Joe Voorhees
Member
Hey Everyone,
I work at a high school theater and the PortaCom headsets we have don't last what we would expect for a $220/ea. We typically get 2 years out of a headset before the mic starts having intermittent cutting in and out. I am dealing with teenagers and the are generally less then gentle with the gear (though we have 3 old headsets from the early 90's that just keep going!)
After looking at the pin out on the belt packs a few of us though of making an adapter: 4pin XLR to dual 1/8" female (one for audio, one for mic)
Our current thought process is to use a standard computer headset and for $20 each even if we have to replace them twice per year it's still cheaper then replacing actual portacoms every few years. (I picked up one of these to test: Sennheiser PC 21-II - Voip Headset - Internet Telephony, Skype - Noise Cancelling Microphone
While working on a proof of concept I ran into a little bit of a road block. I wired the ear piece first and it works great but while working on the mic I can't get it to work regardless of the configuration. I tested it by pluging it into a computer and all worked as expected. Just to appease myself I wired in an SM58 into the adapter and it worked perfectly.
Does anyone have any thoughts on this?
Thanks,
Joe
I work at a high school theater and the PortaCom headsets we have don't last what we would expect for a $220/ea. We typically get 2 years out of a headset before the mic starts having intermittent cutting in and out. I am dealing with teenagers and the are generally less then gentle with the gear (though we have 3 old headsets from the early 90's that just keep going!)
After looking at the pin out on the belt packs a few of us though of making an adapter: 4pin XLR to dual 1/8" female (one for audio, one for mic)
Our current thought process is to use a standard computer headset and for $20 each even if we have to replace them twice per year it's still cheaper then replacing actual portacoms every few years. (I picked up one of these to test: Sennheiser PC 21-II - Voip Headset - Internet Telephony, Skype - Noise Cancelling Microphone
While working on a proof of concept I ran into a little bit of a road block. I wired the ear piece first and it works great but while working on the mic I can't get it to work regardless of the configuration. I tested it by pluging it into a computer and all worked as expected. Just to appease myself I wired in an SM58 into the adapter and it worked perfectly.
Does anyone have any thoughts on this?
Thanks,
Joe