Starcom1 Advance PTT-03 VOX Inhibit issue

[Fred W]

Latest update on this saga.

Several weeks ago, Jeff from BikeEffects.com, under the guidance of the Starcom1 engineers, tested yet another PTT-03 switch on his own Advance unit. It worked as advertised. He then sent me the tested PTT-03. This PTT-03 is different that the two others he sent me. The previous ones have 2.7k ohm resistors in them, measuring 2.65k ohms between the cable pins, as reported above.

This latest incarnation measures ~1.79 k ohms between those same pins, which is consistent with the Starcom rep I have been exchanging emails with. He said:

Hi
Thanks for your mail

I understand your issue which is caused by an imbalance between the resistor used in the PTT and the Advance circuit.

We had a change on the PCB board and this required a change in the PTT value resistor. This happened some time ago but created a situation on a few units where PTT-03 would not prevent normal vox transmission occurring as it was designed to do. To resolve the situation we changed the PTT value resistor to its current value of 2k ohms.

Obviously this issue effected a few units but as many customers do not use two way radio it had no effect and a very small number of customers require this feature , many wanting vox transmission for rider and passenger.

So you could change the resistor value in you PTT-03 to resolve the problem or I can send you FOC one that is correct.

When I informed him that I already had one of the 2k ohm switches and that the symptoms were still identical, his only response was that they would have to replace my Advance unit. I am now awaiting instructions from them on how they want to accomplish that.

 

[Fred W]

Another update on the Starcom1 Advance PTT-03 not inhibiting the VOX to the Bike-to-Bike radio issue:

I got in touch with Starcom1's support guy, Tony Starling, via the email link on their web page. He has been very responsive and is working with me diligently to try and resolve the issue. As I mentioned in the last update, they wanted to replace my Advance unit and PTT-03 with units that they tested in the factory. To accomplish that they sent me the entire circuit board and another PTT-03.

I installed the board into my case, and hooked up the new PTT, tested the unit, and...

I still get the exact same symptoms.

I have reported this back to Tony (Jeff at Bike Effects is also in the loop and is keen on resolving this problem too) and he said they have gone back to the drawing board and have found that there may be problems with certain types of Bike to Bike radios but not others. He asked me to hang on and they would be doing more research and get back to me with next steps.

I am using (or attempting to use) a Motorola Talkabout FRS/GMRS radio for bike to bike. It requires the use of the single 2.5mm pin TRS (Tip Ring Shield) type connector for both the audio out, mike in and PTT signals. The Starcom CAB-04 is used to interface the Advance unit with these single pin type radios.

I'm wondering if anyone has been successful with getting the PTT-03 to inhibited the VOX and if they were using a different interface cable, like the 2 pin type cables used on Kenwood radios? Or, conversely, those that are having problems with this feature, do you all have single pin CAB-04 type radios?

I'll be waiting to hear what Tony comes back with, but if all I need to do is buy a Kenwood FRS radio and a 2-pin cable to interface and the thing works the way it's supposed to I'd be a happy camper.

 

[jekirby]

Hey Fred. Interesting findings. Not to ragg on Starcom, it seems that they rely on folks (customers) in the field to point out probems and then they work on a fix. Starcom and Jeff have been good to help.

 

[mattster31]

I was just about to order a PTT switch for my advance unit, as I also have the Motorola radios. I think now I will wait. What about making your own PTT switch?? Has that option be looked at? Although you would need to know how the internals operate I would think........Just curious. I would have thought that all radios work the same way, and just the plug might be different on each....... excuse my naievity.

Otherwise, my advance unit works great! I have had to turn down the volume for the intercom though, and I have only been using my MP3 through it.

 

[Fred W]

I was just about to order a PTT switch for my advance unit, as I also have the Motorola radios. I think now I will wait. What about making your own PTT switch?? Has that option be looked at? Although you would need to know how the internals operate I would think........Just curious. I would have thought that all radios work the same way, and just the plug might be different on each....... excuse my naievity. Otherwise, my advance unit works great! I have had to turn down the volume for the intercom though, and I have only been using my MP3 through it.

It is very easy to make your own PTT switch. You can buy an "S video" type cable and hack one end off and use that. Jeff Ashe did just that here: Linky to thread

 

[Neil San Diego]

I'm wondering if anyone has been successful with getting the PTT-03 to inhibited the VOX and if they were using a different interface cable, like the 2 pin type cables used on Kenwood radios? Or, conversely, those that are having problems with this feature, do you all have single pin CAB-04 type radios?

I tried it both ways on our Advance unit. I tried using my original "2-pin" Motorola with their suggested cable, with no luck. I've also tried several "1-pin" Motorolas using their suggested cable, also with no luck. All my Motorolas have been on their supported list.

Odd thing is that the PTT switch works for these radios on the Digital Starcom... :unknw:

 

[Fred W]

I'm wondering if anyone has been successful with getting the PTT-03 to inhibited the VOX and if they were using a different interface cable, like the 2 pin type cables used on Kenwood radios? Or, conversely, those that are having problems with this feature, do you all have single pin CAB-04 type radios?

I tried it both ways on our Advance unit. I tried using my original "2-pin" Motorola with their suggested cable, with no luck. I've also tried several "1-pin" Motorolas using their suggested cable, also with no luck. All my Motorolas have been on their supported list.

