Helmet Mod: Stereo

[NearDeath]

Alright all,

I have had it with not being able to listen to a stereo on my bike. I like the stereo mod that Thinker62 did, but I think earphones in the helmet will work better for me.

I can handle the entire mod except I am unsure what earphones to use to get good volume into the helmet. and how I should mount the earphones inside the helmet. Is there a way to install the earphones without cutting foam away?

If you guys/gals will help me out with this, I will document and take picutres of the process for this mod for everyone...

Cloud

 

[bacharles]

Hey Cloud9,

My lawn guy came by the house the other day and was showing me this nice MP3 player he has with the nicest sound and earphones. I forget the name brand it is, but I do remember it was one of the quality brands. Anyway, the headphones were thin and it mounted around the back of your head (try to envision it...). I tried them on and the sound ROCKS!! The MP3 player mounts to your wrist with a velcro wristband and the cord is long enough for all types of arm movement (I'm 6'5" and nothin's short on me but my toes...

He runs the wire along his arm and out through the neck of his jacket or shirt. Real cool and he told me that he purchased it from Wal-Mart for about $70. I didn't get into the specifics, but he said that he could download approx. 500 songs. Pretty cool and inexpensive if you ask me.


Brian

 

[BigBSBusa]

I just bought one from Wal-Mart that works pretty well.  It has an expansion slot for SD cards (up to 1GB) and I use it quite frequently when I go to the gym.  What I'm not sure about is how comfortable the headphones would be underneath the helmet.  I don't like the earbuds, but I'm not sure how I might wire something else to the helmet. Looking at a Chatterbox system.



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[thrasherfox]

I took a pair of headphones I had and ripped out the speakers and installed them into my helmet, and yes I had to cut them to make them fit.

I have a jack in the side of the helmet that I plug my audio cable into and I have an MP3 player, and an AM/FM/CD player that I can plug into.

My current MP3 player is a Timex and you can wear it on your wrist, however the ONLY thing I don’t like about it is it on stores 64mb of MP3 files. I have been thinking about seeing if there was an MP3 player that took memory sticks, which I think there is..

The radio is too much a pain in the arse because you lose and gain signal, the cd player just didn’t work that well because of the bouncing. the MP3 has worked the best for me.

The compactness of helmets makes it almost impossible to squeeze any kind of speakers in the helmet without cutting the foam.

I tried the small little ones that fit inside your ear, those can sound good, but putting your helmet on and taking it off can be a pain (really, hurt pain) and I have installed speakers in helmets before and I just like the setup better.

Plus I am looking at tying my cell phone into my helmet through the speakers and I have already mounted the mic into the front of the helmet, just have to work with the electronics part of it.

Of course I am also mounting LED's inside my helmet and a wafer thing rechargeable Lithium Ion 3.7 volt battery to power the LED's and a possible visor fan I am thinking about installing

 

[BigBSBusa]

That sounds ambitious, Thrasher. The MP3 I got takes memory sticks and has a built in tuner. They are really not that expensive. I'd like to hear more about how you mounted the heaphones in the helmet.

 

[thrasherfox]

That sounds ambitious, Thrasher.  The MP3 I got takes memory sticks and has a built in tuner.  They are really not that expensive.  I'd like to hear more about how you mounted the heaphones in the helmet.

Basically I took a brand new exacto knife, put the speakers in the helmet where the ears normally reside, and tried the helmet on, took it off, trimmed. put the helmet on, took the helmet off, trimmed deeper. I pretty much had to cut all the way through the foam for the speakers to fit and not cause pain.

I need to take my helmet apart again so I can solder the connections anyway, so if I can get a chance to work on the helmet tonight, I will take pictures of everything and post them.

With the liner out it kind of looks horrendous, but it looks fine and works great when it is all in place.

 

[thrasherfox]

I think I will go to Wal-Mart today and check out what they have for MP3 players. What model did you get?

 

[BigBSBusa]

I got the Memorex MMP8500 because it had the FM tuner built-in. There are several others that use memory sticks, though.

 

[BigBSBusa]

That sounds ambitious, Thrasher.  The MP3 I got takes memory sticks and has a built in tuner.  They are really not that expensive.  I'd like to hear more about how you mounted the heaphones in the helmet.

Basically I took a brand new exacto knife, put the speakers in the helmet where the ears normally reside, and tried the helmet on, took it off, trimmed. put the helmet on, took the helmet off, trimmed deeper. I pretty much had to cut all the way through the foam for the speakers to fit and not cause pain.

I need to take my helmet apart again so I can solder the connections anyway, so if I can get a chance to work on the helmet tonight, I will take pictures of everything and post them.

With the liner out it kind of looks horrendous, but it looks fine and works great when it is all in place.

I'd appreciate it. I've seen many aviation life support equipment techs take aviator helmets apart, so I know how bad they can look when taken apart.

 

[thrasherfox]

That sounds ambitious, Thrasher.  The MP3 I got takes memory sticks and has a built in tuner.  They are really not that expensive.  I'd like to hear more about how you mounted the heaphones in the helmet.

Basically I took a brand new exacto knife, put the speakers in the helmet where the ears normally reside, and tried the helmet on, took it off, trimmed. put the helmet on, took the helmet off, trimmed deeper. I pretty much had to cut all the way through the foam for the speakers to fit and not cause pain.

I need to take my helmet apart again so I can solder the connections anyway, so if I can get a chance to work on the helmet tonight, I will take pictures of everything and post them.

