AutoCom Installation
Microphone and speaker positioning is the key to getting the best performance out of your intercom. Please use these tips along with the headset instructions. Remember it is important that you assess the potential quality and performance of the headset with speech and preferably good quality music, by holding the speakers directly over your ears (out of the helmet) before installation. If when you have installed the headset it does not sound as good then you need to tune the microphone and/or speaker positioning)
Tests & Tips for the Microphones; (using Pro-M1)
Set the VOX to about 3/4 anticlockwise, (with the flat vertical, to the left of the knob). This is a high VOX setting for speeds of typically up to 150+ mph using a full-face helmet.
Position the mic so that it is touching your lips and project your voice through the mic, in a positive manner, as if to someone 20 ft (6-7 meters) away. You will discover that by carefully moving the microphone about while speaking you will find a more sensitive spot where it is loudest and easiest to operate the high VOX setting. We call this the 'LOUD SPOT' (don't worry if the speech breaks up as the VOX is set deliberately very high to help discover a principle).
By finding and using the microphone loud spot and projecting your voice through the microphone, you can easily operate a much higher VOX setting. This is because the critical loud spot produces far more sound, which is required to give a very good signal-to-noise ratio. Moving the microphone just 2-3mm away from the loud spot can considerably reduce sound, making it much harder to activate a higher VOX setting. The temptation is to turn the VOX clockwise to make it easier to talk to, but you must not do this. You must understand and use the LOUD SPOT.
Always speak positively through the mic, and remember it was designed for use on the bike in noisy conditions and not in the living room or garage where you may first test it. Most first time users will try the intercom in the house and of course when you are in a quiet location you will naturally talk quietly, especially when you hear your own voice through the ear pieces, this tends to make you talk even quieter, until you get used to it. With the VOX set as described above you will find it difficult to keep the mic's on unless you try hard to do so, using the loud spot helps. Once you take the intercom out on the bike and put yourself in the noisy conditions within a helmet, you will naturally talk a lot louder and find the system naturally much easy to operate.
Once you have discovered the principles, you will now be able to properly set the VOX control to suit your riding speeds/helmets. It is a good idea to properly set the VOX to a speed of about 20+mph more than you normally ride at. This allows for overtaking and head winds etc. So if for example you normally ride @ 50mph you should test and set up the VOX so that it does not turn the mic's on @ 70+mph. If you ride with a passenger then you need to set the VOX with both rider and passenger headsets in use.
Get to the desired speed (when and were is safe to do so) and if the microphones switch on, without speech, then you need to set the VOX higher (by turning the VOX pre-set towards anticlockwise) Note: When the VOX knob is flat/ horizontal/parallel to the label it will be set for about 60-70mph. With the flat vertical to the left of the knob it will be set for about 150+mph. fully anticlockwise 180+mph. Fully clockwise will be mic's on all the time. Therefore somewhere between horizontally flat and vertical to the left is were the VOX should normally be set to suit typical speeds of between 60-150mph.
Additional Info:
A wind/draft excluder is sometimes fitted under the chin of some helmets, this can help.
Some helmets have a chin vents that blow straight through, as well as sending some of the air to the inside of the visor. By blocking/taping the inside chin vent it helps prevent wind blowing on the back of the mic, allowing for a lower VOX setting and can also improve visor demisting. Using a shorted 3.5mm stereo or mono plug, plugged into the hi/lo socket on the Pro-M1 will increase speech volume by about 20%, although you nee to hold the VOX open by making a continues tone and plug/unplug the high/low jack to actually hear this small difference.