David Clarke headset tester

[emergency000]

At my company, we're looking at repairing our David Clarke headsets, used by the engineers at the nosewheel, etc. in house.

When I was at QF, I did some time in components repairing DC headsets and we had a nifty little tester box. It ran off a 9v battery, had an on/off switch and simply had the one 1/2" audio jack to plug the lead into. If you plugged in, pressed the PTT button on the belt station or the mic dome and, if you heard yourself through the earphones, the headset was good to go.

Does anyone know where I might find a schematic or circuit diagram of said tester? It'll make repairing headsets a heck of a lot easier than tramping out to the aircraft to make a test call and still not being sure that A: the message is being heard and B: I can hear anyone talking on the other end.

Any advice would be great, especially from all my fellow cone heads out there! :O

Cheers,
John

[NutLoose]

This one?

Headset and Cable Tester - Comprehensive Technical Solutions (http://shop.promodgse.com/product.sc?productId=9&categoryId=4)

Or this

http://www.sigtronics.com/pdf/air_pdf/Headset_Tester_Flyer.pdf

Sigtronics - SIG-HT-1 - Portable Battery Powered Headset Tester Unit - Chief Aircraft Inc. (http://www.chiefaircraft.com/sig-ht-1.html)

Sigtronics Aviation Accessories (http://www.sigtronics.com/air/cables.html)

[emergency000]

Thanks Nutloose. Definitely the first one. These are single plug headsets, using a 1/2" jack, basically like this one (http://www.ebay.com/itm/DAVID-CLARK-AVIATION-HEADSET-MODEL-H5030-/400651882330?pt=Motors_Aviation_Parts_Gear&hash=item5d48b68f5a&vxp=mtr)

I'm trying to work out how to wire up a tester. I'm assuming the common is wired to the negative terminal of the battery. Just have to work out where the PTT and Audio wires connect to. Both to the positive?

Cheers,
John

[grounded27]

Looks like headset only no mic? If so I would simply solder some wires to a 9v battery touch and listen, if you wish to test speaker quality $$$.

[emergency000]

The headset jack has 3 terminals on it: the signal from the mic, the audio signal to the headphones and the common, which is the return/earth for both the mic and audio. The idea with the tester is simply to loop the mic signal back into the audio line, so that you test the mic, wires, PTT switch, jack and earphones all in one go. I'm assuming that it's essentially a case of wiring up the common terminal of a 1/2" jack receptacle to the the negative terminal of a 9V battery and wiring the mic and audio lines to the positive terminal, so the battery basically provides the power keep the mic signal going back to the earphones. Just not sure if I'd need something like a small amp or anything to boost the mic signal or not. If so, that'd make it a heap more complex!

Cheers,
John

[sb_sfo]

I'm trying to work up something as well, so I went out to a 777 with a bare headset jack and measured voltage supplied by the aircraft. 11.75 volts at both the mike and speaker leads. My old headset tester had a circuit board in it with a lot of resistors/etc on it and a 9v battery, but don't think it bumped the voltage up. I may just spend the $70 and get the unit from CTS, though I think it would be lots of extra postage for you in OZ.

It should be relatively easy to take a known good unit and hook up a 9v and see what you get.

I spent some years fixing DC headsets until about 10 years ago, and it was difficult to get parts from DC directly, though that may have changed. I'm about to find out again, however.

[Sookapalooza]

G'day John,

I'm currently looking into the same thing. I know this is an old thread but I wanted to see if you had any luck making your tester and if so how did you wire it up.

If not did you have any luck purchasing one as I am even having trouble getting any info back from the test boxes I found listed by other members on this thread.

Cheers,

Cheyne

[NutLoose]

Cheyne click on his name in the blue bar and send him a message, that will appear in his emails as he might not see this.

[sb_sfo]

Cheyne,
Just saw this thread pop up again. I purchased the tester from CTS and have found it works great. Good customer service as well, I phoned them.

[torquey401]

KP0000 (http://www.rst-engr.com/kitplanes/KP0005/KP0005.htm)

I built this and it works great. Cost about $20. You should be able to cobble it to work with your specific situation.