Autocom vs Starcom

[TERRY RYAN]

silvermog

waiting for your experiences before I go off and buy this weekend

How big is the starcom advanced then

 

[HTB]

Good stuff - I look forward to hearing about it.

Starcom tell me the Advance is 1x1x2 inches - Tiny basically. It'll fit in your 'toolbox' whereas the normal Starcom was a bit big? Chap I talked to had said he'd sold four to GS riders this week already and the last guy had spent half an hour on the phone discussing the 'fine detail'. The only decison I needed to make was the microphone type - I'm expecting my new Tour X today (well, you guys suggested it) and need to check the distance from my mouth to the chin guard - more than two fingers and apparently the boom mike may be better than the button type.

if you get the Advance, would be interested to see photos of it on the bike.

Been thinking about 'Girlfriend off' a bit more. I think 'repeated wheelie' should do the trick.

Thanks Craig.

HTB

 

[Cookson]

The new Autocom will be in at Pidcocks Long Eaton at the end of this week, (so I've been told by man in sales) introductory price of £131. ish, I'm going down to take a look.

Any of you tossers know the best place to mount the Autocom on a GSA & best place to hook it up to the bikes power.

 

[jenks]

I have used Autocom and Starcom, prefer the Starcom because of the following reasons:

Less no "drop of voice" in conversation I found with the Autocom the first and last couple of words were dropped and any pause caused the middle to be lost as well.

Able to talk with my 5 year old when she was pillion, with the Autocom if the vox was set to her voice the wind caused my mic to dominate the system

Full Duplex able to talk at the same time useful for telling her to shut up when she sings whilst I am trying to concentrate at over the ton

Able to set different volume for rider and passenger (made really easy on the new Stacom Advance I believe) usefuls as I am a deaf old goat and volume at my level would destroy my daughters hearing

A proper Volume control for music input The Autocom could not get loud enough for listening to music from my ipaq

The headset is more comfortable Autocom really fecked with the fit of my helmet

Price

I currently have the Starcom1 I will probably switch that to the wifes bike and pickmyself up a Starcom Advance

You ride at a ton with a five year old on the back???????

not a good idea I think

Andrew

 

[Allroad]

is starcom bluetooth

 

[HTB]

Starcom has a small bluetooth module that attaches to the unit - it's about £70 to £80 Click ici . It one of the things that makes me think Starcom rather than Autocom.

 

[Greg Tucker]

Starcom every time

I've just had a starcom advance and the thing that I like about the starcom over all the others is very simple. You can connect it directly to the battery because if no headset is plugged into the unit, the unit is switched off and there is no current draw to cause a flat battery. This also makes it easier to install and reinstall.

There are pros and cons with all the sytems for example Autocom leads are more robust but starcom leads are less cumbersome however when you look at the pricing and accessories available I do think that starcom come out best especially with the "advance" unit.

Regards

Greg

 

[prul]

here a link for intacom, was going down the same route starcom/autocom but in the end decided on intacom. give them a call and explain what you want and they are very helpful they give you that feeling that they want to help get the right unit rather than just sell you the most expensive. so far no complaints does exactly what it says on the box

http://www.intaride.com/

Hi, i'm thinking about intaride myself. The plugs seem to be much less vulnerable. How is the quality of the cables?
Do you use the RP1 unit or just the radios?
Do they respond to email at intaride? i've send two mails no answer.

grtz.

Prul

 

[Dennis the Menace]

Only a suggestion don't buy just yet. There will be a new wire less intercom launched 11/12th March Scottish Bike Show. The make has already been mentioned in previous posts and will be on their web site that week end (they are trying to keep the launch date a bit secret)

 

[Patch]

You ride at a ton with a five year old on the back???????

not a good idea I think

Andrew

She is eight now, but her brother will start pillion this year, he was 5 a couple of months ago.

My daughters favorite biking moment so far was green laning with me on the GS Adv last summer.

 

[STUBBS]

Only a suggestion don't buy just yet. There will be a new wire less intercom launched 11/12th March Scottish Bike Show. The make has already been mentioned in previous posts and will be on their web site that week end (they are trying to keep the launch date a bit secret)

which one are you talking about?

 

[sparkplug]

which one are you talking about?

I know but there's a massive non-disclosure agreement on this as far as I know.

A bit of homework might buy you some clues...

Can't really say more than that.

 

[Mutley]

Do they respond to email at intaride? i've send two mails no answer.

grtz.

Prul

I was at their office on Wednesday. they are a bit behind as they were recently back from Ally Pally and about to go to Scotland.

 

[STUBBS]

I know but there's a massive non-disclosure agreement on this as far as I know.

A bit of homework might buy you some clues...

Can't really say more than that.

well thanks for the help go on give us a clue a , s or i go on you know you want to

 

[beemerboy9]

Daz, have you thought about ringing the factory, describing the fault, and asking about an upgrade to the latest equipment. I was offered an free upgrade from an old Pro-M1 to an M7 during my last visit but turned it down at the time because I own another old 5-pin unit that uses the same cables.

 

[Cookson]

Autocom also have a blue tooth option on their new range.

BTW if you hav'nt read the spec on the new units, go to their website, the spec is quite impressive.

IMO.