With the liner out it kind of looks horrendous, but it looks fine and works great when it is all in place.

I'd appreciate it.  I've seen many aviation life support equipment techs take aviator helmets apart, so I know how bad they can look when taken apart.

Funny, that was sort of what I did when I was in the Corps. actually was a 6087 "Environmental Cryogenics Tech", we worked with the PR's and actually right after I got out they combined the two rates.

 

[NearDeath]

I took a pair of headphones I had and ripped out the speakers and installed them into my helmet, and yes I had to cut them to make them fit.

I have a jack in the side of the helmet that I plug my audio cable into and I have an MP3 player, and an AM/FM/CD player that I can plug into.

My current MP3 player is a Timex and you can wear it on your wrist, however the ONLY thing I don’t like about it is it on stores 64mb of MP3 files. I have been thinking about seeing if there was an MP3 player that took memory sticks, which I think there is..

The radio is too much a pain in the arse because you lose and gain signal, the cd player just didn’t work that well because of the bouncing. the MP3 has worked the best for me.

The compactness of helmets makes it almost impossible to squeeze any kind of speakers in the helmet without cutting the foam.

I tried the small little ones that fit inside your ear, those can sound good, but putting your helmet on and taking it off can be a pain (really, hurt pain) and I have installed speakers in helmets before and I just like the setup better.

Plus I am looking at tying my cell phone into my helmet through the speakers and I have already mounted the mic into the front of the helmet, just have to work with the electronics part of it.

Of course I am also mounting LED's inside my helmet and a wafer thing rechargeable Lithium Ion 3.7 volt battery to power the LED's and a possible visor fan I am thinking about installing

ThrasherFox,

Can you take pictures of your install on the inside of the helmet and post? I have a $500 Arai helmet and I would hate to screw it up... If I could see your install, I could mimic...

I agree with you... I have tried the earphones inside the ears and that does not work! It is extremely painful getting the helmet on and off. I tried every small pair of earbuds/earphones I could find. Most of the time, the earphones would fall out of my ears as I was attempting to put the helmet on. Not to mention when I did get the helmet on and had the earbuds in, I would start to get pretty sore inside the ears from the helmet preassure on not too long of rides...

 

[NearDeath]

Any comments on sacrificing helmet integrity by cutting away the foam only in the ear portions of the helmet? (all the way through as ThrasherFox is stating.)

I am kind of thinking that since it is only cutting away foam from the ear sections, we should be okay? (Hate to die over my stereo mod...

)

Cloud

 

[thrasherfox]

I dont think there are any problems. I think the foam is primarily (or solely) for the purpose of cutting down noise. Since the area you are cutting away is being replaced with another type of material I have not noticed it being more noisy. The inner shell is the part that is important in accidents.

I will take pics in a few.. I will see if I can have them posted in the next hours or so

 

[BigBSBusa]

Sounds great, Thrasher. I've got a little time to kill before completing some other mods so maybe this is what I will spend it doing!

 

[NearDeath]

Many thanks Thrasher

 

[thrasherfox]

Ok, here we go


Please don’t anyone post until I get all 12 pictures uploaded.


Ok, I have a total of 12 pictures.. I have more but I am posting just the ones that I think will be helpful

Pictures 1 through 5 are pictures for the insert in the helmet, speakers are already in place. Just wanted you to see how the helmet looks.

Currently I have the pigtail tucked inside until I use it, I was waiting until I bought a new soldering iron before I finished it, It will be mounted in insert itself on the bottom. Maybe with or without a Velcro cover. Not sure yet.

Picture 6 shows the insert in the right. The insert from the factory is lightly glued in. and on my helmet has tabs in the back. But it comes out easy, and I just snap it back in place with out gluing it back in. This is the setup I was wearing when I road to Tahoe last week and to the coast and back home. 830 miles in a day and a half. No problems with the helmet, didn’t even notice anything other than hearing some kick A$$ tunes as I am driving all the miles on boring roads

Picture #7, view of the bottom of the insert and helmet

Picture # 8 is a picture of the speaker, I outlined it on my computer with a small red line so you can see it. You would be able to see it anyway because it is a little darker color than the helmet insert, but wanted to outline it just to make sure there was no confusion as to what you were looking at.

Picture # 9 is the front of the helmet. I have the jack located on the left hand side of the helmet so as to not interfere with my throttle hand. I can use my left to unplug it, readjust it whatever.

Picture # 10 is the rear view of the insert, this shows the speakers as they sit in the insert and also shows the jack on the left side. Which as I stated before, will eventually be mounted permanently under the left side of the insert.

Picture #11 shows the insert with the speakers removed. Gives you an idea of the size of the speakers and the mounting of the wiring.

Picture #12 last but not least, this shows the size of the fricken holes I had to make. As you, I was concerned about making cuts into my insert. But the more I had to cut out to make it comfortable, the more I thought to myself, well heck, I am this far, not going to hurt if I go farther.

I also thought of something else, and this comes from my days of re-fiber glassing a boat and working with foam. You can go down to home depot and by cans of foam, if you need to you can always make a mold and using cardboard and duct tape, and some spray foam and re-foam parts if you need to. The stuff is easy to work with, it is messy, but I am confidant I could repair any areas in my insert if I felt I cut too much away.

Hope this helps some of you.


Thanks

Ron


Here is pic 1 of 12

 

[thrasherfox]

Pic 2 of 12

 

[thrasherfox]

Pic 3 of 12

 

[thrasherfox]

Pic 4 of 12

 

[thrasherfox]

Pic 5 of 12