Odd thing is that the PTT switch works for these radios on the Digital Starcom... :unknw:

Yes, the PTT-03 will work just fine as a Press to Talk, on both the Digital and Advanced units. But it will not inhibit the VOX from keying the transmitters on when you talk to your passenger, which is what it's supposed to do on the Advance. The Digital units, from what I have been told, you can configure each input to be controlled by VOX or not, so the PTT-03 is superfluous in that any PTT would work (PTT-01, 02, etc.)

 

[Neil San Diego]

But it will not inhibit the VOX from keying the transmitters on when you talk to your passenger, which is what it's supposed to do on the Advance. The Digital units, from what I have been told, you can configure each input to be controlled by VOX or not, so the PTT-03 is superfluous in that any PTT would work (PTT-01, 02, etc.)

That's exactly what I'm refering to. It seems to be able to disable the VOX on the Digital, but not on the Advance.

The actual PTT switch will send a transmision. It just won't disable the VOX on the Advance.

 

[Fred W]

Another (hopefully final) update.

As I last reported, Tony at Starcom1 was looking further into the problem at their factory, using the same configuration as what I reported. He was able to reproduce the problem and they determined that the problem was (still? again?) the value of the resistor being used in the PTT-03. He said that they had determined that on the more recent Advance unit circuit boards (there was a change made in these boards some time ago), a 1k ohm resistor would allow the PTT-03 to inhibit the VOX to the bike to bike radio, for all FRS/GMRS radios that they tested.

I chopped out the hot melt glue from inside one of the several "tested" PTT-03's that they had previously sent me and removed the 2.7k ohm resistor and soldered in a 1k ohm 1/8 watt that I had laying around.

And the verdict is:

[SIZE=36pt]IT WORKED!![/SIZE]

The VOX circuit now works as advertised and does not key the bike-to-bike transmitter on when talking any time the PTT-03 is plugged in.

 

[HaulinAshe]

Fred,

I don't care how gay it looks, I'm going to give you a big ole hug next time I see you! You have stuck to this thankless task and we all will benefit from it. Although, now I have to go back and totally redo my entire setup with a new resistor value, settings etc.



I'll try it with both Cobra and Motorola units, since I have both cables, and post back.

 

[Fred W]

Jeff,

While you are a "handsome man", I think I may just pass on all that hugging stuff.

Don't forget that there are (apparently) older type circuit cards and the newer ones. And I'm not entirely clear on exactly when the newer ones cut-into production. Hopefully, yours is a newer one too, in which case the 1k should fix you up.

Here's what I did to test whether that 1k ohm would be the magic value to really inhibit the VOX (this before I chopped out the guts of the PTT-03). I just took a 1k ohm resistor and bent the leads and trimmed them even. Then, with the PTT-03 left unplugged, I plugged the resistor directly into the appropriate 2 pins of the Advance box (see diagram in post 1) where the PTT usually plugs in and then plugged in the CAB-04 cable to that Advance and FRS radio. Adjusted the VOX to work and turned on the FRS radio and watched for what happened (or more appropriately, didn't happen) when I talked and induced VOX.

Only after that worked successfully did I proceeded to make the permanent fix.

 

[jekirby]

I now have my new Advance unit fresh from Jeff and have not had a chance to try out the vox/ptt function. Good info. Way to hang in there.

 

[FJRONAMISSION]

Well done dude!!! :clapping: :clapping: :clapping:

You are the Mcyver of the circuit board!!! and way to help out the Forum

B...........

 

[Fred W]

I now have my new Advance unit fresh from Jeff and have not had a chance to try out the vox/ptt function. Good info. Way to hang in there.

Kirby,

I think you will find that the problem was not in the Advance unit. Tony from Starcom sent me a brand new one (well, all the guts actually) and it still had the exact same symptom.

Try the trick I mentioned to Jeff about sticking the 1k ohm resistor straight into the PTT jack in the advance and then retest. Make sure you use a 1/8 watt resistor so the leads are small enough to fit in the mini-DIN jack.

Well done dude!!! :clapping: :clapping: :clapping: You are the Mcyver of the circuit board!!! and way to help out the Forum

Thanks.

My next move will be to hard-wiring my own cable to my own smaller PTT switch installed into the left switch housing (with a 1k ohm resistor, of course), a'la Jeff Ashe. I don't really like having the PTT-03 sitting up on top of my grip.

Then the final Starcom1 Advance issue to be resolved is integration with a Garmin Zumo 550 (one of which which I don't own yet). The issue there is that the sound comes from the Zumo via a single cable. So if the VOX is properly adjusted it will mute the GPS prompts and cell phone audio if you are chatting with your passenger. Need to seperate the music output from the GPS and phone output so they can go into separate ports of the Starcom (Music to Audio in, GPS & phone to Aux input, microphone to Phone port). This isn't a problem with the Starcom1 Advance. It's just the way it is designed to work vs the Zumo.

I already have some ideas based on how AutoCom does it. I'll start a new message thread to track that one.

 

[snikr]

You are the MAN Fred W!! :yahoo: If I ever get a GPS I know who I'll turn to when I hook it up to my Starcom1 Advance unit.

Tom