The place for technical discussions about GA and flying.
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By Harleyatrix
#1901919
Not sure if correct forum, so please feel free to move if not.

I have an old Bose X headset, which still (miraculously), works, but not for much longer I fear.

The cable from the cups down to the control box is very frayed. I’ve previously wrapped insulating tape around it - more tape than cable, but keep having to redo it.

This model is old & no longer supported by Bose, (& anyway, I bought them third hand ages ago). there are no replacement leads for this to be found online.

Is there anything that can be done to repair them, as as I said earlier, they still work. (I’ve tried to upload an image)
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By Dodo
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1901947
I've given frayed leads on various pieces of kit a life extension with fairly generous applications of self amalgamating tape, which can give better support and is less likely to peel than insulating tape.
By Harleyatrix
#1902029
Have had replies back off the two links - the first one was particularly helpful.

The upshot is that there are no replacement parts for the Bose X available, so if I can’t repair the cable, it’s unfortunately terminal...
By rdfb
#1902036
I only know about electronics generally and relatively little about aviation headsets specifically, but a cable's a cable. There's no fundamental reason why it can't be replaced. It shouldn't be too hard to find a replacement cable of the right spec. You just need the same number of conductors, roughly the same (or better) flexibility in terms of wire strands per conductor, not go any thinner, and avoid going much thicker since that might be harder to reconnect then. There are places that have massive catalogues of cables of various types. You should be able to find a reasonable match. The only catch is that you might have to buy 100m or something unless you can find a seller (try eBay) that breaks things down. It all depends on how obscure the cable is (eg. the number of conductors), but if approximately the same overall thickness then having extra conductors isn't usually an issue.

Ideally you'd be able to access both ends and reconnect a replacement cable. Note that there might be soldering or crimping involved though. If you really can't (eg. you can't get into the casing without breaking it), then worst case you cut the cable near each end and patch in a replacement. Then the only issue would be if there's a broken conductor somewhere at one of the ends you're being forced to keep.

Nowadays some kinds of cable have electronic circuits built into them, such as USB-C cables that have a resistor built into one of the connectors. But I don't think you'd hit that kind of issue here.
By Harleyatrix
#1902156
Unfortunately for me, I’m pretty clueless when it comes to stuff like this, (finding replacement cables, soldering, etc)

However, I’ve got nothing to lose, so may try & become conversant in a new skill!
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