Autocom and in ear speakers question

[akasjl]

I have an Active 7 & now have in ear speakers thanks to Arizona Al. When using a cell phone for the first time, I noticed that when I tripped the mic and spoke, there was what I would call a static sound until the mic shuts off. The caller also could hear the static, but said my voice was clear. The caller's voice was crystal clear by the way, no issues there.

 

B/4 using the in ear set up, I was using ear plugs and the Autocom speakers; so I would not have noticed the static sound if it was produced. Is this normal? Just so you know, my unit is placed in a tank bag and I plug it directly to the accessory outlet: the wires are attached to a powerlet plug.

 

In the Autocom audio demos, I seem to hear the static in the comparisons vs other units when the rider trips his mic, but not in the race track demo. Thx.

[randys]

If I read you correctly, what your hearing is just the voice activated microphone coming on. I have gotten into the habit of blowing on the mic before talking on the phone, to activate it, otherwise the very first part of what I say gets cut off. Most of that background noise would be blocked by the speaker/earplug combo, but comes through very well with the earplug speakers.

 

If thats not what your talking about, I dont know.

[Tom B]

 

Stephane

 

Normally most undesirable noises such as helmet noise and amplifier hiss etc are not really heard though Autocom VOX systems as when not speaking the microphones FULLY switch off so that no helmet noise whatsoever can be heard, and then when you do speak and activate the VOX your voice almost completely dominates any picked up noises because of the fantastic signal to noise ratio of our noise cancelling. That is of course when using our supplied speakers, especially with conventional earplugs.

 

MONITOR earplugs, as others here have confirmed before are BRUTISHLY HONEST at letting you hear things that you would otherwise not normally hear through the standard speakers supplied, especially as you say when you virtually deafen yourself with conventional earplugs that help block all sounds.

 

As you said that it sounds about the same as the product comparison demo on our website it would suggest that your system is working as you should expect it to, (BTW many thanks for confirming our on-line demo is realistic). This is just one of the reasons the product comparisons are there, to help our customers hear and understand what it should be like.

 

The fact that you can hear more noise when the VOX opens the microphones suggest to me that the noise is coming from the microphone/s picking up ambient helmet noise, and this highlights the benefits of having FULL VOX that actually fully switches the microphones off for you when not speaking, like the demo shows, and also confirms that our main amplifiers have virtually no hiss, which is as they should be, and also just how important it is to have good noise cancelling especially if you intend using monitor earplugs.

 

May I ask if you are you using Autocom’s Part 26 headset extension lead with 1/8” stereo socket for monitor earplugs? If not you do need to have BOTH in-line attenuation resistors fitted PLUS, and very importantly, also decoupling capacitors to each channel before they can share a common earth as typically used on monitor earplugs. If this is missing it could well have an effect on what you may hear, but if your noise is about the same as you hear in the on-line product demo then perhaps it is OK, but I would just check as without the resistors it will be much louder than required, including any undesirable sounds and this could cause damage to the tiny speakers, and without the protective capacitors you WILL damage your main stereo output amplifiers?

 

It is nice to hear from customers who have discovered just how important it is to have a well designed and balanced system and now that you are using your MONITOR earplugs you can hear first hand for yourself what it’s all about.

 

Some things you could try to help the situation are;

 

Check that the helmet chin vents do not allow direct windblast to the back of the microphone.

 

Blocking the inner chin vents can actually help with visor demisting as with the outer vents open more wind is directed to the visor area!

 

If using open face helmets make sure you fit and use the recommended open face conversion kit

 

If you can, fit a chin draft excluder to the helmet (as available and sometimes fitted to quality helmets), as these can help reduced some helmet noise and wind blast to the microphone/s.

 

Turn ALL volumes to the lowest possible levels that allow for clear communications without excessive noise.

 

There may be a couple of other tricks we can try if the above doesn’t help sort your query.

Hope this helps

 

Autocom-UK-Tom

[Tom B]

Randy

 

 

FYI you do not need to worry about clipping your phone conversation as your microphone goes out to the phone FULL TIME without any VOX influence to the phone, so even if you hear a very slight voice clip on your own side tone the others on the phone wont!

 

However this does highlight just one of the benefits in having a system with side-tone such that you can hear just how you are operating the VOX!

