Preparation

Before you begin, you should be comfortable using the required tools of this build. This will take approximately 20 minutes. Follow the safety guidelines of your equipment, such as wearing safety glasses when using the wire cutters and practicing safe soldering techniques. To set up, get your tools out and make sure you have all of the necessary components. Feel free to email us at hello@backyardbrains.com if you need help sourcing any of the components or have other questions.

Tools you'll need:

• Soldering iron with a fine-point tip
• A small diameter solder (~0.015” dia.)
• Wire cutters
• Scissors
• Electrical Tape
• Heat Shrink tubing (optional)
• Heat Gun (optional)

Components you'll need:

• The Electrode Cable your TENS unit came with
• 0.1” header male connector
• 0.1” header female connector
• 2 feet of stereo speaker wire
• Alligator Clips

Essential skills:

• Comfortable with a soldering iron
• A steady hand

Procedure

Take the cable from your TENS unit, cut one side with scissors, and strip the insulation to expose the wire.

Cut 2 feet of speaker wire...

two pieces of male header...

solder the male headers to the exposed ends of one side of the speaker wire...

and install some heat shrink tubing to protect the solder joints (this step is optional).

Solder the other end of the speaker wire to the exposed side wire of the TENS cable.

To protect the solder joints and prevent accidental shorts, surround one joint with electrical tape.

and then surround the other joint with electrical tape as well.

Slide heat shrink tubing down the cable and shrink it was a heat gun to further protect the solder joints.

Take some alligator clips....

and slide or solder them onto the TENS stimulator connectors.

Now you will make a mating pair to restore the functionality of the cable, or to find your threshold before an experiment. Cut two female headers.

and solder them together.

You can apply heat shrink here as well to protect the solder joints.

And you are all done!