Simple earphone and power cord repair – hockey tape

Roll of Hockey Tape

That’s right.  It turns out that hockey tape is better than electrical tape.  I can’t speak for the non conductive properties of hockey tape but it’s definitely stickier than electrical tape and just about as cheap.

For non-Canadians, hockey tape is tape that is wrapped around a hockey stick on the blade where the puck makes contact and sometimes at the top end to aid in grip.

I cut a small strip and wrapped it around the end where the wire is attached to the jack.

 

Pros

  • It’s sticky
  • It’s strong
  • It’s black
  • It’s cheap

Cons

  • It looks a little cheap
  • Require’s a little bit of work and dexterity

So far it has been about six months and it’s holding up quite well and seems to stronger than the original.  I may want add this preventively to cheap headphones on the other stress areas such where the earpiece connects to the wire and on the ‘Y’ joint.

I have also applied hockey tape to the frayed cover on a cell phone charger.

Frayed Cell Phone Charger

Repaired Cell Phone Charger

Use Old BlackBerry Charger In New Smartphone

If you’ve got an old BlackBerry charger you can use this as a charger for your new smartphone.

New smartphones are often charged with a standard micro USB charger. This includes newer BlackBerries which are charged via mirco USB. Older BlackBerries use mini USBs.

Note that this doesn’t apply iPhones which have their own proprietary connector, but there are lots of cheap alternatives for them.

What’s the difference?

A mini USB plug can easily be converted to a micro USB plug via an adapter. These can be readily obtained from several retailers on eBay. I got mine from eBay seller “expert-island”.

This conversion makes a great replacement changer or an extra changer to keep at work or in your travel bag.

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Blackberry charger – mini USB

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Micro USB Charcher

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Mini USB to Mico USB Adapter