chatterbox issues

we ride with chatterbox units for communication and MP3. I use the FRSX2 and she uses the sport model. The problem is coming in that she can understand me clearly but when we are at speed, she is all garbled and I can't make out what she is saying. When we are stopped there are no issues.

We are both using full face helmets of course, have tried both channels the sport model offers.

Chatterbox has no clue, they want the unit back for testing, thought I would ask here too.

I tried my Chatter Boxes (X1's)during week long trip and struggled with them the whole time. They worked fantastic stopped or below 25mph, after that there was just way too much trash noise to be able to understand anything someone was saying ! Both Full face, one with boom mic and the other with a standard closed face mic. I cut up a sock and rapped my closed face mic in it and it improved our ability to use them up to about 45-50 mph, but our avg. trip speed was above that ! dry.gif Could NEVER use them in VOX setting, had to press PTT every time!
Also had a problem when one or both of the batteries when they dropped down to a 2 bar reading, when you pressed the PTT the speakers would SCREAM 100+ db's of ear shattering noise rendering them useless.
ChatterBox claimed that the batteries were over charged, manual says to charge batteries at least 14 hrs(I think), but they told me Not to charge them more that 10 hrs and that the batteries are now junk from over charging. blink.gif
They offered to replace all my batteries, but never sent any !
IMO it takes a lot of effort and time to get them semi functional and that extra foam or whatever is needed to knock down white noise that's picked up through the NR mics.
pissed.gif

I get the same squelch upon low battery. never heard of the over charging issue. They have been good about sending extra helmet mounts at no charge to me.

I hate to try the PTT button, I want VOX. If they can't fix it I will try your extra sock idea. But its funny my X2 unit has no issues with her hearing and understanding me.

Chatterbox said the fact that her unit does not use the NR mic should have no bearing at all.

I had the old HJC-90's and they worked great for an intercom. Any type of bike-to-bike I had problems with. Sent them back to Chatterbox multiple times. They would work for a weekend or two and that was it. I finally got rid of them and got an Autocom. Couldn't be happier and they work great as fast as I care to go on the street. The only issue has been VOX with my wife. The mic was about an inch away from her lips and it had a hard time picking up her voice. When I pulled the mic away from the chin bar and got it right up next to her lips it was improved about 90%.

Have you tried chin curtains to help reduce the wind noise around the mic??

have not tried chin curtains for her. i don't have one and mine works fine. could just be she is not keeping the mic open. she might just need to talk louder. The mic is mounted on the inside of the chin bar right next to her lips.

teleskier, Mar 24 2006, 01:44 PMhave not tried chin curtains for her. i don't have one and mine works fine. could just be she is not keeping the mic open. she might just need to talk louder. The mic is mounted on the inside of the chin bar right next to her lips.

Chin curtains are great and help with noise too. fing02.gif

baileyrock, Mar 24 2006, 01:20 PMChin curtains are great and help with noise too. fing02.gif

GUESS I DON'T KNOW WHAT THEY ARE. CAN YOU POINT ME IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION TO FIND THEM?

teleskier, Mar 24 2006, 02:33 PMGUESS I DON'T KNOW WHAT THEY ARE. CAN YOU POINT ME IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION TO FIND THEM?

Breath Guard fits in the chin bar and deflects your breath to help prevent shield fogging

Chin Curtain deflects unwanted wind from hitting your chin and other parts of your face, installs snugly at the bottom of the above listed Shoei full-face helmets

Breath Guard

Chin Curtain

I have no problems below 55mph. My vox still works, but it is hard to hear. At about 90mph the vox kicks in, so I adjust it down a bit when I hear it kick in. The new Chatteboxes have noise cancelling mics and need to be as close to your mouth as possible, and/or out of the wind stream. Sometimes putting it off to the side, but still close helps. With that said, my Chatterbox seems to work great, but one of our other riders has problems with his. I don't remember if it is John or Lee. Hope this helps a bit.

ULEWZ, Mar 24 2006, 06:27 PMI have no problems below 55mph. My vox still works, but it is hard to hear. At about 90mph the vox kicks in, so I adjust it down a bit when I hear it kick in. The new Chatteboxes have noise cancelling mics and need to be as close to your mouth as possible, and/or out of the wind stream. Sometimes putting it off to the side, but still close helps. With that said, my Chatterbox seems to work great, but one of our other riders has problems with his. I don't remember if it is John or Lee. Hope this helps a bit.

90 mph blink.gif is that legal ? goofy.gif

I haven't tried the VOX again with both the sock and chin curtain and all my head sets are NR sets.
I've had these Chatter Boxes for over a year and have never had a bike to bike need until that one and only Touring trip I did last year with me girlfriend, prior to that it's only used to for audio for my Radar Detector. Having had no set-up experience before the trip was very bad, because as soon as we pulled out on the road to start the trip they were non-functional!
Playing with them over the entire 7-8 days only brought use below 45-50 and that is with PTT not VOX functions.
Not real impressed with them so far and the battery never last a whole day just running my radars sound! pissed.gif POFS!!!

