I have had my MicroFONE (Version 1 aka Original) for a year to date and can very honestly say I have used every feature of it. If there is something specific you need to know please do not hesitate to PM me your specific question.
I have the MicroFONE with wired passenger model, and Mom & Dad have the Platnum 900's.
My Girlfriend likes how the passenger unit has one wire to my head unit. And both use my battery.
When on the road I hear dad fine, but he needs to repeat what mom said because it is too low to understand. No clue why.
When within 2 yards from dad, he gets a wicked hum when talking to me, if i distance myself it is fine.
Collette claims you can use Bluetooth to connect to a cell phone and A2DP bluetooth (stereo wireless music) at the same time. I cry foul because I can get them both to connect, but if a call comes in, the wireless music never works right again untill re-paired. --> One at a time works great, so pick one and life is good.
Pairing with just a phone is automatic every time. Never ever had a problem.
Pairing with my iPod is troublesome, but not collettes fault. My iPod bluetooth dongle automatically pairs with the most powerful signal, so it tries to connect to my phone repeatedly and fails. Shutting off bluetooth on phone and the unit pairs with helmet very quickly.
Incoming calls are slick! Music (using aux in cable) mutes and you here a series of tones, then your cell phones jingle then it auto answers the call. Talk away, wait for the other party to hang up and it unmutes the music. Friends can understand me, I just start out by saying I got the top down and they are not the wiser. Just have to raise your voice a little.
Outgoing calls suck. on outgoing calls they can hear me, but I cannot hear them. (I get no audio) -I have tested this with two cellphones: an iPhone (v.2.1), and a
HTC Touch Pro (Windows Mobile 6.1).
OFFICIAL Collette Responce: "The radio is not set up to do outgoing calls, it does work with some phones,but very few."
So I txt my Girlfriend something like "On the bike for the next 2 hours, call me anytime"
My perfect setup is bluetooth to cell phone and hard wire my ipod to the unit's aux in. Having 2 wires to plug in every time I don my helmet is a little pain, but worth it because everything works flawlessly that way. (music, incoming calls, and bike-to-bike)
Update: My Microfone (v.1) headunit has a physical wired axillary input. I am told the V.2 does not. My passenger does not have any axillary input and hears the music I play whether she likes it or not.
I have yet to test if she can participate in on cell phone calls yet. I will like to try that tonight.
When I am on a call Dad cannot hear me and I cannot hear him, I usually give the "Hang Loose" signal to tell him I'm on a call.
I have had 3 hour phone calls with my girlfriend riding back home in the rain one night and it was priceless to have someone keep you awake and alert like that.
I find their support needs reminder e-mails for them to reply to you.
When buying a unit, order a couple spare velcro for loaning your spare unit to friends during weekend trips, they are cheap.
There is a little 1sec delay to get the mic to pick up, so quick words like "OK", "Yes", or "no" sometimes are missed. To fix this I trained myself to puff on it before speaking. This activates the mic and by the time you are ready to speak, the unit is ready to transmit.
The unit is very water tight, and survived a couple torrential downpours. When upright.
My audio-in port is cracked and only gets mono now (probably from one of the times I dismounted while my ipod was strapped on the bike), also my antenna broke off when I was trying to bend it away from getting caught in the face shield. Collett claims a 3-year no problem garrontee that covers these accidents, ask me again in July how well they honored it when I turn it in for this and my previous issue.
Position your velcro so the antenna will not be near the closing face shield...
They do not sell a DC charging adapter, but the AC one is 6v so it would be child's play to make one if you understand Ohms law and circuitry.
You can see my dads unit on my profile photo, when I borrowed it to simply amplify music for a long trip.
The manual has lots of typo's, for example, the bluetooth pairing key is suppost to read 0000, not 888.
When on long trips I find I usually pick up interference in the mountains, My guess is its something using the same channel, but cannot figure it out. Dad hears only the clicking noises when I do, but sometimes my unit (more powerful?) picks up squeals. Luckily never in my home state.
Twice at Americade did I run into someone with Collette units, and I am glad they are rare because I would hate to interject into a conversation to tell something to dad.
Dads platinum 900 and my MicroFONE share the same channel 1 and 2, but our channel 3 is different.
When the battery is low all sorts of wonky things happen. Mono audio, mic sticks on. I usually get a whole day of riding out of the hip pack, but dads battery is two years old and runs out at the very end of the day. (I carried a inverter and charged his at lunchtime at Americade to overcome this).
IF ANYONE HAS A SCANNER AND DISCOVERED THE FREQUENCY OF CHANNEL 1 AND/OR 2 PLEASE PM ME. Thanks.
That's all I can think of for now.
In closing, Communicators are priceless and probably saved my life by keeping me alert with a long phone call. My girlfriend no longer slaps me when I miss the exit, because she can tell me which one it is, and when dad was hit by another bike last week he was able to tell me before I drove to the next town without noticing he was not there. Dad and I warn each other about upcoming hazards like sand or turtles on corners. Spend the money on one you like.
My other tip, I had two chatter boxes that the switches broke and the battery's stopped taking a charge. I wouldn't touch them again.
So I sent another email tonite, if they don't reply to this one in 24 hours they'll get the whole shebang back. It's too bad I think they are on the right track, but at the cost of these, they have to work better.
