The earphone socket on my 6th Gen iPad has become intermittent, with the volume jumping around a lot.
It is a very cheap part - less than 10$ second hand - and taking the iPad apart is relatively easy. So why have I not replaced it ? Simples, the 6th Gen screen and digitizer, unlike later models, are two separate parts. Meaning that you really need a clean room to do the job without introducing dust between the two parts and I know from fitting the screen protector that my workshop is full of dust !
The work around was to get a cheap set of bluetooth earbuds hence this review....
21st August - Work in Progress. Google lost all my edits so I have had to repeat the measurements - Photos to follow..
As this was intended to be experimental and not the final solution I originally tested the iPad with a 10 year old pair of bluetooth travel headset which worked perfectly apart from the foam ear pads which had fallen apart. Another quick order to China !
My requirement was for a simple headphone replacement for listening to podcasts in bed on an iPad - no mobile phone integration, no voice, no volume controls. At less than $15 on eBay these seemed to fit the initial needs. If they worked I would consider spending more on a named brand.
Though after testing I found these are quite usable but I suspect that they are a cheap copy as the response times and batteries do not measure up.
The cardboard box contents were
A pill box containing the two earbuds, the charge circuitry and display
A short 15cm/6Inch USB A to USB mini charge lead.
No Manual.
What there is, is a scratch off with a QR-Code underneath linking to a website in China that was not reachable.
A search of the web, and an interchange of notes with the vendor both turned up a copy on manuals.plus
The top of each bud is a touch switch that can be used to control the host device.
One touch of either bud will pause or start play of the current track
Two touches of the left bud will move to the previous track
Two touches of the right bud will move to the next track
Three touches of the left bud is Volume down
Three touches of the right bud is Volume up
It is very easy to touch a bud accidentally and pause playback unintentionally. There is a considerable lag in the response time to the first touch so that when restarting play you may not think that it has registered the touch and try again only for it to start play and then stop straight away.
Good luck with adjusting the volume without changing tracks....
When you first remove the earbuds from the pill box they flash red and blue whilst seeking to pair with a device. If successful they simply say "connected". If you have not already paired them, then with an iPad they can be selected from the available Blue Tooth devices and will pair straight away.
I have no problem staying connected whilst walking around the same flooe of my house.
They seem to stick in my ears OK whilst sitting up or walking around and have no problem staying connected - but are a bit too large to lay your head down on a pillow comfortably.
There is a bright white display that lights up when being charge or whenever the earbuds are dropped in for charging.
The earbuds are held in place by a magnet whilst charging.
I was pleasantly surprised at the quality of the audio and the amount of base - I use these mainly for listening to podcasts and the occasional youtube video which was quite acceptable for the price.
A "useful" extra feature is that pill box is advertised as a 2000mAh Power Bank - so I put this to the test.
I connected an electronic load and ramped up the current until the power bank cut out at 800mA - a little low but could still be useful. I then set the load to 500mA and proceeded to run the battery down from a reported 100% to 10%. I did not want to destroy the battery for the sake of a test so I stopped at 10%. This provided 185mAh of useful power at 4.91 Volts. That can be extrapolated to roughly 206mA at 0% the equivalant of a 250mAh 3.7V battery. So much for the promised 2000mAh.
Charging the power bank battery starts at 300mAs , slows down to 100mAs towards the end and takes 90 minutes. A lot longer than I expected and consumed 340mAh at 5V. The difference between the useful capacity and the charging capacity I assume is the cost of running the battery monitor and percentage display for 90 minutes.
The box states 2 hours, the manual 1 to 2 hours, and in reality from empty the earbuds take roughly xx minutes to fully charge
The box promises 5 hours playback but from my experience the earbuds lasted for about 3 hours when new.
Each bud is rated at 35mAh for a full charge so as measured the pill box battery has sufficient capacity for just 3 full charge cycles of the earbuds.
https://manuals.plus/shenzhen-aonengda-electronics/m10-wireless-earphone-manual#axzz89jFSi100?utm_content=cmp-true