 

[sparkplug]

Autocom also have a blue tooth option on their new range.

I haven't seen the new range - they used to put their mark up on a non waterproof huge nokia car kit, has this improved?

And Stubbs... RTFM

 

[silvermog]

So, I fitted the Starcom1 Advance yesterday morning and spent the afternoon fiddling with the audio setup and fitting the headsets ...

First impressions, good documentation, very small hence easy to fit, kit contained everything I needed (and more), just needed basic tools, common sense and some electrical tape (to seal over connections).

Operation is excellent, staying powered down until a headset is plugged in (plus its wired on a switched circuit). Plugged a 3G iPod in as an audio source for reference and got excellent stereo operation in my headset and also the pillion headset. VOX operation from either headset and balance between headsets is easy to modify (two seperate pots), just requiring a ride with a few stops to tweak the settings.

Pillion to lead rider VOX is clear upto 100mph, just needed a slight adjustment for the trigger point as the wind noise and bike noise at that speed is greater, ie. you can't do all adjustment in the garage!

Locating the mike into my helmet (a Roof R010) is the only issue, as I'm not sure I have the ideal position (below the vent), might try above the vent, the Roof has an enlarged chinbar, so it has quite some space up high. It works, but its far from the manual documented ideal position. No such problems with my girlfriends Arai Astro-R. Both helmets have great positioning for the earpieces, as they both have appropriate cut-outs that the speakers slotted into with no trouble for cable locations either.

At the moment I haven't found it necessary to break into the advanced ops, ie. sidetones, etc as its just *worked* out of the box ... but its nice to know they are there ...

Two-up with the iPod playing a very large playlist, we can both chat and the system drops out the iPod musci, enabling easy conversation at normal levels and after a short delay (about 4-5 secs) of silence the audio fades back up perfectly. I thought the delay might be a little overlong, but it stops the system triggering during a quick pause in the conversation. Also makes it easy to stop the audio if anything is happening outside that truely demands attention.

Its neat, small and so far I'm 100% happy ... even considering breaking my rule and maybe attaching a BT module for phone answering as the VOX is so clear. Very strongly recommended ...

HTH, if anyone wants any further info about any aspects, drop me a line and I'll do my best to clarify.

 

[Keba]

I haven't seen the new range - they used to put their mark up on a non waterproof huge nokia car kit, has this improved?

Going off the 2006 brochure, it is indeed still the non waterproof Nokia Bluetooth Car Kit.

Part number 1263 (old part number 55.6) which goes for 90 squid.

It appears you also need Part number 1262 (old part number 55.5) which is a dual isolated interface lead for the Nokia car kit for another 30 squid (its possible this is only needed on some bikes, but the brochure is very vague).

Either way, the Starcom1 Bluetooth module ( http://www.starcom1.com/bluetooth.htm ) is 1p cheaper at 89.99 squid and doesn't need a dual isolated interface lead - I've used mine both on a ignition power supply bike and a raw battery powered bike and it works fine on both (which is the only difference as far as I'm aware - I could be wrong!).

Autocom are true to their word btw and have supplied a TomTom Rider interface cable (to go with the Riders bluetooth adaptor offering) called part number 1297. This very simple 2.5 mm 4 pole jack to a 3.5 mm 4 pole jack cable is all yours for the princely sum of 24 squids. Given it must take maybe 5 squid in parts to make one yourself (less if you reuse one of the cables TomTom supply with the rider), I'd hope it was gold plated using rare earth metals in the cable itself to give super high quality audio to be worth that much

For the following, lets pretend that Intaride have a bluetooth offering at 80 squid (they don't, but its a value common to Starcom1 and Autocom).

Comparing apples with apples with apples (i.e. the Advance with Bluetooth and cables vs the Super Pro AVi with Bluetooth and cables vs the RP1 with Bluetooth and cables) gives a very clear indication:

Starcom1: 249.95 (standard price before shipping)

Autocom: 289.74 (promo price before shipping - 346.00 for standard price before shipping) Add another 30 squid if you need the dual isolated interface lead.

Intaride: 209.00 (standard price before shipping)

As I've said before - if Intaride had a Bluetooth option, I would have gone with Intaride.

I can't find the size of Autocom's equivalent to the Advance unit anywhere on their site. I can't find the size of Intaride's RP1 unit either. Starcom1 put theirs in the detail (1”x2”x3”) and its quite clear just from the pictures available that the Advance unit is much smaller than the Super Pro AVi. The RP1 appears to be on the same scale as the Advance.

This is electronics, big is not beautiful (or necessary) - espeically when looking at how much space is on your average motorcycle for these kind of accessories.

The clear winner on price is Intaride - if you don't want a bluetooth module that is. If you do, go with Starcom1. If you have more money than sense (or are afraid to change your mind in the light of cold hard facts) then go with Autocom.

Enjoy!

 

[Cookson]

Purchased an Autocom Super Pro AVi from Pidcocks Nottm. yesterday, I'm just in the process of fitting it.

Promo price £199 + vat with 1 headset

Size is 4.5" x 2.5" x 1"

To install I have moved a relay off the top of the airbox, made a paxolin plate which is secured by the 2 airbox cover screw's & velcro'ed the unit onto the plate, nice tidy install.

I'll let you know the test/riding results as & when.