Clear Com - Repair

[teksalot]

Besides connector issues, does anyone have any experience with Clear Com Headset and box repair. (not the wireless ones).

I have a bin full of Headsets and belt packs that don't work and a school unwilling/unable to send them out for professional repair.

Help!
Roxanne

[cutlunch]

Someone with hands on experience should be a long soon.

But I'll have a crack at it from an electronics technician point of view.

1) You have checked that they all don't work. People may think they are faulty when it is actually their operating.
Check the volume control settings.

2) Get a known good ( working ) headset and pack. Label both of them so you know the good ones. Once you put it down on the bench it is easy to forget which one is the god one.

3) After checking for any visble faults such as damaged connectors etc try the unit ( pack / headset ) your testing with the appropriate good unit. Then note down any obvious faults eg the call light won't lightup when called from another good unit on the system. Does the call button on the faulty unit operate the call light on the good system?
With a good headset on the faulty unit can you hear the difference when the mike switch is turned on / off ?
On a faulty headset check whether you can hear someone and whether they can hear you. Headsets are more likely to be broken wires in the leads / connectors.

Now you have worked through all the headsets / belt packs you should have a list of faults.
Now using different ones you maybe able to isolate the faults more.
For instance if a call light doesn't work it could be the bulb so you could try swapping out a bulb from a faulty unit the call light works on.

I don't know what level of skill you have with electronics but if you are happy working on electronic circuits you could use a multimeter. With a good unit connected up with the faulty unit also connected do a side by side comparision of voltage levels. Starting at the connectors working back to the PCB.

If the PCB's are wired to the the call light/ switches/ audio connectors using plugs instead of wires soldered directly to the PCB then you maybe able to swap a good PCB so you can work out if it is the PCB or the switches / connectors etc that are faulty.

At a community college there should be some on-site technicans who might help you with this.

I am sure someone will be along with the most common faults soon. It would be a help to have the exact model numbers.

This pages has some pinouts for the clear-com system, you may have to dig a little as this whole pages has to do with intercoms.
ePanorama.net - Links

Hope this gives you some ideas.

[DaveySimps]

What sort of problems are you having? By far, the biggest issues I see in the older Clear Com boxes are with connectors and ribbon cables. Many time have I fixed a box by just reinserting the ribbon cable more tightly than it already was. The second problem I see regularly is with the connectors on the headsets. What model headsets do you have? Alot of time they just get abused and, since the wires are so thin, they need to be resoldered to the connector. I would also say that you should also check the cabeling used with them. I frequently see people having issues that are using a bad mic cable that needs to be repaired.

~Dave

[SHARYNF]

I agree the older clearcom blue head sets tended to have the connection wires break off, either in the older style switchcraft connector, or in the head set itself

in the belt packs most of the time it is the ribbon connector, but many times the pack is fine but the headset was bad or the light burned out, or for some reason the cable connecting them was not passing the needed power voltage

these guys are pretty simple,

Sharyn

[teksalot]

Thanks so much for all the tips. As for the headsets, they are CC-95 and the older model that doesn't have a model number on it, but is black and plastic with the Clear Com logo (grrr).

Unfortunately, all I could do was re-solder some old loose connections. I reseated a ribbon cable in a belt pack and that seemed to fix one. I was having trouble figuring out how to get to the mic element in the headsets and when I finally found it (hidden screws... :-P) it looked completely fine on the inside. Guess the problem is the mic element? And if its the wire running up the mic stem, I'm not going to Orvac's just for a 20cent piece of wire.

I'm not really into audio, but this poor school has no one to take care of their equipment, and since I've been sitting on my butt for the last week babysitting their theater, I figured I'd try to be productive and fix stuff for them.

On a funny note, all of their really old blue headsets and metal belt packs work perfectly. It's all the new stuff that has problems. Guess they don't make them like they used to ;-)

Again, thanks for the info. Back to my regular job though in the wonderful world of lighting.

[SHARYNF]

Usually it is not the mic element, but rather the connections, the mics are pretty simple (unless you see the whole mic part totally crushed).
Sharyn

[tech2000]

The clearcom system my school has was having this really loud buzz-grind noise thing going so we just decided to switch it off and go over to two way radios. No one at my school has the time or money to look into the problem.
I just love being able to walk around and talk to the rest of the crew!