Combination speaker/earphone baseplate?
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I ride with a Schuberth C3 which is a nicely quiet helmet. When I commute (a simple half-hour ride to work) I'd like to use in-helmet speakers as it's less hassle and they work OK in such a quiet lid. However, when I head out on longer weekend rides and tours I much prefer to use my custom earphones.
Has Sena thought about making a baseplate similar to the SMH-A0304 but with both attached helmet speakers *and* an earphone jack? Just like on a cel phone, when someone plugs the earphones in to the jack the speakers would shut off, making it quick and easy to choose what type of audio output to use that day. I think a lot of commute+tour combo riders like myself would appreciate that kind of option.
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I had a mount modified here in the UK by the manufacturer of the earphones - Ultimate Ear, as this is a service they offer for £35. They put a socket on the output from the mount and a plug on the headphone wire, same as the earphones so you just connect whichever you want to use. They did a good job, but are restricted by the length of the original wire between the mount and the LH headphone/speaker which means it is very difficult to position everything satisfactorily. I think I will try Ken's solution on another mount as I think that will be superior.
What we really though is for Sena to provide such an option as I outlined above.
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Just like to add my voice to this thread, but as the possibility study was started in March I wonder how far things have got?
Any update Sena? My money is waiting for you!
For now I am going to dust down my soldering iron and have a go at Ken's killer mod . . .
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I now just use the earphone baseplate and added a set of helmet speakers with a 3.5 phono male plug to be able to use either setup.
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I'm with you guys. I have 2 sets of SMH-10's with the additional clamp for earbuds. I just finished a 1500 mile trip in which I started our using my custom molded earphones. I loved it but made conversations without intercoms impossible. Therefore after commuting to our destination I swapped back in speaker setup. It was too much work to swap back for the ride home. This compilation ability with one baseplate would be PERFECT!!!! Sena: how's the study coming? It appears to be a popular request and I'm sure it would be welcome by many more - even if they don't know it yet. 0 -
Albert, the helmet speaker set up seems like the way to go - at the moment. Where did you get your helmet speakers? Were they the same physical size as the Sena units?
Who would have thunk that we would be discussing how to farkle... a farkle? ;-)
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I use a set of speakers from Edsets.com.. To me these have given the best sound that I have found for helmet speakers.. 0 -
After setting up my old helmet with Ken's super solution, decided to go the other route with my new Bell Revolution EVO (Hi-Vis). First, and very important, the Sena SMH-A0303 works just fine on the Bell. Mount the SMH-A0303 just aft of the inner shade control and the mic just makes it to the side of my mouth with a half inch to spare.
Next remove your basic helmet speakers from your SMH-A0301 using Ken's technique. Take the extension cable that comes with the SMH-A0303 and cut off the female end. Now comes the hard part. The extension cable wires are acrylic-coated and will not accept solder as is. I used the "scrape the wires with a flat knife" method but there is very good alternative info @ http://www.alexwhittemore.com/soldering-the-thinnest-wires-ever-conceived-headphone-modding/
Now I have the best of both worlds. The speaker connector hangs from the back of my helmet when traveling to bike races while I enjoy the relative peace and quiet of my earbuds. During the race I plug in the speakers so I can use my radios, telephone AND communicate with racers when necessary.
I'm still waiting for Sena to decide there is enough demand for an integrated unit. Until then this is going to work just fine.
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+1 on the request for a baseplate with a switching jack to use in-helmet speakers or earmolds!
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I would buy this base plate as soon as it came out.
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Yes, I second that.
Real Headphones/earplugs are such much better then the Sena speakers or any other speakers of the competition.
I love the Sena, however I was not impressed with the sound quality. I had to make the sound loud (it can be loud enough that is not the problem) but you only hear high frequencies. All the low frequencies are gone (resulting in pain in my ears after a while)
So, I cut the speakers, added a jack to my helmet and soldered the jack to the speaker wires. this together with a switch allows me to switch between the speakers and the earbuds. it does the job, but it would be better to have a jack output on the baseplate. I don't see why this should be a problem.
Everybody wants it.I also found other baseplates on the Internet, that do offer this functionality for Sena! Are these authorized 3rd party baseplates?
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I have now modded my Sena baseplate to include the switching headphone jack. I definitely appreciate the flexibility to continue to the Sena when in town and not going fast enough to require earplugs. If earplugs are needed, I'll still revert to my Westone CR1's, which have a fidelity leaps and bounds beyond the Sena's speakers. For giggles, I did install the speakers with quick-disconnects and tried using a pair of speakers from a decent pair of headphones. The sounds quality was much better than Sena's but not as loud (and the Sena's aren't loud enough to start with).
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Sena, add one more customer that wants this combo backing plate (ability to both use in-helmet speakers and earbuds). My Schuberth C3 had the perfect spot to easily install speakers. I use earbuds, but as others have already stated, on local across-town rides or commutes it's easier to just listen via speakers than to put in earbuds and plug them in.
