Anyone use a J&M CB/intercom system???

[OoPEZoO]

My old intercom system finaly crapped out on me last week, and I'm looking for a replacement. The one I had was made by Hondaline and was installed by the previous owner. It had a rider to passenger intercom, integrated CB, and a phono line in jack for audio. The audio worked great, so did listening to the CB, but the intercom and transmit of the CB left much to be desired.

 

I was wondering if anyone has experience with the J&M JMCB-2003? It appears to have everything I want/need, all wrapped up in the handlebar unit. The previous unit had a handle bar mount, plus a "brain" under the rear seat.

 

I have used J&M headsets in the past and liked them very much, but I wasn't sure about their systems. Any insight would be greatly appreciated.

 

By the way, their website is www.jmcorp.com

[Tim_Klassen]

I'm new here and I'm learning all about this site. I typed out a complete report evaluating the J&M system I've used now for the last 2 months and about 8,000 kms with our riding group. When I clicked continue I was told my time expired and the report disapeared!!!!! Guess I should have saved the report? Anyway (trust me the report was great)

Don't waste your money on the unit. I've had C/Bs on all my touring bikes and ride with guys that have every type available. Drawbacks: I listen to an XM radio or MP3 as I ride that's tied into the J&M unit and the volume doesn't adjust to speed as competitor units do. I'm forever turning the volume up and down and I find this annoying and dangerous. When I purchased the unit I was told that all my previous J&M headsets will work and they would simply provide me with new cords which will adapt. This is not the case and I found out after the CB was installed that I had to purchase two headsets that have built in amplifiers. ($580.00CAN each) I ordered them at about $300.00 US and had to drive 100 miles to the border to p/u. I'm into this for about $2000.00 including the J&M antenna and wish I could send the entire thing back. I outlined the StarCom, AutCom as well as the Baehr units that have all the features I'd like. J&M has great clearity but unfortunatly my wife unplugs the cord because she can't control the volume and because the passager has more noise I need to turn the volume up so she can hear and it's too loud for me. Very frustrating.

It's OK when alone but as noted, the accessory volume isn't controled by speed.

J&M was very helpful selling me the unit up front but ignored me when I complained about being misinformed by not only thier ad but when I asked if I could purchase headsets direct to save some money. I have custom molded earplugs I can't use in the system because of the built in amplifiers I wasn't made aware of. When I contacted the manufacturer of the ear plugs they informed me that J&M would not release the wiring diagrams for them to make a new adaptor for me. The entire experience has not been a good one. J+M CB is very clear, good looking unit but I wouldn't recommend it.

By the way, you can only purchse the RT CB unit from BMW and that's why it's not posted on the J&M site. If you'd like the owners manual or the installation manual I could e-mail it to you since J&M gave me permission to do so in order to sell units to my BMW buddies. It's in PDF form.

Tim

[jimwms]

The J&M is the only true handlebar mount CB that I know of. It works great, gives easy access to the squelch ( a must for frequent CB use), and has an aux in with easy to reach volume control. As the wires leave the unit, though, things get complicated.

 

I’ve been told by J&M: Our system won’t work on an RT; You can’t use earbuds with our system; You can’t integrate FRS into our system; as well as the things they apparently told Tim. It is all crap. There are no “built in amplifiers”. Doing my own hacking, with no help from J&M, I have their rig running the CB, FRS, Cell, Radar, GPS, the factory radio and iPod simultaneously though earbuds. It works fine.

 

I don’t use the intercom, because I don’t ride two-up, but don’t think I would like it because there is no noise gate (vox) and the wind noise would probably be pretty bad. Also, the part they sell to integrate cell, gps, etc., is insanely overpriced and has limited features.

 

If I had it to do over again and wanted the intercom, I would buy just the handlebar system (without intercom) and wire it into an autocomm. This would only take minor hacking. You absolutely cannot count on J&M for any help, even though I really think the handlebar unit is a good piece of hardware. If you only want one aux audio input and don’t need the intercom, it will work fine out of the box. The earbud mod is really easy. The rest of the things I did were pretty tedious.

[OoPEZoO]

Cool, thanks for the response. I'm not really concerned about the intercom. The old lady wants one, but I wouldn't be upset if it doesn't work like advertised....LOL. I'm only concerned with the CB clarity and Audio in. I use the CB on my daily commute for traffic situations, and I usually just plug my MP3 player into the audio connection (with the thought of going to Sat radio). I also tend to travel with Goldwings who use CB, not FRS.