 

Hope that’s helps

 

Autocom-UK-Tom

 

[Ken H.]

May I ask if you are you using Autocom’s Part 26 headset extension lead with 1/8” stereo socket for monitor earplugs? If not you do need to have BOTH in-line attenuation resistors fitted PLUS, and very importantly, also decoupling capacitors to each channel before they can share a common earth as typically used on monitor earplugs.

Tom, how does one go about doing this? I have a Part 26 (two actually) we use with EARInc in-ear speakers that do indeed have a common ground. After three failures I'm wondering if it has to do with signal/voltage levels driving them. Does one just un-solder resistors in the Part 26 and install new ones? If so, what value? What are the "decoupling capacitors" you refer to?

 

Thanks,

[akasjl]

Tom, thanks for the response and hints. Prior to heading out this am, I remember the caller telling me my voice was loud, so I played with the volume. I now have it at a lower setting and the noise is barely audible. (I noticed this was one of your tips.) Volume was probably my issue. Of course I'll know for sure next time I have a call, but am pretty sure that was it. Thanks again. Oh, and yes, I do have part #26 and the open face helmet wind sock kit. Love the Autocom. It works just as advertised, and I am throughly happy with it.

[randys]

Thanks Tom! I thnk its more me, than the system, once I start talking on a call there isnt a problem. The only problem I am having is a BAD squeal on the phone, from the radar detector. But I just unplug the audio from the detector.

[Tom B]

 

 

It is easy to set a volume just that bit louder than perhaps you actually need it, which isn’t necessarily that bad for the desirable sounds, but unfortunately it can sometimes also make any undesirable sounds louder as well, so always try to set volumes as low as possible especially if using monitor type earplugs as these will allow you to hear everything through the system slightly better including any undesirables.

 

Autocom-UK-Tom

[Tom B]

DELETED; sorry only meant to post that once?

 

Autocom-UK-Tom

[Tom B]

Ken

 

Your speakers shouldn’t blow if you don’t have it turned up too loud? Is it always your headset or is it a combination of both yours and Donna’s?

 

If you are using parts 26 then you do not need to worry about decoupling capacitors as these are already built in to our part 26 lead. Incidentally if you have a Pro-7 or Easi-7 these products also have the decoupling capacitors already fitted within, but the Active-7 does not and this is why we fit them to part 26 so that it is universal across our range.

 

If you feel that the volume through your monitor earplugs via part 26 is too loud then you could increase the attenuation in part 26 simply by changing the two 68R resistors. How much is really a matter of personal choice and may depend of your specific speakers, but try say 120R if you want to approximately halve the volume or you may even find that 240R or more will be better for you depending on your type of speakers. Listen for any distortion and if required increase the resistor values to prevent this.

 

Needless to say if you have a Pro-7 then you should not be leaving the HIGH volume jack in the high/low socket on the front panel and anyone using an Active-7 can easily turn the volume down if required.

 

I would imagine that your THREE monitor headset failures were caused prior to using one of our part 26 leads, but if one or more of these failures was to a headset that had only been used via our part 26 and the speakers had never been used without a part 26 or with any other product directly then I would be interested in discussing this further with you.

 

Speaker damage is typically caused by excessive bass and/or volume levels that causes clipping (DC). With monitor speakers one normally finds that the volume becomes far too loud long before you get anywhere near over driving them, that is unless you have a hearing problem and have to turn things above normal to compensate, or perhaps have blocked ports in the earplugs thus reducing sound levels which again you may try to compensate for by turning levels up above normal. I once had to warn a customer to turn it down when he turned it way up high so that you could hear it clearly across the room.

 

Excessive voltage would normally cause excessive volume levels and so you would normally turn it down, for example; my personal test monitor earplugs provide ample volume with just 75mV input and become excessively loud by about 250mV and I have tested these for 1 month continuous at 300mV and no signs of damage. This is way above what I would imagine ANYONE could tolerate even for 5 minutes let alone 1 month!

 

If you can put an oscilloscope across the speaker socket of part 26 and monitor the signal and voltage while listening to the monitor plugs you will see as you hear what is going on.

 

With my monitor earplugs I find that with about 300mV to the Autocom speakers I get about 75mV across the 1/8” socket of part 26 after attenuation of the 68ohm resistors, but this may change depending on your type of speakers.

