One of the pins on the subwoofer side of the cable came out/broke off from the cable.  Anyone had this happen and found a way to fix this or make a disconnect, short of cutting the wires and joining them together?

Thanks in advance

Doesn't look like the company offers a replacement cable, at least not for sale. You might have luck contacting them and seeing if they can send you one.

Generally if a low voltage cable's connector breaks, and I need the cable and don't want to / can't find and replace the connector itself, I just lop off both connectors and direct-wire the two ends together. Make sure you don't cross the wires, and wrap each lead in electrical tape so you don't get a short. Then wrap the whole thing in more electrical tape to protect it. It's an easy fix, and back when I was a kid and couldn't afford tools I'd just do it with a Swiss Army knife. Very simple.

 

If you need to be able to connect/disconnect, you can get butt splicers from any hardware store and replace the existing connectors with them. They're also easy - they just crimp onto the wire by squeezing them with pliers. The nice thing about low-volt wire is that pretty much any metal connector will transmit the signal.

 

 

 

I replaced the plug and socket on my cables with XLR inline plug/sockets. These are heavy duty 3 pin plugs/sockets usually used for audio purposes.
Most XLR inline plugs/sockets have a hard metal shell. To reduce the weight of the plug/socket combo, I chose plastic shell XLR components.

You will need to cut and strip both ends of your existing cables, and solder the 4 wires onto the pins of the XLR's.

The pins in XLR are protected, and the plugs and sockets are robust.

Edited March 7, 20233 yr by c912039

9 hours ago, eslader said:

Doesn't look like the company offers a replacement cable, at least not for sale. You might have luck contacting them and seeing if they can send you one.

Generally if a low voltage cable's connector breaks, and I need the cable and don't want to / can't find and replace the connector itself, I just lop off both connectors and direct-wire the two ends together. Make sure you don't cross the wires, and wrap each lead in electrical tape so you don't get a short. Then wrap the whole thing in more electrical tape to protect it. It's an easy fix, and back when I was a kid and couldn't afford tools I'd just do it with a Swiss Army knife. Very simple.

 

If you need to be able to connect/disconnect, you can get butt splicers from any hardware store and replace the existing connectors with them. They're also easy - they just crimp onto the wire by squeezing them with pliers. The nice thing about low-volt wire is that pretty much any metal connector will transmit the signal.

 

 

 

Yeah i'd ideally want to keep the disconnect.  I thought butt connectors though, were permanent.. i was trying to find some sort of banana plug i could either crimp or solder that had a female counterpart, but unsure which.  I may just have to experiment.

 

Possibly these https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07Y5PD51Y/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Edited March 7, 20233 yr by theskyisthelimit

3 hours ago, theskyisthelimit said:

eah i'd ideally want to keep the disconnect.  I thought butt connectors though, were permanent.. i was trying to find some sort of banana plug i could either crimp or solder that had a female counterpart, but unsure which.  I may just have to experiment.

Have a look in any auto accessories shop. You'll find a selection of connectors which can be either crimped or soldered to provide a push fit connection.  If you take the broken item you can compare directly for wire size etc.

12 hours ago, theskyisthelimit said:

Yeah i'd ideally want to keep the disconnect.  I thought butt connectors though, were permanent.. i was trying to find some sort of banana plug i could either crimp or solder that had a female counterpart, but unsure which.  I may just have to experiment.

 

Possibly these https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07Y5PD51Y/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I like @c912039's idea a lot. I used to work with XLRs all the time at work. Those things are robust and have a locking plug so you won't accidentally pull it out when you don't want to. I don't know how many wires the Buttkicker cable has in it, but you can get XLR connectors with up to 9 pins, and I can't imagine it'd be more than that. 

I know it was not what you want but I have had two Buttkickers do the exact same thing.  I wound up cutting the wires and using wire nuts to put the wires back together then covered that mess with electrical tape.  It has worked ever since.

LouP

40 minutes ago, eslader said:

I like @c912039's idea a lot. I used to work with XLRs all the time at work. Those things are robust and have a locking plug so you won't accidentally pull it out when you don't want to. I don't know how many wires the Buttkicker cable has in it, but you can get XLR connectors with up to 9 pins, and I can't imagine it'd be more than that. 

The Buttkicker cable only has 2 wires. The minimum XLR plug and inline socket combo has support for 3 pins. So I just used the 2 outside pins in the 3 pin XLR.
The other thing about the XLR plug is that the pins are shrouded by a cover so  you will never have problems of a pin breaking off in future.