HTC RC E160 / Creative EP 630 Zombie Headphones - sounds good!

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Thanks for the inspiration.

As one can get the HTC RC E160 really cheap (EUR 4,50), I ordered two and gave it a try. In contrast to the OP, I did not manage to make proper connections to the small printed circuit - glue all over, and everything much too tiny for my soldering skills...

I found it much easier to just swap the speaker capsules with an old EP 630 (which had a broken cable, my family's standard earphone). Both the HTC's and the Creative's capsules open really easy, and you already have stripped, tinned wires and nice (not so tiny) soldering pads.

Just be careful when pulling out the cables and don't forget to re-add the knots before soldering.



Heinz

How about making a video ?
Yes, Please make a video for this hack, I hope then our doubt will be clear

Sorry, I don't have the parts to repeat all steps in a video.

But I opened it again for you and took another picture. Please note the black cable in an otherwise white body my doubtful readers...



These are the exact steps:

On the EP 630 side:

1. Pry the metal ring loose carfully using a knife and remove it.
2. Now you can pull out the sound driver easily.
3. Unsolder, cut and remove the cables.

On the HTC side:

1. Deform the earplug gently until the metal capsule pops out (I used a 200g hammer - we are only interested in the cables!)
2. Pull out the cable some centimeters using a tweezer (don't just pull on the metal capsule or the solder joints will break).
3. Unsolder the cables.
4. Unknot the cables and pull them out.
5. Guide them trough the tube of the EP 630 body.
6. Knot them again.
7. Solder them to the pads on the EP 630 driver. (Be sure not to cross polarity on your left and right ear which will probably sound bad. There seems to by a red color code near the "plus" pad. Connect the solid green or solid red wire here. The other one - solid nothing or striped green - seems to be ground.
8. Re-assemble the plugs (the metal ring holds everything in place).

Regards,
Heinz

Thx Heinz!

I like this and might have to give it ago myself....... will report back if successful

this post inspired me...gonna to do this

Neat trick, Very useful considering the lack of choice of 3 button Android compatible headphones. Do you know if this reduces the quality of sound in mid range headphones?

Thanks

From Russia with love by my HTC Desire S

Originally Posted by bongo1

Neat trick, Very useful considering the lack of choice of 3 button Android compatible headphones. Do you know if this reduces the quality of sound in mid range headphones?

depends how you do it if properly, then there will be no quality reduction, regardless of the range of headphones. there's really little you can do wrong.

Nicely done