Bose connector mystery

Hi,

I have a strange problem in my RV. Whenever my Bose headset is plugged into the right side of the plane, sometimes there is HUGE feedback in the intercom. This problem does not occur if I use the bose from the pilot side jacks and use the lightspeed from the right side.

If the feedback is occuring, sometimes it can be fixed by very slightly moving the mic plug in the connector.

I've double checked all the connections, but now I'm curious about one thing. The bose has four seperate contact areas on the mic plug, the lightspeed only has three. Does anyone here know what the four different contacts are for? The Bose manual doesn't address this and customer service is closed today.

See the following crummy cameraphone picture:



Top is my lightspeed mic plug - presumably tip, ring and ground.

Bottom is the Bose - this photo is crummy but you can see there are four seperate sections, two on the tip, a recessed ring and then ground.

I'm guessing the extra contacts are for power. Unless you have a battery pack for your headsets?

ccrawford said:

I'm guessing the extra contacts are for power. Unless you have a battery pack for your headsets?

Click to expand...

I have the battery pack. The panel powered bose' connectors use a mini-DIN instead of the plugs. Thanks for the reply though.

I was lucky with my Bose, they work fine, but I haven't tried them in the back yet. I do know from experience with many different brands of headsets in various aircraft, that the bends in the various connections of the jacks land at different places on different plugs. I had this problem with DC's in a Sundowner, bending the prongs behind the panel fixed the problem. As you can see, the Bose is a little more critical than the Lightspeeds.

You might try re-bending the prongs just a bit to see if they contact the plug in a different place. One way to test is to put a stripe of something on the plug, then plug it into the good jack. The stripe should wipe off up to the point where the prong ends up. Then do it again with the one causing the problem, try to get the bad one to be the same distance as the good one by re-bending the offending prong. Worked for me. Be sure to clean the prongs afterwards.

Jeff

Good ideas Jeff. I'll poke around a bit...

I had the same problem with Upgraded Lightspeed 25XL

The 3 bands on the light speed are because it is a stereo headset. The tip is ground and the other 2 bands are right/left if you have it switched that way. There is a switch to select between mono and stereo on the Lightspeeds.

I had the same problem as you have when I first started using my Lightspeed 25XL's. Using only one headset plugged in was fine. But plug in two and the feedback problem started. I had sent them in to be refurbished to include the new cell phone capability and upgrade. When I got them back, FEEDBACK when the transmit key was pushed. I called Lightspeed and they said the problem occurs in the wiring they used for the cell phone interface. Apparently it causes a ground loop. I ultimately sent my 25XL's in to trade for the new 20 3G headsets and love them. It fixed the feedback problem as they are wired differently.

hecilopter said:

The 3 bands on the light speed are because it is a stereo headset. The tip is ground and the other 2 bands are right/left if you have it switched that way. There is a switch to select between mono and stereo on the Lightspeeds.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the response, but I think I was not quite clear. The plugs pictured are the mic plugs, on the lightspeed the three bands are tip, ring and ground. Either tip or ring is used for the mic signal, the other is used for the PTT if installed.

I had the same problem as you have when I first started using my Lightspeed 25XL's. Using only one headset plugged in was fine. But plug in two and the feedback problem started. I had sent them in to be refurbished to include the new cell phone capability and upgrade. When I got them back, FEEDBACK when the transmit key was pushed. I called Lightspeed and they said the problem occurs in the wiring they used for the cell phone interface. Apparently it causes a ground loop. I ultimately sent my 25XL's in to trade for the new 20 3G headsets and love them. It fixed the feedback problem as they are wired differently.

Click to expand...

Very interesting - the headset I have that works well is the 30 3G and in facti works fine from either seat. The Bose only works from the left seat. I've now got two good leads to follow - asking Lightspeed/Bose for any advice and checking the contact position on the right mic jack.

Don't forget that my DC headset gave the feedback as well!!

Hi ya'll,

No reply from Bose tech support yet, but Lightspeed was kind enough to send me a very helpful response. I pulled the connector from the panel and slightly bent one of the pins and now all is well. (rvwannabe - thanks for the note, I guess the DCs must have a similar shaped plug to the bose).

I can't say enough good things about the lightspeed response. The lightspeed response follows...

Hello Kevin. Sorry I did not get back to you yesterday. I read the whole
post on the forum. I love forums; they are wonderful places for
information.

Anyhow, you obviously noticed the "4 connectors" on the Bose mic plug.
There actually are only 3. The "4th" one (2nd from the tip) is not actually
a conductor, even though it is metal. I have tested it. I think the
problem is the connectors not lining up properly with the Mil spec style mic
plug. The key is that it is jack specific.

I hope this was helpful. Any questions please ask.

Brad Johnson

Service Department
Lightspeed

Click to expand...

Just an update so anyone searching the archive will have 'closure':

Yep - The recessed mic ground connection on the bose connector (and presumably rvwannabe's DC) was the problem. After slightly bending the connector in the panel now either headset works fine from the passenger seat.

The response from Lightspeed technical support was great.
The response from Bose was horrible (essentially they sent me some links to the manual without even responding to my message).