid line over three dashes and lists 11.5A. It then lists the output at 7.4V 2600 mAh. There are 3 gold band zones on the pin connectors interrupted by 2 black bands.

    My question is: Maybe I can use a coiled type connector as the connection to the battery and then plug the light cable into that. Maybe even just a sacrificial length? I envision a female to male cable type and I would plug the light from the cable into that one. This should eliminate the stress on the cable/battery connection. I am just unsure what and where to buy such a cable. I assume this is a different type of 3.5mm cable/connection to carry 7.4V compared to an audio/headphone cable.

    Can anyone shed some light on this for me and help me figure out what/where to buy? Please?

    Others have pointed you towards a coiled headphone extension cable. That should work for the battery to LED connection as it will only be about 1/2 amp current, and almost any wire will carry that much current. However, if you are talking about between the charger and the battery, I've got some concerns based on the information you posted. I'm concerned because you said it says 11.5 amp output. (The solid line over dashes means DC). That is a huge amount of current for such a low voltage, and would fully charge the battery from dead in just over 15 minutes... It would take a largish 14 to 16 gage wire to prevent undesired voltage drops, and possible cable heating. If you made a typo and it is 1.15A, taking about 2 hours to charge the pack, then you would be fine with the same type of headphone extension.

    --Rick
     

    craigkim

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    Others have pointed you towards a coiled headphone extension cable. That should work for the battery to LED connection as it will only be about 1/2 amp current, and almost any wire will carry that much current. However, if you are talking about between the charger and the battery, I've got some concerns based on the information you posted. I'm concerned because you said it says 11.5 amp output. (The solid line over dashes means DC). That is a huge amount of current for such a low voltage, and would fully charge the battery from dead in just over 15 minutes... It would take a largish 14 to 16 gage wire to prevent undesired voltage drops, and possible cable heating. If you made a typo and it is 1.15A, taking about 2 hours to charge the pack, then you would be fine with the same type of headphone extension.

    --Rick

    No, but thanks for clarifying Rick. The battery INPUT is listed as 8.4V and 11.5 A. I don't fully understand because the charger states 8.4V at 1.5 A. BUT either way I am looking for a cord from the battery to the LED light to carry the 7.4V.
     
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