I have used the chatterbox Frs X2's for about a year now. My experience with them is when they work good they work very good, but when they work bad they are unbearable. The first day me and my riding buddy tried them out they worked fabulous. Next morning we woke up to go on a 1500 mile 4 day ride and they barely worked. We had changed nothing between the 2 days. We found out many things since those days. Most importantly is that the people at Chatterbox are very nice and try to be helpful. But after repeated calls, the ones that we spoke to seem to have very little knowledge on how the units work. They sent us multiple parts for free to try to get our units working more consistently with little or no help. The single bit of knowledge that helped us most was that the chatterbox does not work well using bike power on certain bikes with a "dirty power supply" of which the VFR would be included. We both had 6th gen VFR's, his 02 mine 03 and his worked slightly better hooked up to bike power. But both would actually drain the batteries from the chatterbox to the VFR. One of the main symptoms of that was that often times one chatterbox would work and one could mostly only listen, accept for very low speed and stopped. My suggestion to you is to use them on battery power, with fresh fully charged batteries. The batteries with a light or mint green plastic cover are older (prior to 2001 or 2002 i think) and were found to have a problem and were upgraded to a different battery with a dark green cover. We found out that local battery stores will make you a custom battery and do the initial charge for you for like $20.00.
What I learned from the chatterbox experiment... Communicators are good! I will never ride more than 20 miles or so without a communicator. If I want to ride alone I can ride alone. If I am riding with someone else it is better to be able to speak to them instead of hand signals!
I loved my chatterbox... but hated not knowing how well it would work or if it would work each time I went to ride with it. So this year I have made the change to Autocom. I bought the Active Smart unit at the end of last year. I just installed it 2 days ago and am yet to test it out. I will be testing it back to back with the chatterbox later in the week, hopefully Saturday. The initial "stopped in the garage" transmitions seem promising... Good luck with your chatterboxes!
Oh yeah, 2 other things... Quiet rider!!! made by NOJ!!! Made all the difference in the world. It also cuts down helmet wind noise. And lastly, we used the chatterboxes successfully with fox at 0mph up to 80-90mph when they worked well. At about 100-110 the fox would stay open on both units transmitting constantly and they would become useless.

well we only use the batteries in the units themselves. Never run power from the bike. Personally I think it has something to do with her NON NR headset. Her sport unit is not compatible with the NR headsets. We sent it back to Chatterbox for them to check it out. We will see what they say. If they find nothing, I will look at the battery issue mentioned.

I've had two types of Chatterbox units for intercom use only with my wife on board. Neither one of them was worth the postage to send them back. I tried something similar to the sock idea, I tried moving the mic, I tried chin curtains, and nothing worked. I think my next shot will be with Autocom as I've never heard anything bad about them. There must be a reason they cost so much. Sometimes its just worth the money.

teleskier, Mar 27 2006, 04:43 PMwell we only use the batteries in the units themselves. Never run power from the bike. Personally I think it has something to do with her NON NR headset. Her sport unit is not compatible with the NR headsets. We sent it back to Chatterbox for them to check it out. We will see what they say. If they find nothing, I will look at the battery issue mentioned.

All of my units are their top of the line X1's and all have NR head-sets and still aren't worth a hoot ! dry.gif

baileyrock, Mar 28 2006, 09:07 AMAll of my units are their top of the line X1's and all have NR head-sets and still aren't worth a hoot ! dry.gif

well thats a fine how do ya' do!!

My Mom got pops and I a couple of Chatterboxes for X-Mas this year, and we haven't hooked them up yet. It just seems like a lot of trouble, like more trouble than it's worth. After hearing all these complaints, I think we might send'em back. Sorry Mom.

Also, recently I was talking to a chick about them, and she thinks communication devices for bikes are ridiculous, saying that part of the fun in riding is the peaceful solitude and sounds around you. I don't think she's ever been on a long trip though.

so those of you with Autocom units, seems like there are a lot of wires etc. Not clean like the Chatterbox. also from their website I guess the Autocom is not your communication device as you need an FRS radio as well. Seems like lots of baggage. Why wouldn't other brands of FRS work like Cobra etc and just plug a headset into it? Sounds like the Autocom just allows music, GPS and Cell to be added to the base radio. Is that correct?

My friend and I bought X1s and have had no probs, except the headsets could have better speakers for music.

I've had pretty good luck with my X2, after the original defective headset was replaced. They were real good about that FWIW.

It works better at low speeds, at high speeds it's hard to understand what the other person is saying. Or maybe my hearing is just shot. goofy.gif

teleskier, Mar 28 2006, 05:08 PMWhy wouldn't other brands of FRS work like Cobra etc and just plug a headset into it?  Sounds like the Autocom just allows music, GPS and Cell to be added to the base radio. Is that correct?

If you were to just hook a headset into any ole FRS or GMRS radio........it would be the same as the Chatterbox........except without a VOX mode......in most cases.

Now, if you were to get a GOOD headset, from Autocom, or J&M, or ? it might be a little better........but you're still left without VOX........unless the radio you have supports VOX......and thats if you can find the adapter that would allow you to use that headset with a 3.5mm plug which I believe most of those radios would use for a headset jack.

The Autocom, Baehr, Starcom units all have circuitry that cuts down on background noise and used with their headsets, seem to work pretty well (speaking of Autocom as thats what I have).

I've used the Chatterless box, and was frustrated beyond belief which is why I finally said, OK, I'll pay the money to get the best.....and I'm glad I did. It works flawlessly, every time..........slow speed, high speed, no adjustments necessary.

Yes, seems like a lot with the main unit and then a transceiver, and all the associated wires.........but all the good systems will be like that. Some have certain features others don't....like being able to power the transceiver thru the bike power (Autocom does this).

I've got mine mounted under the seat of the VFR, powered thru bike power, so I just have 2cables (one for talking, one for music) coming out from under the seat and velcroed to the front of my tank bag..........hook in the cable coming from my helmet, and I'm off.....unless I want music and then I simply plug in the MP3 player in my tankbag to the cable next to the comm cable.

The wife has hers under battery power mounted in the bottom of her tank bag. When we get the final placement of the unit/radio worked out, I'll be wiring it into the bike power for her. Again though, the cable sticks out from her tankbag, and all she has to do is plug in her helmet cable and thats it...........just one cable that extends from the rider to wherever the unit is at.

If CBox would ever perfect their unit...........it would be great, but until then........I'll be talking effortlessly via my Autocom.

Hope this helps.... beer.gif