Can you use earbuds with the new SMH10R?

John Katsoudas

February 05, 2013 05:55

Hi, I have some custom-molded earbuds that I use with my current SMH10. I'd love to switch to the SMH10R for the slimmer form factor, but only if it also allows using earbuds instead of speakers. Is there an optional harness for the SMH10R that allows the use of earbuds?

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10 comments

Ken
June 12, 2013 18:12

John, I now use earbuds with my SMH-10R. I fabricated a simple cable adapter that plugs into the 4-wire SMH-10R speaker jack in place of the helmet speakers. It works flawlessly. When the earbud adapter cable is plugged in, the headset speaker cable is unplugged (and vice-versa). It's easy to pull the SMH-10R speaker cable out of the liner and change the speaker plug for my adapter plug.

Here's a picture of my adapter. It's lying on my SMH-10R manual to illustrate the relative size. (although it looks like part of the manual's cover graphics, it is not. It is the actual adapter I made)

It cost me about $30 to make this; mainly because I bought a spare Sena headset speaker kit and cut the speakers off the cable and soldered my mini stereo 3.5 mm (1/8") speaker jack onto the wire ends. I used heat shrink tubing to aid in strain relief and protection.

See the attachment

IMG_1216[1].JPG

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Scott Siperko
June 25, 2013 00:45

Ken, that is slicker than snail snot!

Thanks for doing what is taking Sena waaaaaaaaay to long to tell us they are doing!

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Skip Moon
June 29, 2013 00:19

Ken, How did you do that? Did you connect two of the wires from the SMH10R to common ground on the 3.5mm jack? If so, which two? I was going to try that but didn't want to bet the cost of the unit on which wires I picked. Or do you have independent left and right speakers w/4 wires from your earbuds?

Thanks!

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Ken
June 29, 2013 04:07

Skip, it doesn't matter. The two conductors in the helmet speaker accessory kit are color coded, black and red. You'll see them when you cut off the speakers and strip back the insulation. Just to stay with convention that black is common or ground, that's the color from each cut-off speaker wire that I ran to the female stereo jack's main common ground ring connector. Then each red to each of the other jack's connectors. After soldering, crimping the jack's strain relief around the un-stripped cable sheath, and testing to make sure I had it working; I filled the screw-on jack cover with RTV and screwed it on. That was to protect against wire fatigue from vibration.

It really works well. The set of Westone earbuds came with an in-line volume control. Be sure to turn the volume all the way down before sticking them in your ears. The sound will blast the top of your head off if it's too loud. Afterwards, I adjusted the Sena SMH10R volume way down and the in-line volume control to the middle for comfortable hearing.

The big test will be next Saturday when I leave on a 4,000 to 5,000 mile trip to Montana and back. I think it's going to work great.

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Scott Siperko
June 29, 2013 10:39

FYI guys. A ear bud cable is now listed in the accessories tab of the 10r for 6 bucks. I ordered one last night.

SS

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Ken
June 29, 2013 13:50

HA!

They understand!

Ken

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Skip Moon
July 01, 2013 17:05

Thanks Ken!

And thank you Scott! I ordered one too - they said it is back-ordered and expected to ship in a week. I was all ready to make one out of speakers like Ken did, but for 6 bucks, that's a deal!

I noticed that the other thread that talks about this still shows it as a "Planned" item.

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Sena
July 01, 2013 17:23

The SMH10R Earbud adapter is released and is shipping available from mid July. Thank you for your sincere feedbacks.

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adam
July 14, 2013 08:14

Any better idea when the ear bud adapter will be available?

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Ken
July 14, 2013 23:47

Well, I think I'm going to like my home made adapter better than what they have available. One only needs a few inches of wiring . . . not a long coil wire to have to deal with and try to keep out of the wind. Mine is about 10" long and is perfect.

I'm thinking about wiring it to a jack that's actually mounted in the lower side of the helmet. It would take a 3/16" hole way down by the rim. That way, I simply plug my earbuds into the helmet jack, the earbud wire(s) get zipped up into my jacket with me.

I just got home from a 4000+ mile trip from Dallas to Montana and back. The earbud adapter I made worked flawlessly except that it accidentally unplugged from the little 4-conductor connector; and I had to stop on the side of the road to plug it back in. With earbuds, three of us carried on long conversations as if we were on a telephone conference call.

Ken

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Can you use earbuds with the new SMH10R?

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