Nugget

I thought this might be useful information for the instructors here...

My third NADY PMC-2X has started circling the drain. This past weekend it started exhibiting the death squeal, where you have to push laterally on the headset plugs while you're using it in order to keep it working properly. It slowly got worse over the course of the weekend and was a real pain for both me and my students.

Monday I hit Amazon to buy a replacement (I was about due, it's been a year or so since I bought it) and was dismayed to discover that the PMC-2X seems to have been discontinued. Nobody actually has any in stock, and the only model I could find for sale was the PMC-3X which is the one with the built-in FM radio. I talked to a vendor who claims that NADY's leaving the market and we probably won't see any of their devices for sale in the future.

I know that some instructors are fond of those bluetooth wireless communicators, but I'm resistant to the overhead of having to deal with the helmet clips and speaker routing they entail. With frequent back-to-back students and instructor shuffling that often occurs it just seems like bad trade-off. I'd also hate to see an expensive communicator leave with a student, which seems like an easy mistake to make on those weary Sunday afternoon late blue sessions.

Some googling led me to discover, though, that last month ChatterBox refreshed their old faithful CB-50 Tandem Pro. Although the NADY seems to be universally used by Driver's Edge instructors, the ChatterBox has always seemed the device of choice for PCA in this region. The Tandem Pro never seemed worth the extra cost to me, though, and had some really annoying features and seemed to be a mostly abandoned product for ChatterBox. I'm excited to see that they've brought the Tandem series back in line with their other products with the new refresh. Now there's a new Tandem Pro2 which fixes a lot of the concerns I had with the old kit. Notably:

• There's a "power on" led, making it much less likely that you'll drain the batteries by leaving it turned on accidentally. The old CB-50 just had a "battery low" LED
• The headsets use 3.5mm jacks now, not the old 9-pin DIN connectors.
• It charges via USB now, so you can juice it up off your laptop or even easily run it off a 12V power port in a car in a pinch
• It's much smaller, and can even be practically mounted on your helmet so you don't even need to hold it during a session (or make your student hold it when they're riding with you)

The new headsets are 3.5mm and now the same microphone impedance as the fancier ChatterBox devices. This means there's now a variety of permanent helmet mount headsets you can use now, in addition to the "tuck by your ear" style student headset. You can wire a two-ear, permanent install headset into your helmet and still use the temp headset for your student. Plus, you can use these same headsets (student ones too!) with a fancy communicator like the x1slim if you want more features.

I've got an x1slim that I bought last year, which has a built-in FRS radio and bluetooth stuff for linking with mobile phones. The x1slim lets you do interesting stuff like eavesdrop on the corner workers or enable car-to-car communication. Until now, though, it's been unusable as a student communicator because there was no student headset available for it.

I wish it had separate volume controls for driver and passenger, but that's a minor complaint. It also does not have an audio line-in, if you were using that feature on the CB-50 you'll miss it. It's also more expensive than the old NADY, but I'm optimistic that it may last longer than a year. I'm also enthused that I will be able to also use my x1slim at events with these new student headsets.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/macnuggetorg/8432676587/http://www.flickr.com/photos/macnuggetorg/8432676587/ (with x1slim shown for size comparison) by http://www.flickr.com/people/macnuggetorg/, on Flickr

Matt Romanowski

I posted about these back in December. Way nicer than the old style. I have a bunch of complete set ups for sale at $95 for the whole setup shpped!

KaiB

Have they done anything with the crappy battery charging...

Nugget

Dang, sorry I missed your post back then. That's definitely a great deal!

mglobe

I'm using mine this weekend for the first time. Not really sure what to think yet. The connectors are better, the device itself is thinner and mounts to the helmet better. But with the new design, you can no longer hear yourself in your earpiece. It's hard to tell if you are not loud enough, or too loud. (yeah, I know, most of my students just wish I would STFU).

As far as the "USB" charging goes, they didn't use a standard usb plug on the chatterbox side, only on the power source side. The Chatterbox side of the charging cable uses a 2.5mm plug rather than mini or micro usb. Lose the Chatterbox charging cable, and you have a brick until you get another. I bought a 2.5mm plug, and wired an old charger I had sitting around to work with it so that I would have a backup.

Oh, and BTW, the converter cable that lets you connect to an old chatterbox, just lets you connect the new headset to the old chatterbox. It would have been nice to be able to go from the new chatterbox to the old headsets, so you could still use them as backup.

Oh yeah, also there is currently no converter to allow you to plug into a Stilo helmet. I wired one up for myself, but there is nothing out there to purchase right now.

syncspeedinc

Soon, I am making up some sets this week hopefully, you will be able to get them from HMS and Apex.

Qwickrick

Where is the best place to buy a Stilo helmet? At Sebring, Wine Country offered 10% off.

Matt Romanowski

They all go through HMS as they are the importer....

Qwickrick

Thanks...their built in noise cancelling headphones and built in mic are sweet

fhp911

I got one and installed it in my helmet -- looks good. Sounds better than the old model.

Don't forget to get the extension cord so the wires are long enough to reach from student to instructor.

ShakeNBake

I think I must have got a bum unit then. The sound quality was terrible. The unit was clipping and breaking up big time, even at low volume. Basically worthless unless the student was driving in a slow section with no cars around.

+1 on the design improvements, it's much better than the old one in this department.

rlm328

Mike,

Do you have a parts list and wiring diagram for your Stilo to 3.5 mm plug?

Thanks

mglobe

Not really. I already had an old style chatterbox to Stilo cable. I took an old style Chatterbox extension cable, clipped off one end, and then wired it to the appropriate 3.5mm plug. I plug that cable into my CB Pro2 on one end, and into my old style CB to Stilo cable on the other. All you need is the correct 3.5mm connector, a multi-meter to get the wiring right, and a soldering iron.

Where you been Bob?

Nugget

Any chance these two things are related? Because I can hear myself just fine in my earpiece with the CB Pro2 using the supplied headsets.

mglobe

I guess it's possible, but I don't think so, because when I plug in my student headset, and talk into it, I don't hear anything in the earpiece. I called up support at Chatterbox, and they told me that was the way it was supposed to work. I guess if they ever get the Stilo to CB2 to work, I'll know for sure.