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Converting speakers to earbuds?

R

RTFlyer

Guest
I have the ability to clip the wires and re-solder whatever is necessary, but how have you guys done it? I'm seriously considering the etymotic e6 earbuds for this application.

I'm talking about length of wires, using a plug or not, and that type of thing. I hate my Cardo speakers, but I can live with the system as a whole for a while. I just need to figure out how to make the earbuds and their leads a logical length or whatever so I can get them on with the helmet without leaving wires dangling somewhere.

I think it might be nice to just solder in a female plug to my Scala and leave the earbud wires as they are so I can just plug the earbuds straight to my Iphone or Zumo too, for times I want real actual decent sound off the bike too. Has anyone done this?

How about some input??
 
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Years ago I mounted some small earphones in my helmet with the male plug removed and replaced by a female plug. I shorted the line and mounted the female plug in the foam at the back of the helmet. I them could connect the earphones to my Walkman (it was that long ago) via a cord with two male ends. It was nice because the headphones remained in the helmet but I did not have a dangling cord to deal with.

I don't know if this would work as well with ear buds, since they go into the ear, as apposed to earphones that sit next to the ear. The engineering, however, is simple. Just a trip to RadioShack and about 20 minutes will get you a working setup.
 
I have wanted to do the same thing. The Cardo Scala Rider speakers suck. I have some in ear plugs & want to use those. I was thinking of putting a female jack on my Scala, actually, I'd like to open it up & do it inside, as it has 2 wires coming out... I was going to make a loop, about 1'-2' long...
 
JStrube said:
The Cardo Scala Rider speakers suck.
Click to expand...

No doubt.

I plan on working on this soon. Any other suggestions or comments?

What I'm trying to figure out is the best way to make it for easy helmet on/off if I rig a plug for the earbuds so I avoid a long dangling wire, or a too-short lead that pulls the earbuds out as I put the helmet on or off. I'd hate to cut and solder things up only to realize too late that there was a better/more well-thought-out approach.
 
I'm with bandaidman, i'm not sure how well the ear buds will work being outside the ear. When my buds work themselves free from my canals, it's total background noise and incoherent. It maybe my buds though. They're 20 bux and I only use one at a time to have an ear free for the environment. In fact like Mickey from PeeWees big adventure, I cut one of them off (buds).
 
I've done that with Chatterbox X1. I'm on a quest to my make throat mic work with the N/R cable that I've hacked. I cannot seem to make anything other than the mic that came with the Chatterbox GMRS-X1 work.

I'm guessing it's a mismatch in power or impedance, but I'm no EE.

I think you'll be successful with careful soldering.
 
criminaldesign said:
I'm with bandaidman, i'm not sure how well the ear buds will work being outside the ear. When my buds work themselves free from my canals, it's total background noise and incoherent. It maybe my buds though. They're 20 bux and I only use one at a time to have an ear free for the environment. In fact like Mickey from PeeWees big adventure, I cut one of them off (buds).
Click to expand...

Ummm..I'm not suggesting that they be used outside the ears.
 
Speakers to ear buds

There is no reason it shouldn't work unless you have an amplifier to power the speakers; if so, you might get too much power into the ear buds, which would overload the little speakers.

I've thought of doing the same thing, just to get a good speaker-mic system into my helmet, because speakers most definitely are not as good as ear buds, which also act as good noise suppressors. I've recently bought a mic that plugs in-line to the Blackberry from the Shure ear buds, but I'm not sure that will work if I plug it all into a central relay system to get sound from my XM radio and Garmin. The phone links up well with the Garmin, but I don't know if the mic will work in that configuration; I suspect not.

Other than having the ability to use a mic, why not just buy a good set of Shure or other ear buds?

Please let us know how it works out.

Orv
 
I recently modified my Q2 as described in earlier thread. Cut the wires out of the base and left a few inches to add jack, drilled holes in clamp, tie wrapped the jack to the base and added connector to original speakers.
 

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I can now tuck away the original plug and use ear plugs with speakers. With ear plugs have to turn the volume on low on the Q2 and on the Garmin Navigator to about 50%.
 

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Fred is the man! That's exactly what I was wondering, and on the same system I have. I was wondering about sufficient volume too, and you answered that! I knew there was someone else out there who just couldn't leave well-enough alone.

I love this board!:dance
 
Fred, that is awesome! Did you just get a Radio Shack female plug? Also, did you make a new plug for your helmet speakers so you could go back to them if you wanted to, or did you just trash them?

Nice solution. My ear plug speakers have a short cord, so looks like if I did that, I'll have to get an extention.
 
Yes, got parts at Radio Shack, in the first picture provided is the 90 deg connector I used for the original speaker wires. So I have the flexibility to back and forth. The only issue I have with the Q2 and ear plugs is the FM radio is still way to loud. I am looking at putting a variable resistor inline to see what size resistor I need to put in series with the connector to lower the volume since there is plenty of volume adjustment on the Garmin Nav.
 
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One more question Fred,


I took my Scala apart & saw 2 wires soldered in for one speaker & 3 wired in for the other. What are the 3 wires? How did you connect them. I bought your Radio Shack plug, but tried to disassemble first, now I'm just going to cut & solder the wires.
 
hlothery said:
Even in-helmet speakers are illegal in Mass. YMMV.
Click to expand...

The AMA sez this is so, however I cannot find a reference to this in the MA general laws. A rider friend, who is also a cop in MA, can't find it either.

The reality is that I've pulled my earbuds out in front of a Massachusetts cop plenty of times and it's never been mentioned. (Don't ask me why I was stopped....)
 
I've been trying various set ups for music for in helmet sound and help deaden the wind noise and found some noise cancelling earphones at Radio Shack that I could remove the earpiece from the band and use that to slip under the helmet liner to hold the ear piece in place. Some helmets also have a place to put com unit interfaces in, you could put the female plug there. The NC is nice with reducing wind noise and since I suffer from tinitus the music helps act as "while noise" in my dead ear to reduce the roaring I would suffer from after riding for awhile.

RM
 
JStrube said:
One more question Fred,


I took my Scala apart & saw 2 wires soldered in for one speaker & 3 wired in for the other. What are the 3 wires? How did you connect them. I bought your Radio Shack plug, but tried to disassemble first, now I'm just going to cut & solder the wires.
Click to expand...

I first started to take the Scala apart but didn't want to compromise the mic and electronics board. I cut the wires coming out of the Scala with enough link to add connector and attach to the clamp.
 
FSwish said:
I first started to take the Scala apart but didn't want to compromise the mic and electronics board. I cut the wires coming out of the Scala with enough link to add connector and attach to the clamp.
Click to expand...

Right... But soldered to the board, one side had 3 wires, one had 2. When you cut the exposed wires, was it just a conventional 2 & 2? ie, one common each & one "hot"? I was ready to do what you did, until I saw the extra wire on the board.
 
FSwish said:
I first started to take the Scala apart but didn't want to compromise the mic and electronics board. I cut the wires coming out of the Scala with enough link to add connector and attach to the clamp.
Click to expand...

Right... But soldered to the board, one side had 3 wires, one had 2. When you cut the exposed wires, was it just a conventional 2 & 2? ie, one common each & one "hot"? I was ready to do what you did, until I saw the extra wire on the board.
 
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