VIC 1 and ipod etc

[shootist]

Ok after reading posts back to 2008. All good by the way.
Unless I missed the answer I cant find one.

I have 2 questions,

First-
is the audio typically very low
in the VIC 1 to begin with (mine is)? almost better off just yelling at the guy next to me.....

and the second:
has anyone come up with a solution to increase the volume when
using an ipod or iphone or any other "music" player?

Now I have tried the audio input jacks with the accent switch both on and off
with both the iphone and the ipod, it works-
sounds really bad like in a tin can but works but the volume is....well more like
"back ground" music- not really what I was hoping for.
Im not looking for Bose sound....just decent volume

 

[salt6]

Did you turn the volume control up on the intercom box?

 

[wsucougarx]

Found that some of the control box volume controllers are more quiet than others. My VIC systems pick up the smallest of sounds. One of my pet peeves is having a mouth breather with the H-161 headset...you hear everything. Must more annoying than listening to the air wiper motors.

 

[shootist]

Salt, ya volume is maxed out on the boxes if I turn down I cant hear anything.

wsucougarx, i wouldn't mind a mouth breather at this point!

the mics seem to pic up most sound pretty good
but still the volume is not what I would expect. I wouldn't get agravated with a heavy breather-the sound isnt loud enough
The volume when both listening too music and comm chat is at its max
but not nearly as loud as I would think.
Just doesn't seem normal
that mil hardware would have no volume to it kinda defeats its purpose.
If I turn any of the volume knobs even slightly lower I loose audio
on all the boxes.

 

[deuceaid]

Hey shootist, I guess the first question would be "what type of interface" are you using? An ipod may not have what it takes to drive the system..... or may not be matched for voltage or resistance,,,

I would suggest You start with this tread for some more information,

http://www.steelsoldiers.com/milita...roperly-interfacing-vic-1-vic-4-cb-radio.html


,, I hope that helps You,,, I myself have not pulled specs on an ipod,,, but I am going to run some interfaces with my settup ,,, once I install it and I am also going down the airplane com route since it is less bulky and has more connections than I want... ( I am going for functionality, not authenticity ).

so far I have hooked up my headphones to cop/fire/aviation radios with few problems,,, even hooked up my cell phone,,, but I have had a hard time interfacing the micophone outputs with different systems....

 

[Derrickl112]

Do you have the volume limit turned all the way up on the ipod?

 

[86humv]

I hooked up the speaker output of a stereo to the spring loaded terminals and found that volume was low, until I turned up the stereo volume.

 

[shootist]

The "interface"
is just a clipped set of ear buds.
Not being to much of an electrical guru
I figured out how to check the ohms
and the wires being so tiny I got out put readings between
8 and a max of 15 ohms at the clipped ear bud ends.

I shut off the volume lock and reducer on the ipod and iphone
then re synced both with the volume set at max in itunes.
It helped a little but almost not really noticable.

I read read most all of Opcoms posts , regarding integration
but found most pertained to CB which I have just installed also-
but have not tied to the VIC system-to me it seemed to complicated for my
knowledge.

I have the volume set at max on everything ie phone ipod boxes etc

unless there is some type of audio booster needed between the ipod/iphone
and the 1780-Im not sure

I mean is the volume inherently low in the vic system to begin with?
like I said earlier even the comm chat is quite low-
if so seems kind of defeatist - a combat comm system
that you may be better off just yelling at each other (just a thought)

I also thought of going the "pilot" set up .......but so expensive
not that the entire vic system was cheap but..... my printing press is running low on ink!

If I cant figure it out I may just consider installing a normal stereo system
seems like throwing more $ away though.
After everything spent installing the vic system,
sure it looks great.....but .....I wanna use it too??

 

[KsM715]

Take a pencil eraser and some contact cleaner and clean all the contacts on both the cables and the boxes.

 

[serial14]

I haven't ever worked with a VIC-1 intercom, but i've worked with the squak boxes of the time, additionally I did alot of work to get an iPod integrated with my custom intercom I use. Here are a couple of thoughts.

The iPod is really only designed to run small headphones/earbuds and to be very power efficient. As such, the headphone connector output is really low. It can only drive to about 250mV peak to peak. This doesn't even get to the level of "line level audio" which is 1V Peak to Peak. For reference, line level audio is what all of your stereo and tv stuff run at when you hook the pieces together.

Moving to the squak box, It has been used for a really long time and will directly connect to radio mounting plates and VIC intercoms. When I was poking around on mine, it seamed like their audio was running at the 2V peak to peak level to get things sounding properly. My lab findings then matched up with some schematics I later found.

So the problem is that the iPod can only put out 0.25V when the VIC wants 2V, making the signal 8 times smaller than necessary, and thus the very low audio input.

Your easiest solution will be to find a headphone amp for the iPod. There are tons of these, they are small boxes that will take audio in from the iPod and amplify it just enough to run professional headphones. This will easily take it to the level necessary for the VIC systems. I have easily gotten 4-7V Peak to Peak out of head phone amps I've dealt with in the past. The other nice thing about this is that you can leave the head phone amp in your vehicle and truly just plug in your iPod and go. You can set the "volume" level on the preamp so that you don't have to max out your iPod and can leave it where you normally have it for head phones.

