No sound - Broken satellite speaker (Harman Kardon 2.1)

You already engaged another Forum with your question... and they pointed you in the right direction... you just had to follow the lead and continue on that path.

that aligns well with what I said here...

https://forums.futura-sciences.com/depannage/733014-cable-enceinste-harman-kardon-abime-plus-de.html

Yes, of course, but to repair it yourself you need the equipment and the knowledge... otherwise, that would be known, that anyone could perform all existing techniques.

Without seeing the color of the wires, with a multimeter, we can tell which wire goes where... it’s almost rudimentary... it’s the sine qua non condition to repair a device for two euros and avoid replacing it for 200 euros.

With the soldering iron we solder the right wires onto the connector pin

With heat shrink tubing, we protect and insulate the connections

and with self-amalgamating tape, we recreate the cable sheath...

here is an airplane view of your repair...

then we test continuity and insulation of your repair... then we try it.

You must go through that if you don’t want to buy another one... if you don’t know how to do it, you can try to find a friend who will do it for you... and in the absence of compassionate friends, you can contact a repair service and ask them to do this work, it should be less than 200 euros...

Careful... the risk exists; that even well repaired, it may not work, because there is another fault or the cause is elsewhere. you also have to use cunning to get a good diagnosis.

Hello,

Let’s say all kinds of connectors are sold in electronics components stores and that it can be changed, for someone meticulous, skillful and well equipped with the right tools...

You still need to know the wiring diagram of the wires to re-solder them correctly in the connector...
This connector has a brand or a logo... it should be found... We cut the cable two centimeters behind, strip each wire neatly and to the right length, we solder them one by one into the new connector and normally it works... if you haven’t fried anything with your various combinations... You had to search for the wiring on the Web...

Anyway... Here is the described idea

to say more, you need to be more precise than that... Very precise, very clear photos, readable and/or close-up.

Thank you for the responses, I understand well what you (and the others) advise.
But to follow the lead as you say, you need equipment, I don’t have a soldering iron or the tools to coat the wires and I can’t know the arrangement of the wires in the satellite-side cable, the connector has came off the wires and I can’t access it because on the other side of the cable the wires are directly connected to the satellite. That’s why I tried the different configurations with the extension but it didn’t change anything.

I don’t know, I shouldn’t be able to understand then… With a multimeter you measure the resistance between two ends to know if they belong to the same wire, right? If so, I don’t have access to the ends of the wires on one side because the cable is sheathed at the satellite (I’d have to remove the entire sheath).
And after testing several configurations I can’t modify the volume anyway, so I feel like I can’t repair it.

We don’t compute anything at all. We put the device in ohmmeter mode (or bell mode) and touch one end of a wire, and the other probe touches a wire in the cable... if the display shows Zero or a very low value like 1 or 2, or it beeps, it means you’re on both ends of the same conductor, that’s the right one. otherwise you have an infinite or very large value and that’s not the right one..

And you do this until you test them all... You note it on paper and put markers... so if you have four wires, that’s 15 possibilities to search.. a bit less if you find quickly (chance)

That’s how you find the two ends of each conductor in a cable.... but that doesn’t by itself tell you which pin it is soldered to on the connector... you have to find the schematic... or another user who would be willing to map them for you...

I’m surprised you can’t find the finished cable in the “market” and there’s nothing left to do but connect or solder it inside the cabinet..

I must say I don’t know this equipment and that a few photos would have helped to situate things better...

And what does the other forum tell you..??

In short, in the photo below, you have the sheathed cable end coming out of the satellite of interest with the 4 wires (I cut it and removed the connector with the pins and stripped them):


Below is the same cable but at the other end, so it's the cable-satellite junction (the wires are inaccessible, which is why I don't understand how you want me to test them with an ohmmeter).


And finally, below, the 4 wires coming out of the cable I bought for the repair, which I stripped (you can't really see the yellow, which is very short):


This is the cable I connect (because it has intact pins) to the subwoofer.
I tried (roughly, just contact between the wires) every possible combination between the satellite wires and those of the black cable without any result though..

So your cable contains four conductors plus a ground...

how many contacts are there in the DIN connector...?? are they all soldered..?

in your wire combinations, you might forget to connect the ground (the braid that wraps the cable)

the other satellite cable... wouldn't it be made the same..??

I'm having trouble finding the documentation or information

No, there are only 4 wires in the cable, I think there are 2 for the satellite speakers and 2 for the volume control (the +/- buttons which are exactly blocked (sound at minimum)), and the DINs have 4 pins after all... I don’t understand what you mean about the soldering? Yes the wires are soldered to the mini-DIN otherwise
Since the other satellite doesn’t have the volume adjustment buttons, it’s just a RCA connector so nothing to do with it

Ah I didn’t know about the shielding acting as ground, is that still the case? Because I hadn’t connected it there indeed

It's true that the biggest problem is the lack of documentation... I can't find much about mini-DIN audio cables, even less braided ones... and it's not really my area of expertise.

The braid must be connected to the metallic body of the DIN plug, and it is very likely that this wire will serve as a common for all signals

so two wires for the + and - of the volume, relative to ground, and the two other wires for the audio RF link which are thus shielded by the shield to ground.

I’m contacting the company to try to obtain the details of this wiring... we’ll see.

Oh yes, okay, thanks! I’m going to try tomorrow to connect the wires, keeping the shieldings in contact to see if there is a difference.

Here is Harman Kardon's reply

Thank you for contacting Harman Customer Service.

Unfortunately, we cannot provide this plan as it is considered confidential information. However, I can give you the contact details for our technical service department which can repair the speaker for you, if you wish.

Thank you for your understanding!

I'm sorry, I had some hopes... it seems to be considered "secret defense" Anyway, they don't want to assist customers without going through their paid service...

I only see the DIY solution left to try to find the right wires in the right place... by making a flying connection with a domino bar

Could you do a rough wiring and then finalize it properly after finding the correct combination...

Note -> your DIN cable on one side -> 5-hole dominoes -> cable to the right satellite

So you connect your cable with the DIN plug, each wire to a domino terminal, on one side... and on the other side you try all the wire combinations coming from the satellite on the various domino terminals... It’s better to do it powered off.

That gives you 15 possibilities to test, I suggest you note them on paper first... and check them off as you do them...

Connect the sheath of one side to the sheath of the other and do not change it... That’s the only one that is certain.

The audio connection is via Wi‑Fi... so in these wires you have the Volume + and − and probably two wires that are the power supply...???