If you have a helmet like mine, there are no places to put the Chatter Box speakers or you just don’t like the feel and fitment if they do go in your lid. Some helmets smash the little buggers into your ear so hard they start to hurt and that just blows, not to mention sound quality is kinda sucky. I’v come up with a fix that makes it much more usable and comfortable to the rider. This does not modify the Chatter Box unit at all. It simply changes the speakers being used.
Some States don’t allow earbud/in-ear headphones...there...you have been warned
Now to the good stuff...
This is a How To for removing the speakers on a Chatter Box to use headphones/earbuds.
You will need:
1/8" & 1/4" drill bits plus drill
Donor headphone/mic . combo that plugs into the Chatter Box (stock headset)
Razor knife
Dremel tool (if you have one. Can be done with a razor only, dremel is much easier)
Stuff from Radio Shack:
AAA Batteries box with lid
1/8" Stereo headphone plug-in (for left/right speakers)
Double stick tape
Soldering iron and solder
Start with the AAA Box and gut it, remove all the metal parts, wires, and cut out all the plastic tabs with the dremel or razor.
Where the wires did go into the box drill two 1/8" holes for the Chatter Box wires to go in. On the other end drill one 1/4" hole for the headphone jack. Make sure the jack fits first then drill the hole. You can measure, I just eyeballed the hole based on where I put the jack. You want to make sure the lid will fit still over the jack because this is how you’ll be able to remove the wires from the Chatter Box completely.
Wires:
Cut you speaker wires as shown, remembering a little extra wire is not bad.
The speaker wires are very small inside and you don’t want to cut or nick them when striping the black insulating cover so practice on the wire still attached to the speakers first. I use a sharp razor and press, not slice, into the black wire slowly until I see the smaller wires inside. If you bend the black wire a little while cutting, its much easier to see how fast/deep you’re going.
Once you practice up, insert the two speaker wires into the two 1/8" holes you drilled into the box THEN strip them as shown.
Twist the two copper only wires together (these are the ground wires).
Solder the wires as shown to the headphone jack. The back of the package shows which pole is the ground and the left/right pole to solder to.
Insert headphone jack into the 1/4" hole drilled earlier and screw into place.
Test it and see if it works. Plug the Chatter Box wire plug into the Chatter Box, plug in some headphones into the box then turn on the Chatter Box. If it beeps, makes noise, ect, all is good. If not re-check your solder joints make sure they are good.
Put the lid back on the AAA box make sure it fits.
Clean off the lid and th bottom of the Chatterbox with rubbing alcohol and dry it really good. Take the double stick tape and place it on the lid first. Trim off the extra tape with the razor or scissors then stick it to the bottom of the Chatter Box as shown. Now if you have to remove the wire/box it can come off without messing up the tape.
The End, JB
How To: Chatter Box Earphone Mod.
Linear Mode
