Using the DH-132 CVC Helmet with the Clansman Intercomm

Written by Amnon Nissan

I always wanted to be able to use my CVC helmets (DH-132) with the Clansman Intercom system in the ferret. I have put it off for a long time since there was no piece of info to support whether it will work or not. A few weeks ago I posted the question again in the Ferret-Heaven list, and Paul Brand answered that he did it and it works. Paul then emailed me a drawing of what pin went where, and I decided to write this little article, to make it even easier than a schematic. I didn't splice the Clansman wires directly to the helmet wires, but worked with the short (spaghetti) cord. This way, the Clansman cord can be unplugged from the helmet and a standard American style cord can be used with the Helmet. Only parts destroyed were a pair of cables per helmet, these are the cables:

Clansman Cable # 5965-99-661-6460. I don't know if other cables will have different colors. Here is a list of which color wire is connected to which pin:

Pin A - Red (Mic +, shielded)
Pin B - Green (Mic -, shielded)
Pin C - n/a
Pin D - Orange (Speaker)
Pin E - White (Speaker)
Pin F - n/a
Pin G - n/a



		

American style CVC helmet (spaghetti) cord.

Red    -  Mic +
Shield -  Mic -
White  -  Speaker
Black  -  Speaker
Orange -  Switch (?)
Green  -  Switch (?)

I cut the connectors that are not going to be used off, stripped the ends off and was left with these:

I then lightly burned the metal wires with a lighter (don't burn it too much or you will melt them off) in order to get the coating off, twisted them one at a time, dipped the twisted end in soldering paste and soldered them together. The twisting and soldering was the hardest part, since these wires are not made of solid metal, and don't stay twisted.

So which wire connects to what?
Connecting Clansman cable to American CVC cable is done as follows:

Clansman        American
--------        --------

Red             Red
Green           Shield
Orange          White
White           Black
                Orange & Green on CVC side get twisted together
                  (if your Clansman plug has the F pin wired, 
                   connect these two to it)

Some heat shrink tubes, electric tape, and a little electric tape coating, and the cable is finished.

The volume is not as high as the regular Clansman headsets, and nowhere near as loud as when the helmets are connected to the VIC-1 box, but they work just fine. The switch on the earpiece functions like it should too.

You know, I may have to make one more cable. After sealing both cables, I thought to myself "why couldn't I connect another wire to the speaker pair of the cable (white/black) with a Sony miniature plug, so that music could be piped into the system ?". Duhhhhh. Will let you know.

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