Lapel Mic Adapter for 2180

[WillB]

Has anyone used one of these before? It allows you to use a 2 pin mic with a multi pin set up like the 2180 has. I just bought one and tried it out tonight and found the audio to be extremely garbled coming out of the mic. I could hear it just fine out of the speaker on the radio but at the same time it was garbled at the speaker mic. Any comments?

 

[ttiiggy]

Has anyone used one of these before? It allows you to use a 2 pin mic with a multi pin set up like the 2180 has. I just bought one and tried it out tonight and found the audio to be extremely garbled coming out of the mic. I could hear it just fine out of the speaker on the radio but at the same time it was garbled at the speaker mic. Any comments?

Are you saying that audio is coming out of BOTH speakers at the same time?

I tried an aftermarket adapter with my 5210.
http://forums.radioreference.com/kenwood-forum/177953-2-pin-plug-adapter-kenwood-tk-5210-a.html
I never did get any sound if I had just the adapter attached to the radio without a headset plugged in.

 

[WillB]

With the mic plugged in I get a little audio out of the mic but it is extremely garbled and hard to understand. I still here out of the speaker on the radio itself also.

I have the same looking adapter that you posted except its for a 2180 obviously.

 

[WillB]

Where did you end up getting your adapter at? I bought mine through ebay. I contacted the seller and they told me that it won't work because I am not using a Kenwood mic, I have a Pryme mic. Pryme sells an adapter but it is 40 dollars.

 

[ttiiggy]

Where did you end up getting your adapter at? I bought mine through ebay. I contacted the seller and they told me that it won't work because I am not using a Kenwood mic, I have a Pryme mic. Pryme sells an adapter but it is 40 dollars.

You are saying you are using a 2-pin mic from Pryme and they don't think it will work since it isn't a 2-pin Kenwood mic?
It doesn't seem like it should matter much what mic you are using. I suppose there could be some impedance difference between the mics.

I tried at least 3 different adapters.
I know that I got one from GadgetInfinity. It was probably from them through an eBay auction.
I got one from radiogearpro on eBay.
I got some adapters direct from voxducer.com.
I think that I never did pay the full price and get a REAL Kenwood adapter. I don't know if that would matter or not.

My criteria (and difficulties) were a little different than yours.
I wanted the radio to work normally with the adapter screwed onto the side of the radio even if I didn't have a 2-pin mic set plugged in.
I never did get that to work.
The combinations of adapters and different headsets that I got all seemed to work fine when I did have the 2-pin mic set plugged in.
All of the different adapters that I got seemed to all work the same way but none of them worked like I wanted them to.

 

[WillB]

You are saying you are using a 2-pin mic from Pryme and they don't think it will work since it isn't a 2-pin Kenwood mic? YES
It doesn't seem like it should matter much what mic you are using. I suppose there could be some impedance difference between the mics.
That's what I thought to.

I tried at least 3 different adapters.
I know that I got one from GadgetInfinity. It was probably from them through an eBay auction.
I got one from radiogearpro on eBay.
I got some adapters direct from voxducer.com.
I think that I never did pay the full price and get a REAL Kenwood adapter. I don't know if that would matter or not.

My criteria (and difficulties) were a little different than yours.
I wanted the radio to work normally with the adapter screwed onto the side of the radio even if I didn't have a 2-pin mic set plugged in. My radio works just fine with the adapter screwed in and no mic plugged in.
I never did get that to work.
The combinations of adapters and different headsets that I got all seemed to work fine when I did have the 2-pin mic set plugged in.
All of the different adapters that I got seemed to all work the same way but none of them worked like I wanted them to.

Odd that there seems to be some issues with these. You wouldn't think it would be that big of a deal.

The seller offered me a deal to send back the adapter in exchange for a lapel mic that screws in. I'd rather not have 2 separate mics, that's why I wanted the adapter.

 

[ttiiggy]

Odd that there seems to be some issues with these. You wouldn't think it would be that big of a deal.

The seller offered me a deal to send back the adapter in exchange for a lapel mic that screws in. I'd rather not have 2 separate mics, that's why I wanted the adapter.

Where did you get your adapter?
Wanna try one of mine?

 

[WillB]

I bought mine through Ebay. The seller was windbay area. I'm probably going to send it back unless you would like to buy it off me for the same price that I bought it for.

 

[WillB]

Sent the old one back and ordered one directly from Pryme. Same thing. I talked to a tech person there who said that might be something in the programming that needs to be changed for the radio to supply power the accessory port on the side. Is this true? If so where would I find that in the programming?

 

[cabletech]

I guess I have to ask, what manufactor of mic are you trying to use on the Kenwood? Also, you have to understand that just because the mic may have a 2 pin plug that looks like the right one, it may not be.

Icom has 2 pin plugs for there accessory's but the pin spacing and the wiring are differant then the Kenwood and Motorola.

If you have the correct adaptor for the radio, the radio will work just fine without the mic pluged in and when you plug the mic in the on board spker will disconnect and sent audio to the mic spker.

 

[WillB]

I am using a Pryme 2 pin mic with a Pryme adapter that will go from the 2 pin to the multi pin used on the 2180. I know the mic works just fine on my Kenwood 2170.

 

[WillB]

For anyone interested or who has had this problem here is an email I received explaining what is going on and how to fix it. Basically you have to add a jumper wire in the adapter to make it work, but if the adapter is on the radio, either with or with out the speaker mic plugged in, the speaker on the radio will be muted.

The PA-TK0111 needs power from the radio in order to operate the transistor switch that tells the radio when a speaker mic is plugged into the adapter. Most older Kenwood radios provide this power out of the box. Some newer Kenwood radios have to be reprogrammed to supply this power using the radio’s computer programming software. The x80 series portables (TK-180, 280, 380, etc) are different in that they only supply this power when the mic select switch (pin 1) of the radio’s Universal Connector is grounded (to Pin 10).

In order to work with the x80 series portables, the adapter must be modified so that Pin 1 and Pin 10 are jumpered to each other. I have attached a photo showing the jumper wire in place.

However, because Pin 1 is the pin that is used to control whether the internal (radio) or external (accessory) speaker is used, performing this modification will disable the adapter’s ability to toggle between the two. As long as the adapter is attached to the radio the radio’s internal speaker will be muted, even if no speaker mic or earphone accessory is plugged into the adapter.

Unfortunately, this is the only solution as the radio simply does not provide enough power without this modification for the accessory switch to function. There is enough power to partially activate the switch, which leads to both the internal radio and external accessory speaker being partially activated