Introduction: Add Aux Jacks to Tritton 720 Gaming Headset
I bought this Tritton 720 gaming headset 5 or 6 years ago. It has held up pretty well over the years, but as with anything eventually wear and tear took its toll.
Rather than buy a new $120 headset I decided to try and make some repairs myself, if nothing else it would be a learning experience. It most definitely was.
As you can see in the photos above I spliced on two 3.5mm audio jacks in a most horrendous fashion. This was my first attempt at soldering or any DIY electronics for that matter. It worked half decently, but soon the wires developed a short and sound quality began to suffer.
I then decided that if I'm going to do this, I'm doing it right. In the following Instructable I will show you how to completely remove the headset cable, rewire the entire headset, and install 3.5mm jacks in the left speaker housing. Basically my goal here was to get a little more experience with soldering and also make it so that in the future, should the cables get a short, I can just swap them out with new ones.
**DISCLAIMER**
As I said, I am very new to the DIY electronics scene. In this Instructable you WILL see me make mistakes. I will point them out as we go along. That way we all learn.
Step 1: Required (and Optional) Tools and Parts
Required Tools:
SE MZ101B Helping Hands with Magnifying Glass
#1 Phillips Head Screwdriver and 3.0mm Flat Head Screwdriver
Optional Tools:
Parts:
All other tools and parts were part of another project that is connected with this and will probably be part of another Instructable.
Step 2: Disassemble the Headset
LOCATE YOUR SCREWS!
Start by off popping the speaker housing side panel for both left and right speakers with your flat head screwdriver.
Remove padding from left and right ear cup.
Peel padding from the headband.
Slide the plastic guard of the headband to the right to remove.
All screws exterior screw are now exposed. Remove them and place them somewhere safe. Personally I use an ashtray with a snake egg magnet inside. Cheap and efficient.
With all exterior screws removed you can now access the interior screws on the headband and ear piece couplings.
Using your flat head screwdriver CAREFULLY pop the headband casing open to reveal the plastic adjustment bar removing the serial number sticker to reveal one last screw.
Step 3: Remove Existing Wires
Looking at the left speaker housing you will see at the bottom a rubber fitting. This will need to be removed to make room for the aux jack.
Start by using your diagonal cutters (or scissors) to cut the main cable.
Desolder the wires from the connections by heating the solder and then using the solder pump to remove.
Your speakers should now be clean and ready for the next step.
Step 4: Modifying the Speaker Housing and Couplings
The speaker housing will need to be modified to fit the two jacks.
Start by boring out the hole the speaker cable used to run through. Test often to see if the jack will fit, you want a snug fit. You will also want to counter sink the area around the hole to accommodate the jack's panel mount nut.
Bore the hole for the second jack. This did not require counter sinking.
Since I am using a thicker gauge wire than what was originally installed I also had to bore out the headband couplings.
**For those without a rotary tool**
As I noted at the beginning of this Instructable, the rotary tool is optional. If you do not want to spend the money/aren't very partial to your soldering iron all of the above can be performed (however messy) by melting through the plastic.
Step 5: Run Wires
Feed the wires through the pivot points on the sides of the speaker housing and couplings.
Once you have the wire set lay out the headband to make a rough adjustment of length required to allow full extension. I ended up with a little extra length, but that is better than not having enough.
Step 6: Solder the Speakers and Aux Jack
Even though the wire I purchased is tinned I still did it. This is where the helping hand tool REALLY pulls it's weight.
After tinning the wires solder the ground (white) and right lead (red) to the right speaker connections.
Then solder the ground to the left speaker connection.
**MISTAKE**
Thread the wires through the eyelets on the jack connectors. When I did this I mixed up the right and left, so learn from my mistake. When holding the aux jack with the ground post on the bottom the right lead (red) should be on the left and the left lead (green) should be on the right.
After threading the wires loop the ends and solder.
Remove the nut from the jack port and push into the mounting hole.
Once everything is snug tighten the nut back on the port.
Solder the second ground wire (white) from the jack to the left speaker connection.
Solder the left lead (green) to the left speaker connection.
If you have a spare male/male aux cable laying around now would be a good time to test.
Step 7: Solder the Mic Jack
Solder the ground onto the center post by threading and looping the wire like before.
Solder the lead wire onto one of the side posts, I do not think it matters which.
Mount the jack as you did before and tighten the nut on the port.
Now route the wires and solder them to the pcb board connectors as pictured.
Test again. If everything turns out right, congratulations. You now have a headset with easily replaceable cable that will be sure to last a long time. Reassemble and get back to gaming.
There will be a second part to this instructable as I construct my own aux cables. So thank you for reading, I hope you enjoyed, and stay tuned.
