XTL5000 and David Clark 3800 Headset Interface Question

JeffFireRadio · Post by **JeffFireRadio** » Tue May 15, 2007 2:02 pm

Greetings,

Has anyone in fire department-land already tackled this project? Any heads up or potential "gotchas" would be appreciated.
We are preparing a new fire engine for its VHF, high power, remote mount, O-5 XTL5000 and are installing a David Clark 3800 headset system to use with. Since the headset system is only available with a non-terminated jumper (thanks David Clark), we assume we need a J-2 connector properly pinned up from us (via kit HKN6158A, Audio Cable Adapter) for the rear port of the XTL5000 drawer unit. And are we correct in assuming the the old "Mic-Hi" from Astro Spectra days is now "Mic Aux" in XTL-connector-speak? Many thanks in advance for any help.

-Jeff

Bruce1807 · Post by **Bruce1807** » Tue May 15, 2007 4:14 pm

I've interfaced DC stuff to an XTL in a helicopter and mike aux is the old mike high.
The only thing I found was the DC stuff the audio out was a bit low.
You can play with the equalization in CPS and make it loader out the audio out line on the rear connector.

ard099 · Post by **ard099** » Tue May 15, 2007 4:14 pm

Are you using a single control head config?

JeffFireRadio · Post by **JeffFireRadio** » Tue May 15, 2007 4:35 pm

Yes, this installation is a single head configuration. However, the next two new trucks will probably be a dual head configuration. I detect there is a difference as far as our headset situation is concerned?

Thanks for the replies, BTW.

Jim202 · Post by **Jim202** » Tue May 15, 2007 5:29 pm

One of the questions that comes to mind is what flavor radio
is it? Is it a front mount, trunk mount low/med power, or
high power? There are two connectors that can be used for
external mic audio input. One is the 26 pin aux connector
and the other is the DB25 pin connector.

If you have a front mount, you won't have the DB25
connector. If you have a high power radio, you won't
have the 26 pin acc connector.

There are different RSS settings depending on which
connector you use. You go into the radio wide selection
and then into the ADVANCED tab. At the bottom is the
mic selection. Forgot which one goes with which connector.
If you make the wrong selection, you get no external mic audio.

There is also another area where you can change the
gain. Normally this will be left at the 0 db setting.

Jim

ard099 · Post by **ard099** » Tue May 15, 2007 5:41 pm

With the single control head config the easiest way to interface to the David Clark system is to use the acc plug on the back of the control head to get ptt, mic hi, and rx audio. Rx audio can be picked up by tapping across the speaker leads, which will give you the best output level. There is an audio output on the control head but the level is kinda low compared to the speaker output, and its a fixed output level. And as far as the dual control setup goes, I guess it kinda depends on your situation and how you want it to operate. David Clark has interface cords where you plug the David Clark cable into the mic jack of the rear control head and you tap across the speaker leads for rx audio, and you plug your headset into the David Clark cord. You could also just use a hand mic at the pump panel.

BDB · Post by **BDB** » Wed May 16, 2007 4:31 am

I have just completed a changeover within our fleet to XTL 5ks and the advice on using the rear accessory connector is good. Since we went to W9's from A9's the swap was plug and play using the existing 40107G's. The change from the MCS2k's to the XTL5k's necessitated using the accessory connector. On your C3821 cable you will tie the white and blue wires to pin 1 (gnd), green to pin 20 (audio hi), black to pin 26 (audio low), red to pin 23 (mic hi), and yellow to pin 16 (ptt). There is no need to change anything in CPS the default settings work just fine. On the dual head model since you are using the rear accessory connector you should be ok intecom systemwise just tie your external PTT interface into the radio interface harness.