 

I'm not worried with what J&M says works or doesn't work.......I'm just interested in what I can make work. So your response was exactly what I was looking for. I never rely on company's tech support to tell me what is possible. Anything is possible as long as there are wires coming out of the unit. Thanks again for the info

[waverider]

Have it... love it... works great. Only work around is finding a place ya wanna install the antenna. PM me if you have further questions.

[OoPEZoO]

Have it... love it... works great. Only work around is finding a place ya wanna install the antenna. PM me if you have further questions.

 

Thats not a problem for me. I already have a big ugly antenna hanging off the back of my bike from the previous system. Thanks for your input

[James_H]

I have the JMCB and plan on interfacing it with the Autocom. I have asked JM for the pin out on the nine pin connector, they have not replied. I suspect they would give it to me.

 

If you have the pin outs and can give me a brief message about how you connected it, I'd appreciate it.

 

Also, if you found a matting nine pin connector, I'd like to know about that.

 

Thanks.

 

Jim

[OoPEZoO]

I don't have mine interfaced with anything. Mine is a stand alone system that has a intercom/CB/weather band/and an Aux input all wrapped up into a tight little package that mounts on the handlebar (no brain under the seat or tupperware).

 

I use the factory 9-pin pigtail to connect to my helmets via a standard helmet headset, and plug my MP3 (soon to be Sirius Satellite) into the Aux input. There is nothing else to the setup for me. I didn't have to cut or splice anything.

 

I have very little experience with the Autocom systems. I looked into them, but they are really over complicated and overpriced for what you get out of the system. There are a ton of options, but its just a messy system. This is just my opinion of course.

 

Here is the owners manual for my system

 

http://jmcorp.com/JMCB-2003_instructions.pdf

[James_H]

Thanks. I have not used an intercom system before. I did read a lot of postings and information before buying one. The Autocom was very popular. It is probably over priced, considering what's probably in it. I got the JMCB because it was the smallest CB that seemed likely to work on the bike without a lot of hassle. It is a nice looking unit.

 

Just for the record, I installed the Autocom Super Pro Avi on the bike last week. We made a trip to the beach, about 150 miles one way on Friday night and returned on Sunday afternoon.

 

I have the unit interfaced with a Garmin 2820, using the Autocom cables and we were using full face helmets (the only ones we had that we could probably use the "standard" headsets in. After getting the speakers in the right place, the system worked very well. I had a cell phone interfaced with the 2820 using bluetooth and it worked flawlessly. The intercome was something else. There was far too much noise with the full face helmets we had. If you cracked the visor just a little the noise got worse. This affected the VOX.

 

When we got to the beach we picked up a set of 3/4 helments and a hot glue gun and reinstalled the system. On the trip back home everything worked as expected. The intercom was crisp and clear. There was little or no false triggering as speeds increased. The sound system volume changed as the noise level changed.

 

In essence, this system did what it was suppose to do right of the box. The only problems encounted had to do with the noise generated by the helmets. Once that was resolved, the unit was really fun to use.

 

We had music via the 2820 XM radio and the only issue I could possibly complain about was the time it takes the music to return to normal after using the intercom.

 

Again, it appears that the variable VOX works very well. There was really no change in what was required to communicated regardless of the speed we were traveling.

 

I am now looking for some good 3/4 helmets that have low noise factors.

 

As soon as I get the JMCB interfaced to the Autocom, I'll make a post on how that worked out.

 

Jim

[OoPEZoO]

Sounds great. Definitly let us know how it works out. I don't use a nav system or a radar detector, and I definitly don't want to be able to use my cell phone while riding. Not for safety concerns, I just prefer not to be interupted while I'm enjoying myself. So the J&M system was the perfect solution for me. Not to mention, I got a set of "hand-me-down" headsets from my Dad for free that plugged right into it.

[James_H]

I did not think I'd like the intercom either. I liked the "private" time. But it was difficult to communicate with my rider at times.

 

Then I started to use music. Finally got that sorted out on a long trip (for me anyway, South Carolina to Oklahoman and back) and the music worked well, as did the GPS.

 

There were four bikes on the trip and three of them had CBs (not me). There are things I'd miss on the road that they would see and vica versa, so the desire to communicate got born.

