Posted: 3/13/2026 9:36:51 PM EDT
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Anybody have any experience with this? I've got a bunch of David Clark H3442 that I'm in the middle of trying to fix. |
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Fixing headsets is easy. Mechanical fixes are pretty self-evident. Electrical fixes are just as easy but perhaps a bit more obscure from a knowledge perspective. The skillset you need to develop for electrical fixes is minimal: - Understanding how to identify connectors and connector part numbers - Simple soldering - Simple heat-shrink tubing application - Using an ohm meter and/or continuity tester Any soldering inside the earcup is usually pretty easy. If you want to reuse an internal connector rather than replace it, you can often cheat by cutting wires and soldering the old connector onto the new cable. Soldering connectors onto the ends of cables can be challenging, particularly small connectors like the Redel/Lemo types. However you can usually buy your way out of that situation by ordering a new cable assembly. Do you need help diagnosing the required repairs? |
"Cogito, ergo armatum sum."
David Clark service is legendary, second to none. I have stories  And it's one big reason why I own a pair of DC ONE X's rather than Bose or Lightspeed. But sometimes fixing it yourself can be faster. And when your repair budget is zero or even negative 
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"Cogito, ergo armatum sum."
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These are for a volunteer fire department and not a priority expense. Considering some of these were marked out of service 8 years ago, I doubt there is any intention to send them back to DC for repair. I'm a Cellebrite-certified phone repair tech, technically inclined and have the tools. These are simple compared to phones. I've already repaired a few sets with other issues. Mics not working is the most common problem. Documentation says the mic has an impedance of 150 ohm, yet even on working units I don't get any reading. ??? So it complicates figuring out whether this issue is the mic or a break in the boom wiring. Need to remove the foam and speaker then expose some wire to test the boom wiring. that's a pain in the ass. |
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Originally Posted By USMC2671: These are for a volunteer fire department and not a priority expense. Considering some of these were marked out of service 8 years ago, I doubt there is any intention to send them back to DC for repair. Originally Posted By USMC2671: These are for a volunteer fire department and not a priority expense. Considering some of these were marked out of service 8 years ago, I doubt there is any intention to send them back to DC for repair. I'm a Cellebrite-certified phone repair tech, technically inclined and have the tools. These are simple compared to phones. I've already repaired a few sets with other issues. Mics not working is the most common problem. Documentation says the mic has an impedance of 150 ohm, yet even on working units I don't get any reading. ??? The only way to determine if an electret mic element is healthy is to supply the correct bias voltage through an appropriate pull-up resistor, then measure the output with an oscilloscope, or apply the output to a mic amplifier and see if you can hear any audio. So it complicates figuring out whether this issue is the mic or a break in the boom wiring. Need to remove the foam and speaker then expose some wire to test the boom wiring. that's a pain in the ass. Just grab two known-good headsets, run over to a rig with an intercom, plug both in and make sure they are both still good. Then grab the mic off of one of them and stick it on a "bad" headset. Then see if you can hear that headset on the intercom system. If yes, then it's the mic element. If no, then it's the wiring. Swap-tronics testing is easy peasy  You probably want it to be a wiring problem because most of those can be fixed for a lot less money, sometimes even zero dollars. On the other hand, just buying a new mic element and slapping that on is a lot less work. |
"Cogito, ergo armatum sum."
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Originally Posted By aa777888-2: Isn't Cellebrite LE forensics stuff, not repair? Originally Posted By aa777888-2: Isn't Cellebrite LE forensics stuff, not repair? Repair to enable forensic exploitation. Just grab two known-good headsets, run over to a rig with an intercom, plug both in and make sure they are both still good. Then grab the mic off of one of them and stick it on a "bad" headset. Then see if you can hear that headset on the intercom system. If yes, then it's the mic element. If no, then it's the wiring. Swap-tronics testing is easy peasy That's the plan now, but doing so while on-duty means being susceptible to interruption by calls. Probably guaranteed if I were to do so. I'm not yet allowed to mess with the rigs solo yet so getting someone qualified to help out with a reserve apparatus is chore to make happen. I can't even get the decision makers to respond about how they would like me to proceed on this. I may end up cannibalizing what we have to make a few working sets. Mic elements and booms each cost about the same. |
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Originally Posted By USMC2671: That's the plan now, but doing so while on-duty means being susceptible to interruption by calls. Probably guaranteed if I were to do so. I'm not yet allowed to mess with the rigs solo yet so getting someone qualified to help out with a reserve apparatus is chore to make happen. I can't even get the decision makers to respond about how they would like me to proceed on this. I may end up cannibalizing what we have to make a few working sets. Mic elements and booms each cost about the same. For any youngin's reading this, that's why so many fire departments absorbed the otherwise independent EMS services in the 1990-2000 era. They needed the EMS work to up their call volume so they could justify hiring more (union) firefighters and buying more equipment. But I digress... You could easily bang together a simple intercom circuit that would be good enough to test the headsets at home. Note that you will want to run it from 12VDC as the David Clark electret mic elements need 8-16VDC bias voltage. |
"Cogito, ergo armatum sum."