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My earphones' cable has grown a pimple. It popped today. (i.imgur.com)

submitted 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) by user224@lemmy.sdf.org to c/mildlyinteresting@lemmy.world

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Image on left is from 4 days ago, but the pimple was slowly forming over around 2 weeks.

The goop was sticky, not oily. Earphones are Panasonic RP-TCM130.

I was not able to find an explanation.
Something to increase cable lifespan, lubrication, rubber disintegrating, sweat and earwax that somehow got into the cable, dielectric grease, SCP-1407, no clear answer.

At first I thought the wires just somehow twisted. Nope.

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[-] Tylerdurdon@lemmy.world 152 points 5 months ago

If you put the yolk into a cup of soil, you should have baby headphones within 2-3 weeks.

[-] Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world 42 points 5 months ago

You gotta be careful with baby headphones. If it's a boy, he'll keep the cord. If it's a girl, she'll loose her cord, and her teeth will turn blue.

[-] OlinOfTheHillPeople@lemmy.world 24 points 5 months ago

In some states, you're legally required to.

[-] maryjayjay@lemmy.world 3 points 5 months ago

That's how I grow my own chickens

[-] bbuez@lemmy.world 89 points 5 months ago

Makes me think of that shitty grippy rubber material on cheap mice that becomes gooey with time. I would treat those as euclid until further testing

[-] Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world 42 points 5 months ago

Euclid??? The greek mathematician?

[-] user224@lemmy.sdf.org 66 points 5 months ago

Euclid-class SCPs are anomalies that require more resources to contain completely or where containment isn't always reliable. Usually this is because the SCP is insufficiently understood or inherently unpredictable. Euclid is the Object Class with the greatest scope, and it's usually a safe bet that an SCP will be this class if it doesn't easily fall into any of the other standard Object Classes.

Source

[-] Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world 20 points 5 months ago

.......what is an SCP?

[-] A_Union_of_Kobolds@lemmy.world 30 points 5 months ago

Secure Contain Protect

SCP is a collaborative wiki fiction edited and written by lots of people for years now. It started as kind of a novelty, a fake wiki of heavily redacted files relating to an organization's attempts to contain cryptids and various weird things. Its evolved over time and has numerous narrative arcs etc now.

[-] Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world 30 points 5 months ago

Is......is this what you guys were doing during covid quarantine? I just....played animal crossing.

[-] NateSwift@lemmy.dbzer0.com 31 points 5 months ago

The SCP Wiki is over 16 years old now!

[-] Dkarma@lemmy.world 5 points 5 months ago

I made shit up 16 years ago too! Everyone did

[-] bolexforsoup@lemmy.blahaj.zone 16 points 5 months ago

It’s actually a pretty old Internet Internet project!

[-] punkcoder@lemmy.world 20 points 5 months ago

Oh man… someones in for a fun night.

[-] ekZepp@lemmy.world 7 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

What Is The SCP Foundation? 15 Best Pieces Every New Fan Should Read | screenrant.com https://lemmy.world/post/15589512

[-] nilloc@discuss.tchncs.de 4 points 5 months ago

SCP-3008 The Perfectly Normal IKEA, and SCP-3333 about a spacial anomaly on a fire tower are my 2 favorites, but I haven’t delved all that deeply either.

[-] Dkarma@lemmy.world 6 points 5 months ago

12 yo middle school scarypasta

[-] Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world 4 points 5 months ago

Here I was thinking it stood for Sexy Cute Pizza.

[-] SturgiesYrFase@lemmy.ml 2 points 5 months ago

Oh, it absolutely does

[-] psmgx@lemmy.world 5 points 5 months ago

Paranormal memes

[-] liam070@sopuli.xyz 7 points 5 months ago

Source

Don't follow that rabbit hole!

[-] herrcaptain@lemmy.ca 68 points 5 months ago

Oh great, all the sound is gonna leak out before it gets to your ears.

[-] thefartographer@lemm.ee 16 points 5 months ago

Liquid sound? Dethklok would like a word with you

[-] SuiXi3D@fedia.io 10 points 5 months ago

Fish metal.

[-] No_Eponym@lemmy.ca 2 points 5 months ago

[-] whereBeWaldo@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 5 months ago

Happened to my mate, it sucks a lot tbf

[-] UsernameHere@lemmy.world 51 points 5 months ago

High resistance in a wire inside the sheath would generate more heat at that point, causing the plastic sheath to melt/bubble. So if the wire inside the sheath got damaged, pinched or some of the strands of wire were broken.

[-] fuckwit_mcbumcrumble@lemmy.dbzer0.com 38 points 5 months ago

These are earbuds, not big ass speakers. There shouldn't be enough power going through those cables to do melt anything.

[-] Orbituary@lemmy.world 14 points 5 months ago

You would be incorrect. If the power source shorts, it would heat the wires sufficiently.

[-] fuckwit_mcbumcrumble@lemmy.dbzer0.com 12 points 5 months ago

And how much power do you think the DAC in a phone is going to output?

The built in DAC in a phone can barely drive my headphones, let alone melt a silicone cable. They typically output less than a watt. On a good day. Rubbers melting point is 365c and 1 watt isn't gonna do that.

[-] user224@lemmy.sdf.org 9 points 5 months ago

They typically output less than a watt.

Sounds optimistic. Checking a few USB to 3.5mm dongles, they seem to be around 25mW max at 32Ohms. Not sure how much that would change with short circuit, but I guess not much more.

[-] Chewget@lemm.ee 1 points 5 months ago

It's more to do with wire gauge...

[-] UsernameHere@lemmy.world 0 points 5 months ago

Have you verified the specs on OPs headphones?

Maybe I missed it but I don’t see where OP said this happened while connected to a phone.

[-] fuckwit_mcbumcrumble@lemmy.dbzer0.com 9 points 5 months ago

They're earbuds. You're going to using them with a phone, maybe a laptop, or even in a pinch maybe a desktop. None of those output enough power to melt through a rubber cable without severely destroying themselves and never working again. OP would be posting "my phone exploded and I'm deaf now" not about the cable having a pimple.

Even my dedicated amp, a Shiit Magni outputs 6 watts with both channels combined, and ain't nobody connecting shitty earbuds to an amp. The rest of the cable is going to sink away the heat from 6 watts before the rubber could get hot enough to melt.

[-] altima_neo@lemmy.zip 5 points 5 months ago

Doesn't explain the goop though

[-] nezbyte@lemmy.world 25 points 5 months ago

Some sort of chemical reaction. My best guess would be a drop of CA glue that degraded the material over time.

[-] subignition@fedia.io 13 points 5 months ago

I feel like you maybe should replace those...

[-] VelvetStorm@lemmy.world 13 points 5 months ago

Sir, you are to remain in your present location until MFT Psi-8 makes contact. Any and all resistance will be met with force!

[-] snooggums@midwest.social 9 points 5 months ago

I am so intruiged by the fact that the mass of good accumulated at the one spot. The mystery of what pressures were at play for it to flow to that one spot.