Part 3 Soldering and Testing

Attaching the Jack and Socket

  1. Cut 6 wires each approximately 3 inches long.
  2. Strip 0.25 inch from end of each wire.
  3. Solder a wire to the 3 contacts of the socket and jack. Either by using different colours or by labelling, note which wire is connected to the tip, ring, and sleeve.
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  4. Strip 1 inch from the wires.
  5. Use pliers to shape the exposed wires into loops.
  6. Hand sew the loops of wire to the scarf using the tails of conductive thread. Make sure the plug is sewn to the end of scarf with the mixer circuit and the socket on the end with the panning circuit. The sleeve is the ground connection, tip is the left ear and ring is the right ear. Sew the loops about an inch from the edge of the fabric.
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  7. Using normal thread or embroidery floss to sew the wire to the fabric. This is to provide strain-relief so the wire doesn’t stress and break off at the loop.
  8. Knot and trim all threads at each of the 6 loops.

First Listen

You now can test out the basic functionality of your audio.

  1. Connect a phone or music player to the plug of the scarf and headphones to the socket.
  2. Make sure all loose conductive threads are not touching any other threads.
  3. Start playing music – you may need to turn up the volume higher than you normally listen to. The resistance of the conductive thread will make the music quieter than if you were listening directly with headphones without the scarf in the middle.
  4. Pick up the loose thread from the end of the mixer circuit and carefully press it against the thread leading to only the right ear.
  5. Then try pressing it against the thread to the left ear.
  6. If each of those work, try pressing it to the two threads leadings to both ears. If everything works as expected, great! You can proceed to finishing the switch. If any part doesn’t work, it’s best now to track down if there are two threads touching that shouldn’t be or if there’s a break in a thread that means electricity doesn’t conduct through the whole circuit.