Thanks for considering this and keeping it at the top of your development process.
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Sena , you should definitely consider this, i want one and i want it yesterday.:-)
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This is an obvious feature that people of earnestly requested for some time. In this particular thread since November 21, 2011 19:46. Actions speak loudly and Sena has pretty much stated their position on it.
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Victor,
I think you meant to say "lack of actions"!? I had asked for this back in early 2010, and so note to Sena marketing... put me on the list of anxious customers. Not certain what their competitors are doing in this area, but there are a few threads on mods for the Cardo Scala G4. I'd venture to say whoever brings this feature to market first will get my 'vote'.
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Again, another company not bothered in customer feedback! As Victor and Dave clearly stated, along with myself and countless others, this is a requirement that would make an good poduct an excellent purchase but unfortunately seems to fall on deaf ears. I for one have no loyalty to any brand and as soon as this product in any shape or form becomes available, I'll buy it regardless of supplier. WAKE UP SENA!!!!!!!! 0 -
I can't speak for the rest of these folks, but, I would not mind at all losing the Aux In jack and having that jack be my earbud jack instead.
I NEVER use the Aux In jack. Bluetooth all the way.
If I were going to run a physical line from an external source to my SMH10, I would most likely use one of the many 3rd party products that does audio mixing (e.g. Mix-It or Boostaroo - http://www.aerostich.com/electronics/audio/mixers-and-amps) and run a line from the SMH10 earbud out jack to the Mix-It and also plug my earbuds into the Mix-It - instead of having my earbuds plugged straight into the SMH10 helmet clamp.
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I see that one of the problems has been resolved. The ear bud output jack on the auxiliary now dangles from 3/8 inch flexible wire. This will correct the issue of snapping the rigid plug off the back of the base plate. I have had two of them snap. I was able to repair one with epoxy however when my pillion snapped the other one the wire was torn and I could not fix it. I found this out because I broke down this week and ordered my pillion a replacement base plate and saw the corrected design. Thanks Sena! Now... if you would just a a combination base plate going.
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Ditto here. Combination baseplate would be the way to go. This would also simplify their lineup of SKUs, I think, because it would accommodate nearly everyone. If this was available, it is the baseplate I would get for all of my family's helmets.
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I don't use helmet speakers, so I rewired my standard plate for headphones using the "aux" input jack.
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Gennadiy,
Any detail/photos you can provide on this solution are appreciated.
Thanks.
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Ideally, if we can figure out how to modify the normal headphone baseplate to use the Aux In socket as a switchable output (so with nothing plugged in the headphones are still connected) then the problem is solved. But that doesn't absolve Sena from pulling their finger out and actually making what we need.
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Would really like to see this feature offered. 0 -
Tom,
It is too late for the photos, but the process is fairly straightforward for anyone familiar with electronics. The case is held together by 2 visible screws and other 2 under the rubber plate. The cap over the base of the mike boom should be moved forward. Once the PC board is removed, cut the traces going from the aux connector (but not the ground one) and solder 47-56 Ohm resistors between "+" speaker terminals and the contacts on the aux connector. Small surface mounted "chip" resistors would work the best, but I managed to do it with regular "through the hole" ones. One difference from the factory headphone baseplate is that the click during the power up is louder, so I might revisit this project to fix it. But otherwise it works fine.
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A couple of questions:-
- Why does it need the resistors? Earbuds directly to the speaker outputs (instead of speakers) works fine.
- As you describe above, when the earbuds are plugged in, the speakers are also still connected and presumably working. Does this cause any issues, e.g. battery life? Is this why you use the resistors to avoid dropping the overall impedance seen by the Sena?
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I would buy one. Sena no update since March, are you here.
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I'll offer an answer to Ken... resistors are used to reduce power to earbuds, as they do not require as much as the speakers. Sena's earbud accessory (A0303) uses 75 ohm resistors.
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I understand that earbuds need less power, but in actual fact, connecting them directly works fine. You just have more volume to play with:-) However, it does create a large discrepancy between volume levels when you switch between earbuds and speakers so I can see it being a good idea.
However, AFAICT in the explanation of the mod, when the earbuds are connected, so are the speakers. This may not be a problem, desirable even, but does it cause any other issues, like reduced battery life, max. available volume etc? Or have I misunderstood the explanation?
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Dave is right, earbuds are resistored because they don't need as much power as speakers. I would connect them without resistors for those quiet tracks, but Sena's own beeps and messages would become too loud.
I did disconnect the speakers because in over a year of the ownership I decided that I don't want to use them. However, I'm pretty sure that running both speakers and resistored earbuds is possible without any side effects.
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Sounds like I need to do this mod myself and test it. If it works as I want I'll be a very happy bunny :-)
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