Headphones Magnetic Clip

When headphones are worn pulling on the wires tends to irritate the ears, eg when jogging or when wires run under clothing/jacket eg when cycling/motorcycling. There are some headphone that adress this problem that are worn like a lanyard that pass a string around the neck that sometimes has a plastic clip for easy/exidental removal [hyperlinks needed]. but I think the design can be improved with a neodymium magnet clip instead and by using the wires directly instead of a string. Pros: - The clip is easy to operate even with gloves. it snaps shut in proximity. - A strong accidental or deliberate pull will open the clip without ripping the wires. - Clip strength can be customized by adding or removing an additional magnet in the centre. - The joint is free to rotate which should avoids some twisting of the wires. Cons: - Less durable then a sting especially with very thin wires. - Wires are a bit harder to untangle due to magnets sticking to each other.

Any existing set of headphones can be modified as those above, however I expect this will be a common feature for any quality retail headphones. To make the prototype I used (4mm x 1.5cm) heat-shrink and a neodymium sphere magnets 5mm for each side of the clip. The wire simply does a U-turn inside the heat-shrink and I wrapped some scrap wire around the U-turn to give it bulk so that it does no slip out. Two spheres here make a fairle weak clip to te one above. Make sure the magnets are properly aligned before sealing the heat-shrink. Make sure you leave about 25cm from the clip to the headphone on each end, this should be enough wire to turn your head freely.

The magnets can be bough on e-bay ($37AUD for 1080spheres)