Volume on 2720

[YosemitePaul]

I've a 2720, wired up to my battery, and from the sound socket, via a converter I bung an earpiece into my ear under my helmet.
Recently the volume through the earpiece has gone down to such a level that I can only hear it whilst stationary.
The volume on the Garmin is turned up to 100%, I've checked and re checked all the connections / links.
The auto volume increase is set to high.
Anything else I've not done, or I could do.
Its quite frustrating as often I used to navigate through busy junctions or towns purely on the voice instructions.
Assistance would be much appreciated.

Paul.

 

[Bumpkin]

Have you tried an alternative ear-piece just to rule out that it's not that?

Does it work OK in the car with the ciggy lighter adapter?

 

[YosemitePaul]

Yes, tried several earpieces. And yes it works fine in the car.

I'd been considering an Autocom unit, but am a bit reluctant at the moment, if there's a fault on the Garmin unit.

Paul.

 

[Bumpkin]

Yes, tried several earpieces. And yes it works fine in the car.

I'd been considering an Autocom unit, but am a bit reluctant at the moment, if there's a fault on the Garmin unit.

Paul.

If it works as before in the car then it's got to be something to do with the bike audio lead (integral with the power lead), your audio lead adapater (is that a 2.5mm to 3.5mm) or your ear-piece. The AFAIK the car adapater uses the same pin-outs for audio off the back of the 2720 as the bike lead. I've heard that the bike leads can fail.

Can you can find someone local with a 2620, 2720 or 2820 and try their bike cradle/lead to check?

 

[YosemitePaul]

I know this sounds negative: Have tried that, I've just bought a new lead from Amazon. The same very very quiet speech out of my earphone. Last guess is its the plug connector between the Garmin lead and the earpiece.
If I did get hold of an Autocom, to see if it works, how would I connect it to the Garmin.

Paul

 

[Bumpkin]

I know this sounds negative: Have tried that, I've just bought a new lead from Amazon. The same very very quiet speech out of my earphone. Last guess is its the plug connector between the Garmin lead and the earpiece.
If I did get hold of an Autocom, to see if it works, how would I connect it to the Garmin.

Paul

Are any of your leads or connectors stereo? as the audio out and female 2.5mm jack is mono. I've found this worked OK on my Quest but when building my home made lead for my 2720 I only had a 2.5mm stereo male jack so I soldered a bridge across the two channels to be safe.

If your adapter is stereo I would suggest maybe making up your own using bits from Maplins.

 

[YosemitePaul]

Now I'm going to sound like the thickest bloke on the planet. But how do I tell what is stereo and what is mono. I assume the plug on my earphone is stereo, they have 2 black bands around the plug. The adapter as it goes into the Garmin power lead only has 1 black band.
What do I solder to what without blowing it all up and electrocuting myself!!???!!!
I do appreciate your assistance

Paul

 

[Bumpkin]

Now I'm going to sound like the thickest bloke on the planet. But how do I tell what is stereo and what is mono. I assume the plug on my earphone is stereo, they have 2 black bands around the plug. The adapter as it goes into the Garmin power lead only has 1 black band.
What do I solder to what without blowing it all up and electrocuting myself!!???!!!
I do appreciate your assistance

Paul

With the Quest, which has 3.5mm jacks throughout, stereo seemed to work OK despite the fact that the output from the Garmin lead was single channel mono. When building the set-up for the 2720 I used the same leads but thought, as I was having to solder a smaller 2.5mm jack on anyway, I'd bridge the two stereo channels.

Normally if the sprung connector in the female socket on the Garmin lead only contacts one side of a stereo jack then you'll only get sound out of one ear-piece of the headset. In the case of my previous Quest set-up this connector must have bridged the two stereo channels either by design or accident.

However, if a damaged connector, or other conductive item, bridges the mono + and - then that would short the audio and kill the sound, quite likely in the way that you describe.

The position of the contacts on the jacks is as shown below although this is for the bigger 1/4 inch type.

I would be inclined to make sure that the adapter that you're using is a mono to stereo adapter not a mono to mono adapter. i.e. the third one down on this page, not the second one down.

One alternative is to cut off the Garmin female jack and solder on a 3.5mm stereo one with the tip connector connected to the same wire as the tip of the original and the sleeve and ring connectors bridged and connected to the original sleeve wire.

Another possibility is to buy a 2.5mm male jack and solder that to your headphone lead connecting both stereo channels to the tip.

The 2.5mm mono to 3.5mm stereo adapter above seems a far easier solution although you'll need to order on-line or hunt one down as Maplins don't appear to have one listed.

 

[Bumpkin]

If I did get hold of an Autocom, to see if it works, how would I connect it to the Garmin.

Speak to Autocom, ISTR that the recommend removing the female jack from the Garmin lead and soldering the connection.

Be aware that you'll need an isolating lead, available from Autocom to eliminate ground loop interference.

 

[YosemitePaul]

Bumpkin,

Many thanks for your very valuable advice. I think I'd rather get the plug than chop off plugs from the power lead and solder them etc. Cutting wires and soldering them is not within my comfort zone.

I'll get intouch with Autocom about one of their units.

Paul