just wanted to share my latest little project with you guys, in case anyone wants to hack their Bluetooth system like me. Lol!
Years ago, I bought a dual chatterbox setup for both (rider and passenger) of my helmets. my complaint has always been battery life. Since new, i could only get 4 hours out the batteries before they went dead. I recently bought a new Arai helmet (was way overdue after 7 years) and started looking at new intercom systems. After weeks looking and reading complaints about Sena's low volume and such, I asked myself, what Needs do you have that only those new systems can meet that your old ones can't? Well, I don't ask for much and my only complaint, again, was battery life. I started looking for a possible replacement battery after opening one of my units and taking some measurements of the current battery. These chatterbox systems came with small 3.7v batteries that are about 450mAh(?). I found some replacements that were barely larger and were in the 700mAh range. Then, I ran into these 2000mAh that I knew wouldn't fit inside and was like, maybe I should order two and see how I can mount them externally. Well, I just received them and started looking for places were I could cleanly mount the batteries externally. These things are pretty small and I found that they would fit in the speaker pocket built inside the helmet since They are only 7mm thick. I then, extended the wires and swapped the mini JST connector from the old battery to the new one. I notched the case on the chatterbox to feed the wires through and used clear silicone to get a waterproof seal. I put the unit back together and tucked the wires along the speaker wires to the inside of the helmet to the speaker pocket where the new battery now lives. Everything went smooth and unit operates as it always has. If I'm correct in my calculations (more like assumptions) I should be able to get 16 to 18 hrs on this thing before going dead. I hope that, from now on, I'll run out of strength and energy to ride before I run out of batteries. :-)! So there you have it! My "how to" screw up your headset units. I'm currently charging them and then I'll start the test to see how many hours it'll run for.
Years ago, I bought a dual chatterbox setup for both (rider and passenger) of my helmets. my complaint has always been battery life. Since new, i could only get 4 hours out the batteries before they went dead. I recently bought a new Arai helmet (was way overdue after 7 years) and started looking at new intercom systems. After weeks looking and reading complaints about Sena's low volume and such, I asked myself, what Needs do you have that only those new systems can meet that your old ones can't? Well, I don't ask for much and my only complaint, again, was battery life. I started looking for a possible replacement battery after opening one of my units and taking some measurements of the current battery. These chatterbox systems came with small 3.7v batteries that are about 450mAh(?). I found some replacements that were barely larger and were in the 700mAh range. Then, I ran into these 2000mAh that I knew wouldn't fit inside and was like, maybe I should order two and see how I can mount them externally. Well, I just received them and started looking for places were I could cleanly mount the batteries externally. These things are pretty small and I found that they would fit in the speaker pocket built inside the helmet since They are only 7mm thick. I then, extended the wires and swapped the mini JST connector from the old battery to the new one. I notched the case on the chatterbox to feed the wires through and used clear silicone to get a waterproof seal. I put the unit back together and tucked the wires along the speaker wires to the inside of the helmet to the speaker pocket where the new battery now lives. Everything went smooth and unit operates as it always has. If I'm correct in my calculations (more like assumptions) I should be able to get 16 to 18 hrs on this thing before going dead. I hope that, from now on, I'll run out of strength and energy to ride before I run out of batteries. :-)! So there you have it! My "how to" screw up your headset units. I'm currently charging them and then I'll start the test to see how many hours it'll run for.