 

I will check the spec of my personal monitor headset and try to find a USA supplier, but anyone in the UK should try Headset Services (details on our website).

 

Hope that helps

 

Autocom-UK-Tom

[Tom B]

Just another thought, but I seem to be hearing of several people in the USA lately who have gone through quite a few sets of monitor plugs, yet I hear of virtually none in the UK?

 

If you’re on the third set and they are failing AGAIN, perhaps its time to consider another supplier?

 

Autocom-UK-Tom

[axabmw]

By the way Tom, thanks for sorting out my problem the other week. everything works fine now, I passed the details to my supplier so they can advise others.

Wish I'd bought an Autocom years ago.

[Tschamp]

Does Arizona Al have a web site?

[Ken H.]

Does Arizona Al have a web site?

No

[Ken H.]

Thanks Tom, I wish other companies (such as BMW themselves for example ) were as forthcoming with technical information about their product as you are!

 

I continue to suspect our issues with failures of our in-ear EARInc. speakers have to do with their product, not Autocom Active-7 or Part 26 induced. I just wanted to make sure I hadn't missed any possibility that we were hooking up / using something wrong, and from what you are saying it appears we are not.

 

Thanks.

[Bobmws]

Thanks Tom, I wish other companies (such as BMW themselves for example ) were as forthcoming with technical information about their product as you are!

 

I continue to suspect our issues with failures of our in-ear EARInc. speakers have to do with their product, not Autocom Active-7 or Part 26 induced. I just wanted to make sure I hadn't missed any possibility that we were hooking up / using something wrong, and from what you are saying it appears we are not.

 

Thanks.

 

Ken,

How are the speakers failing? FYI, the impedance on the transducers used is 19 ohms, perhaps Tom can deduce if that is causing a problem.

I've dealt with the same product long before EAR came on the scene and none of my customers have reported a problem of this nature. Many have been splicing into Autocoms way before the plug & play cables were available

[Ken H.]

Ken,

How are the speakers failing?

First time the right ear went dead. A rather obvious bad connection at the ear piece (could wiggle it in and out), pretty cut and dry.

 

Second time they went rather suddenly to a lower volume in the left ear. Seemed like the speaker/transducer just suddenly went bad and wouldn't make much volume.

 

Third time the right then the left did the exact same thing within an hour of each other on the same LD ride. The volume level just dropped way down. I was sure it was something to do with my Autocom, phone, talking GPS, MP3, setup, (or my hearing was going REALLY goofy!) until I swapped around with Donna's set (what was plugged into where) and hers worked just fine plugged into where mine wouldn't.

 

They're at EARInc right now and they tell me they are going to replace everything but the ear molds themselves this time around.

[Bobmws]

[quoteuntil I swapped around with Donna's set (what was plugged into where) and hers worked just fine plugged into where mine wouldn't.

 

They're at EARInc right now and they tell me they are going to replace everything but the ear molds themselves this time around.

 

How much use proportionally between your set and Donna's? The components are good quality, and the manufacturing lab will stand behind their product. Sometimes you will run across a bad transducer, though not *usually* two in the same set.

[David_S]

Not to intrude or try to give EAR inc a bad rep but I just sent mine in for the 4th time this summer. One time was a fit issue after a repair so it's not related to the speakers themselves. The left side had a wiring issue just like Ken's where it would come and go by moving the wire. The second failure the right side started getting some static and lost about half the volume. The last failure was the right side doing the same thing again. I have used the speakers very little since I haven't taken any trips. Probably don't have 50 hours on the last repair. I'm using an Intaride RP1 with XM going strait to it and GPS and V1 going to the comm system via a mixer. I tested and found the comm system speakers share a ground so I tapped the helmet speakers and added a 1/8 jack to plug the ear molds into. I was using just the mixer before but the right speaker has failed both with the comm system and without

 

[quoteuntil I swapped around with Donna's set (what was plugged into where) and hers worked just fine plugged into where mine wouldn't.

 

They're at EARInc right now and they tell me they are going to replace everything but the ear molds themselves this time around.

 

How much use proportionally between your set and Donna's? The components are good quality, and the manufacturing lab will stand behind their product. Sometimes you will run across a bad transducer, though not *usually* two in the same set.