Hope this helps.

As for your poor VIC audio.. I would also suggest cleaning all the connector contacts first.

 

[shootist]

Ok some great ideas
I'll clean the contacts tomorrow.
As far as contact cleaner- any recommendations
Should that not work or even if it does
I will begin to look for the headphone amp.
Does apple manufacture these?
Or are there several makers?
Also, if the Vic is calling for a 2v input
Would the 4-7v input be detrimental
To it? I'm sure it would be able to handle
More just wanna check before I may "amp"
It up.

 

[salt6]

Ok some great ideas
I'll clean the contacts tomorrow.
As far as contact cleaner- any recommendations
Should that not work or even if it does
I will begin to look for the headphone amp.
Does apple manufacture these?
Or are there several makers?
Also, if the Vic is calling for a 2v input
Would the 4-7v input be detrimental
To it? I'm sure it would be able to handle
More just wanna check before I may "amp"
It up.

I use the contact cleaner from walmart.

My driver use to hook a small battery operated radio into our system on our M 113. So before you do anything try plugging into something else, like a walkman or a small radio and see if it works better. I did a conversion of an r422 and used a small amp that you could plug a usb, memory card or and external radio/player into. Just gives you more options.

 

[shootist]

I use the contact cleaner from walmart.

My driver use to hook a small battery operated radio into our system on our M 113. So before you do anything try plugging into something else, like a walkman or a small radio and see if it works better. I did a conversion of an r422 and used a small amp that you could plug a usb, memory card or and external radio/player into. Just gives you more options.

Good idea with trying an alternate sound source
I'll do that also in the morning.
Could you explain what an r422 is?
Sounds interesting,

 

[salt6]

Here's the thread I posted to;

http://www.steelsoldiers.com/military-radios-other-electronics/82224-r442-conversion.html

R442 is the aux radio for the RT524 radio.

 

[shootist]

Salt that is an amazing conversion.
Funny I just picked up a 524 today
To put with my vrc53

 

[serial14]

Apple doesn't make a headphone amp, but there are plenty of companies that do. You can quickly find ones that are super expensive and way over the top for your needs. So don't be discouraged when you look at some of the products.

The headphone amp will have a volume knob just like everything else. When you crank it to max then it'll be putting out the 4-7V that I previously mentioned. As you turn down the volume the voltage levels will decrease.

My approach would be the following.
1. Set your iPod at its normal volume like when your listening to it at home/work.
2. Turn the volume on the head phone amp all the way down
3. hook the iPod to the amp, amp to the VIC1
4. Start playing music
5. Slowly turn up the head phone amp till you like it.

This will minimize potential damage to the gear and your ears.

Like the other posters suggested you could use other audio sources. I would think that all "modern" gear would have the same problem as the iPod, low voltage output. An older walkman however might do the trick. Certainly if you have another source that isn't as expensive as your iPod you could start with that, just to be safe.

 

[shootist]

I did a search for some of the amps....
Your right talk about expensive.....
I'll try all the suggestions in the am
And post the results.
I'll get some pics up of how I mounted
Everything also

 

[tennmogger]

Perhaps you have an impedance mismatch. The Ipod headphones amp is probably 4 or 8 Ohms impedance (not DC resistance) and the input impedance to the VIC-1 is typical military 600 Ohms impedance. A matching transformer might be all you need to fix the level problem.

We know the VIC-1 amplifier is able to handle low signal levels because it operates from a dynamic microphone, a few millivolts at most.

If you have some old junker radios or amplifers, or other audio junk around, look for a little audio transformer connected to the speaker. The speaker side is the low impedance, and the other side is the high impedance. Note that the impedance transformation you need is backwards to that, low out and high in so hook it up accordingly.

 

[ke6rwj]

Perhaps you have an impedance mismatch. The Ipod headphones amp is probably 4 or 8 Ohms impedance (not DC resistance) and the input impedance to the VIC-1 is typical military 600 Ohms impedance. A matching transformer might be all you need to fix the level problem.

We know the VIC-1 amplifier is able to handle low signal levels because it operates from a dynamic microphone, a few millivolts at most.

If you have some old junker radios or amplifers, or other audio junk around, look for a little audio transformer connected to the speaker. The speaker side is the low impedance, and the other side is the high impedance. Note that the impedance transformation you need is backwards to that, low out and high in so hook it up accordingly.

in a pinch to test the impedance theory, the transformer in an LS-166 speaker (VRC12 type) is 600:8, just hook up the ipod to the 8ohm side and the other to the Vic.

its tolerable that way...

 

[shootist]

ok.
So I have cleaned all the contacts at the boxes
(they were really clean but did it anyway)
Still the same as prior to cleaning.

So then I disconnected the entire system
cleaned and reconnected- Same as prior!

I found an older cd player, (never liked the volume out put on this one)
and plugged it in- not really to much difference but maybe some.

I think Ill try the LS-166 speaker test as mentioned
I'll think there is one with the (new to me) rt524 I gotta pick up this week.
In the mean time I found out a relative has an inline headset amp
so Ill try that out this week also when they can get by here.

Here are a few pics (not that great) of the system
The vrc53 I need to move to the end of the bench or
down a couple of feet to mount the 524.