The church where I am taking over as Technical Ministries Director got a set of 8 Comstar single and dual muff headsets (not the
beltpack style) about a year ago.
3 of them are no longer working, one after about 6 months. The
microphone quits so you can hear but not talk. (I may actually leave one this way for that special production guy...
One the mic
boom fell completly out when the wires pulled off the mic after the glue fell out.
Most of them have had the glue that holds the flex
boom into the swivel fail, so it is only the wires holding them in.
I pulled one apart to see what was wrong, and found that the way they are designed and built, the stiff
wire from the mic
boom swivel has a very short jump before it is soldered to the
circuit board, and when the
boom is swiveled it twists that
wire until it breaks at the
edge of the solder joint.
It is plainly obvious that this would happen over time too!
The
wire needs to be longer with a loop in it or something.
I also found it interesting that when I opened it up, a small amount of stress was put on the
speaker wire, and the
wire popped off the solder pad! It didn't break the
wire, the solder blob on the end of the
wire popped off the solder pad on the board as cold solder joints tend to do. Makes me wonder about the rest of the solder joints, and the overall design/
build quality...
It looks like they are priced at the ClearCom
level, but built to a child's walkietalkie quailty. (not even a semi-name brand FRS)
Another issue is the battery design. It goes in easily, but then it doesn't want to come out! It sticks, and there is no grab
point or anything, so you are digging at the smooth
edge with fingernails, or pulling the corner of the sticky label.
The charger sometimes locks up and doesn't recognize a battery and has to be power-cycled.
A simple design issue is the
microphone mute system.
When you
power the
headset up, the mic is on. if you press the
mute button it beeps and mutes.
If you press it again, it beeps and mutes. Or does it unmute? What state did I have it in??
The problem is the beep is the same for muting or unmuting!
It causes endless hassle and unwanted live mics because there is no simple way to tell if it is muted or unmuted!
Usually either I remove/replace the battery (see above...) so I have a known state, or a sharp breath into the
microphone is *usually* loud enough to be able to hear if it is on, but not always. So blow, press the
button, blow again, wonder if it is another dead mic, or you didn't blow right, repeat. Then load a battery into another
headset, put it on, and then blow into the first mic and repeat...
Another few cents in having 2 distinct tones would save so much hassle! grr
The headsets are bulky and heavy, and can't be comfortably stashed around the neck, unless you like your neck in traction or have cervical spine injuries.
There is a lot of bulk that is excess design burden, and not functional.
Other than the above, they seem to function and sound all right, but they need to re-design a few things!
Oh, and if you are using more than 4 in a group, you have to push a
button on the
base station to combine the 2 groups. If the
power blinks or the
power strip is switched off, it resets to 2 groups and you have to go back and reset the
base station. This feature should be replaced with a mechanical
switch so when it powers up it is in the desired mode.
One addition I would suggest is vibrate, so that for the sound guy or somebody who takes it off to talk to a performer, they will know when their attention is needed. Basically an "alert" or "
call"
button that vibrates the
headset/
beltpack.
So that is my review of the
system, now I have a question for Bill
etc.
What kind of a warranty do they have for obvious defects in materials and workmanship?
These units sit all week in their cloth bags in the case in the sanctuary, get used gently by production staff people sitting in chairs 2 to 4 services a week, and then returned to the case.
The way the glue on the booms is failing is just turning to dust, the solder joints are faulty, and the wires don't have
strain relief.
Who do I talk to about getting these repaired, or do I just warn people away and repair them myself until we can get something better?
I tried calling them, but just got the message about the bad storms keeping them out of the office, and this round of asking The Google is the first I have had time to resume the subject.
Anyway, I hope I am able to report that they made it good and are already redesigning these flaws, but that is the story so far!
Ben