RkyMtnHI Posted January 20, 2009 Report Share Posted January 20, 2009 Hi all, i will try to talk you thru this mic installation in my Bose headset. Keep in mind that even tho this is a neat and clean installation, it could void your warranty. That being said the mic is easily removed and when mine went in for repair they either didn't notice the hole or didn't care. You can do this with any headset and i expect it would be much easier with others as there's not a lot of room inside the Bose ear cup. i wanted to record some of my training flights and found this to be an invaluable tool. i look forward to using it when i teach to fine tune my teaching as well. Since then i have used it on two TV shows (to record audio by plugging directly into high end video cameras), one commercial for a University, and many personal videos that i have shot with a portable digital video camera. With the mic inside the ear cups all audio is recorded, even the tower and other air craft, every thing that you hear. The mic is an amplified mic from Radio Shack, it cost about $25. It is the smallest one i could find but i'm sure there are better options out there. I did try others, but this one seemed to be the best for the $$. This mic set-up comes from RS with a male plug on one end, the battery pac/on/off switch in the middle of the cord and the mic on the other end. I simply cut the mic off from the cord about six inches from the end to give me room to work with, there are only two wires inside the cord so it's a no brainer to hook back up. Then i took the ear pad off the headset and pulled out the screen with the foam ring around it.. this was a little difficult cuz i didn't want to mess it up, the screen bends a little and may leave a crease so be gentle. I laid drill bits next to the mic cord until i found one that was just a little bit smaller than the cord, i wanted a tight fit so it didn't affect the noise canceling (i didn't know that it would, just wanted to be sure). Then i started looking for the perfect place for the cord to go thru into the ear piece. I knew i wanted to install a jack in the headset so i could use it with and without the recorder and the cap on the bottom of the ear cup seemed a logical location. This is the cap that you take off when you switch the mic boom to the other side of the headset, it could have gone anywhere that there was room for the panel jack. It turned out that i could drill a hole for the mic thru the same spot without damaging anything inside the ear cup. If you do this, be careful here, if you push too hard the bit could damage something, i put the bit all the way down into the chuck so it was shorter just in case. After i drilled the hole i pushed the mic end of the cord thru the hole, it was tight but exactly what i wanted. I then took a female panel jack, don't remember the size, just the smallest one i could find at RS, about $5 i think, and installed it in the end cap... there is just enough room for it to fit comfortably and completely flush (in the photos you see green heat shrink cuz i like to be sure there are no shorts). Then i took it back out and soldered the mic wires to it and re-installed it in the end cap. After that i put the mic in a nice comfortable place, and put the screen and ear pad back on. i don't think the location of the mic matters, just the lowest profile location you can find, and it's easy to push the cord around the outside where the foam from the screen will hold it down. You also don't want the mic to bounce around as it would pick up extra noise. If the foam didn't hold the mic i would just use a spot of silicone to hold it still... silicone will stick to plastic but you can peel it off if you need to. I then soldered a matching male jack that fits the panel jack to the end of the mic cord where i had cut the mic off. I plug the other end of the mic into the digital recorder, video cameras or what ever... piece of cake... I just put the recorder in my shirt pocket and turn it on during preflight, many flights that i have been on the person flying with me NEVER knew it was there. It's really easy to just plug the mic into the headset after you have it on your head. You can also see on the recorder that you are picking up audio after you plug it in... you do have to switch the mic on, and keep the battery up-to-date, but it's a pretty simple system. The button battery in the mic will last for about four hours. There are also two photos of the Hero digital camera that we use from time to time.. i took the camera apart, fairly easy, pulled the inside mic out and soldered a female plug end that matches the mic male plug. There were only two wires so it's pretty easy. Note here tho, the camera can not be used without an external mic now cuz i took the inside one out. I plug the mic into the camera and the other end into the headset, video with audio!!! The mic set-up will fit any camera that has a mic input plug.. however you might have to buy adapters. Also, if the camera you use is stereo, the mic is not, so you have to plug a stereo-to mono-plug into the device first ($2 from RS). it's pretty cool to make a video and hear yourself calling the tower and such, and/or video your instruction and watch it back at home!! The best part tho is playing back your flight on the drive home!! You will be amazed what you learn!! Imaging sitting down with a student a few days after a flight and saying "do you remember saying this???" Or sending an audio disc of a flight to your passengers a few days after a fun flight.... The recorder i use will record over 100 hours of audio, more than you will ever use... if you get a higher end one like this you can record many flights on it before you down load, or you can save them in files on the recorder. The higher end recorders also have different settings that you can use to fine tune to the different mics you might use. This one costs about $85 now, and can also be used as an ipod for your music. The little Hero camera in the photos here records up to one hour so i can't put one of the videos on my photobucket... when i learn how to edit videos i will put some on there for you all to see.. it rocks!! One other benefit... i didn't have to write my name on my headset, it's the only one with a jack on the bottom of the ear cup!! :-) The photos below are there, just click on them.. and, Here are some more photos of the setup: http://s298.photobucket.com/albums/mm243/R.../headset%20mic/ aloha, dp Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DynamicallyUnstable Posted January 20, 2009 Report Share Posted January 20, 2009 That's a pretty good idea! Great for training and having your students listen to their own radio calls. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HeloJunkie Posted January 24, 2009 Report Share Posted January 24, 2009 RkyMtnHi - I use a Sony HD Video Camera setup in the back of my R44. The way I did it was to have my avionics guy make me a cord that plugs directly into an available headset jack and then from there into the camera. Since I use the Bose single point headsets, all seats have the other headset connector available so this works great for me. I think he did something to match the impedance as well. It sounds great as heard here ( ). This is audio piped out of my 496 into the backseat of the R44 complete with terrain warnings). In this case I had my son in the back seat and I had him isolated so you do not hear myself and my other friend up front. I like your idea which is great for folks moving from ship to ship or that do not have extra headset jacks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RkyMtnHI Posted January 24, 2009 Author Report Share Posted January 24, 2009 RkyMtnHi - I use a Sony HD Video Camera setup in the back of my R44. The way I did it was to have my avionics guy make me a cord that plugs directly into an available headset jack and then from there into the camera. Since I use the Bose single point headsets, all seats have the other headset connector available so this works great for me. I think he did something to match the impedance as well. It sounds great as heard here ( ). This is audio piped out of my 496 into the backseat of the R44 complete with terrain warnings). In this case I had my son in the back seat and I had him isolated so you do not hear myself and my other friend up front. I like your idea which is great for folks moving from ship to ship or that do not have extra headset jacks. great stuff Junkie, do you have a video posted with your voices from the front seat? i love the simplicity of it. i would like to set up something like that for discovery flights that could be moved from helo to helo.. i also am interested in splitting the video like in some of the Glider rides i've been on in Hawaii, they record the pilot's view and the people in the back seat at the same time. i looked into this with commercial companies, but their setups cost too much... dp Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HeloJunkie Posted January 26, 2009 Report Share Posted January 26, 2009 Yea I do, I'll dig it up in the next couple of days. It was kind of boring so I nevery posted it to youtube. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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