[OoPEZoO]

Yeah, I did California and back last summer with 7 varias Goldwings and Harleys. They all had CBs as well. I honestly use it most on my daily commute. I have the CB turned on to listen if there are accidents so I can get off the highway and avoid them. I travel about 600 miles per week into the Baltimore, MD area. Bad accidents are a daily thing. Having a CB has saved me from hours on top of hours of sitting in traffic. Its a must have in my opinion.

[James_H]

Anything I should know about the operation of the JMCM? It seems pretty straight forward.

[OoPEZoO]

not that comes to mind. like you said, its straight forward

[Mudman]

I went the same route with the J&M 2003 unit on my 06 RT. It worked out really well for the Alaska trip I just got back from. I modified the Sierra mount to move the unit to the left away from center. This did two things; returned clear view of the speedo and allowed me to easily use the integrated TX switch rather than a remote mount. All of this was accomplished by simplty drilling a pair of new mount holes to the right of the originals on the mount. I positioned it so the TX lever didn't interfere with the Cruise switch. I also bent the bracket slightly to obtain a better display angle to my line of sight.

On the antenna I fashioned a metal bar that attached to the under bolts on the rear rack. I had to make some spacers and replace the two bolts with longer ones. The mount goes to the right above the turn signal far enough to clear the 49 liter trunk when it is used. I used a 24" quick detach antenna also supplied by Sierra. I used the music function to deliver XM radio and have the intercom capibility although I seldom ride two up. The unit has been shaken and vibrated quite a bit. I had to ride through some heavy rain. Everything has held up perfectly

 

CB, WX Channels, music amplification and mixing, and intercom is all I needed or wanted. They do sell a device mixer for this unit so you can add GPS, Radar, and cell phone I believe.

[dj_nj]

I have the JMCB and plan on interfacing it with the Autocom. I have asked JM for the pin out on the nine pin connector, they have not replied. I suspect they would give it to me.

 

If you have the pin outs and can give me a brief message about how you connected it, I'd appreciate it.

 

Jim

 

J&M never will give out tech info on its product line.

Here's a link to a site that can help you with pin info:

http://www.ba-marc.org/installs/helmet_audio.htm

[James_H]

I plan to mount the device on two bikes. One is an 1100 RT-P, the other is a Honda Valkyrie. They, J&M, make a mount that will work easily on the Valkyrie. However, they don't make a mount specifically for the 1100 RT. What mount did you use?

 

I did some research last night and figured out most of the pins on the nine pin connector and the six pin din connector. Here is a preliminary draft.

 

PIN Color Purpose

1 ORG +12 VDC

2 SPKR

3 SPKR

4

5 N/C N/A

6 BLK GND

7 Not Connected in Headset end

8 BRN GND

9 BLU GND

 

Six Pin

PIN Nine Mate Purpose

1 3 SPKR

2 8 GND

3 MIC ??

4 8 GND

5 2 SPKR

6 6 GND

 

I did fire the unit up, connected to an antenna for the purposes of receiving and checked out the unit. The audio out would drive a small speaker very well. I have not checked out the transmit side nor did I check to make sure the audio out was true stereo. Just because they have two speaker leads does not mean it's stereo but I suspect it is.

 

The next thing I will try is connecting it to the Autocom using the Autocom Aux 5 connection. I'll see how the audio sounds there. I should be able to get it set to a reasonable volume level.

[OoPEZoO]

I used a bracket that was on my bike when I bought it. It was on the original "HondaLine" C/B intercom system that the previous owner installed. Its not perfect, but it does the job. It mounts it right over the high idle slider, so I can hit the PTT button easily.

 

Are you planning to install 2 seperate systems (one per bike), or are you planning on swapping one unit back and forth between 2 bikes? The later option would be a real PITA.

[James_H]

I plan on swapping the units, depending. I'll run all the cables on both bikes, unplug the Autocom and swap it and then unplug the JMCB. Since the audio connectors for the helmets run out near the seat, that should not be a problem. I'll have three connections to the GPS, and two for the JMCB (nine pin connector and antenna). Unless you have a better suggestion.

 

I don't plan on doing it daily, that would be a pain. Choice of bikes to ride depends on mood, day, time of year, and where roads likely to be traveled.

[Mudman]

I got my mount bracket from Sierra Electronics. It is designed for the Later RT's that use the Hydralic Clutch (2002 and up). I am afraid the bracket I use will not fit an earlier RT using the cable clutch.

[jimwms]

I'm not sure what the 1100 left control situation is, but I use a RAM mount in the empty mirror hole on my 1150.

[Mudman]

That's a great looking solution. It should work with an 1100.