weird nylon(?) cable in cellphone cable

[Marco Scoffier]

I have an earpiece and microphone for a cell phone which I don't use.
I want to replace the triple 3.5mm jack connector with two RCA
connectors, so I can plug it into my soundcard and use it with my voip
softphone. When I cut the cable I was surprised by the weird wires inside.

I looks like thin nylon(?) strands and is not conductive or has
some kind of coating which makes the strands non-conductive lengthwise.
I can't get conductivity on the end of the wire, perhaps it is too thin to
make a good contact with my meter. I can't solder the stuff either.

I tried rubbing lengthwise with a razor blade to remove any protective
coating, but this removed anything that had the appearance of being
metallic, leaving only thin white non-conductive threads.

Does anyone know what this stuff is?
Is there a way of making an electric connection to it?

Thanks,

Marco

 

[Joseph Hansen]

It is an alloy to which solder will not whet, wrapped around nylon. If you
look closeley at the original connection you will see that it was crimped or
welded (the actual conductor was melted to the connector using high
frequency spot welding techniques, as opposed to just brazing or soldering)
They use it because it doesn't break as easily as copper does when you flex
it repeatedly. Almost all audio equipment uses it. What it means to you
is, once it's broken, throw it out and get a new one because you don't have
the technology to fix it.

 

[Marco Scoffier]

It is an alloy to which solder will not whet, wrapped around nylon. If you
look closeley at the original connection you will see that it was crimped or
welded (the actual conductor was melted to the connector using high
frequency spot welding techniques, as opposed to just brazing or soldering)
They use it because it doesn't break as easily as copper does when you flex
it repeatedly. Almost all audio equipment uses it. What it means to you
is, once it's broken, throw it out and get a new one because you don't have
the technology to fix it.

thanks for the info,