Cardo Scala Q2 questions

[DR. Rock]

Now you can crimp.

[DR. Rock]

Using as little heat as possible, but as much as necessary...



Note that I'm not holding the soldering iron... it's just sitting there in it's stand, and I'm bringing the component to it.

[DR. Rock]

Test again:



I wrapped some 'lectrical tape around the two black wires, which snugged them into the plastic cover nicely.



and then gently screw the cover on, being careful not to twist all the solders off...

[DR. Rock]

The other side will be a piece of cake:

Plastic part on first,



Tin the sleeve. (helps to bend it away from the other posts until the end) and then tin the other two posts.



Solder the ground wires together and then solder them to the sleeve, then test before crimping:





Right-right, Left-left?

Solder the ring and tip,





and test again...



All good? Tape, and button it up:



Enjoy.

[DR. Rock]

The connection tucks right into the seam between the foam pads:



As predicted, the sound with the speakers is nowhere as good as the sound with the earbuds.

[DR. Rock]

Well... it's not perfect, but I think it'll do:

Here's straight on...



You can see the unit is gonna hit the brace before anything else does.

Tilting my head to the right:



And to the left:



not as far.

[DR. Rock]

Here's a close-up of the clearance between the Scala and the Leatt:



Here's turning my head as if to check the blind spot before turning lanes:



Seems fine.

Again, close-up of tilting my head to the right...



And to the left:



Right:



And left:



So, it definitely limits range of motion when tilting your head to the left... however, it didn't feel like I'd ever be doing that. It's sort of how a teenager will cock their head to one side, expressing disgust, or distain. I can always tilt to the right for that purpose. I think I'll get by.

Seriously, I don't think it's going to be an issue riding with the Scala Q2 and the Leatt together, however, in the event of a crash, the Scala may take a hit from the Leatt brace and get damaged in a way that it might not if I wasn't wearing the brace.

[DR. Rock]

Credit and thanks to biggziff for posting the original mod, to Impluse 101 who sorted out the wire colors on the new MP3 units. And to some guy called magellan on the VFRD discussion list who motivated me to figure out why he couldn't get the wires to solder when he tried the mod.

By the way, one reason I decided to splice mid-wire was I wasn't able to pop the new units apart to get to the circuit board. The microphone seems to be attached differently than the previous rev. and I didn't want to force it.

[BlueLghtning]

Awesome!!!

Thanks for posting. I may actually give this a try myself.

[biggziff]

Originally Posted by DR. Rock

Credit and thanks to biggziff for posting the original mod, to Impluse 101 who sorted out the wire colors on the new MP3 units. And to some guy called magellan on the VFRD discussion list who motivated me to figure out why he couldn't get the wires to solder when he tried the mod.

By the way, one reason I decided to splice mid-wire was I wasn't able to pop the new units apart to get to the circuit board. The microphone seems to be attached differently than the previous rev. and I didn't want to force it.

Just an FYI on the newer wires. The company that manufactures these devices used to use stranded wires with plastic insulation. They switched to cheaper, lacquer coated wires sometime last summer which threw a wrench into the works for those of us that were modifying these. There are two things you can do to make your life easier. One is to sand the lacquer off the wires with some very fine sandpaper (this is what I do) or use a chemical stripper. I'm not going to post which chemicals to use as they're nasty to work with, but you can find them if you look.

Well done on the photo essay! If I were you...I'd think about strain relief in your design. PM me for details.

[DR. Rock]

One last question. The stock helmet speakers are labeled as 8ohm 5w. I looked up the earbud specs, and all it says 16ohms.

How's that gonna affect anything? Am I going to blow the earbuds? Will the battery last longer?

[biggziff]

Originally Posted by DR. Rock

One last question. The stock helmet speakers are labeled as 8ohm 5w. I looked up the earbud specs, and all it says 16ohms.

How's that gonna affect anything? Am I going to blow the earbuds? Will the battery last longer?

Technically, a higher ohm rating (resistance) will require more power to drive the speaker, but quality ear phones will be able to run more efficiently on far less power than the cheapo helmet speakers so you should find that the volume can be run at the lowest setting which should conserve power.

[bpeterson]

Fantastic writeup Doc.

I was really wanting to go with the Q2, but now I'm distracted by the G4. I like the idea of stereo BT music, but could of course hardwire the music and leave the ipod in my jacket. I just hate too many wires.

thanks for all the details on replacing the speakers, seems like a must do mod.

[Fire Captain]

Thanks for the detailed write up.
I just got my pair of q2 and I did the mod on one so I could use my custom ear monitors and all I can say is awesome....

Thanks again.

Fire

[DR. Rock]

Originally Posted by bpeterson

... but now I'm distracted by the G4.....

Brian, don't hold your breath on that... Cardo seems to be denying that they know anything about it, and despite it appearing on Revzilla's and a few other sites, I can't find ANYthing official from Cardo about the G4.

In the photos it looks like some non-waterproof cheap knock-off wanna-be counterfeit gizmo you would buy in a back room on canal street.



Can anyone confirm that the G4 isn't just vaporware?