In-car Communication

[Spydaman]

The Bonito is now finished and getting some use but its ferociously noisy. We've been using ear plugs which is fine but we'd like to talk to each other. Does anyone know of a Bluetooth headset with ear buds and mic that we can use?

[grumpy]

Ask on the biker forum maybe?

[jcas]

I'm fitting an Autocom Logic Bike system. It has driver and passenger headsets (designed to fit inside a helmet). The control box also has inputs for a phone and sat nav/mp3 player (both via mini-jack). Not used the system myself yet but the demo I got was very good, I bought the kit at a bike show.

James

[FlossyThePig]

What sort of sound insulation have you installed? Even in 1985 my Midas had a variety of foam/lead/foam to reduce the noise.

[Spydaman]

No sound insulation. Does it really make much difference anyway? I would expect a fibreglass car to to be pretty noisy whatever I do. With quality ear plugs it takes the edge off it but it's still there. You can make yourself heard but an intercomm would be better.
I've found iMoto for iphone which was reviewed on here a few years ago but can't find a download for it now.

Edited by Spydaman on Sunday 7th July 21:33

[qdos]

Yes insulation makes a big difference.

Fibreglasss cars... Lotus, Mclaren, Marcos, Renault Espace, to name just a few. They are no more noisy than steel cars

[Martyn-123]

Dynamat extreme is good stuff

[CorseChris]

Not criticising, just making an observation - it looks like you have zero internal trim, no door seals etc etc, so, no wonder it's fiercely loud!! We have better soundprrofing in our Westfield - seriously, I put fibreglass insulating panels into the voids between the inner and outer alloy panels, carpet underlay then carpet, sound deadening panels, the works.

The last car I built was kind of similar to the Bonito in that it was mid engine and fibreglass body, and with care, it was pretty civilised. Conversation easy at any speed.

The downside is it takes quite a bit of effort and does add weight. In contrast, I had a go in a friends version of an almost identical car that he had built to be totally stripped out and competion oriented, and it was painfully loud - he drives everyhwere with cans on, so the basic design can be used either way.

I'm sure you could make that nice and comfy if you chose to. I'd suggest you try and do a double skin and foam filled bulkhead between engine and cabin if you can as well. Plenty of matting and underlay and carpet, trim everything you can, door seals etc.


And, what a blast to see a Bonito after all these years! I remember seeing them when they frst came out about 30 years ago and hankered after one. IIRC, they had an option of using a Beta engine on a space-frame chassis back then???

[Spydaman]

I was going for the stripped out racer look. I may even hillclimb it one day too.
I appreciate the easy option would be to insulate everything but I can get a lot of earplugs for the £20 a tiny sheet of Dynamat would cost.
There used to be an app called iMoto which allowed you to use your iPhone with ear buds and mic as an intercom. There must be something out there.