Starcom1 Digital Intercom

[krussell]

Almost exactly two years ago I purchased an Autocom SuperPro AVI for my R1200RT. It served me well over about 40k miles, and could probably go forever. I recently installed it for basic intercom use on my GS Adv and it's done fine. I've been planning for pulling the tank on the GS and routing wires up to the dash for the Zumo audio, maybe integrating a phone, and doing some bike to bike as well. This stuff adds up fast, and I expected I would spend several hundred dollars and invest quite a bit of time to get it just right.

 

While I am thinking about this I keep coming back to a phone conversation I had with Richard of RKA Luggage. I called him one afternoon looking for a tank bag for my R1200RT. We talked for about ten or fifteen minutes about all the possibilities, pros and cons etc. Ultimately I said I would like to place an order. His reply, which was quite surprising, was that he couldn't take the order on the bike, he would have to give me the direct number to the office. I said "What!" He went on to explain that he was on I-15 just south of Provo southbound at about 75MPH during our entire conversation. I was amazed, and continually wondered about Starcom1 units ever since.

 

Thinking about the additional investment to be made, both money and time, and the Starcom1 phone performance, I started thinking about all the things I didn't like about the Autocom. The auto volume worked for the most part, but there were definitely times during every ride where it was too loud or soft. The vox worked most of the time too, but there was always a bit too much delay for my taste, which we had worked around with saying 'tick' or something like that to open the vox, then speaking what we really wanted to say.

 

I was also intrigued by the three button interface on the Starcom1. All of the programmable settings can be made with three buttons, and you can buy a remote to mount somewhere so you can make those settings on the fly, subject to the need to pilot the bike. So when the volume wasn't quite right, or the vox wasn't quite right, I could tweak it without having to get under the seat to turn a knob.

 

So, after lots of consideration, I decided to give a Starcom1 a try, with the intent of returning if it I wasn't happy. Nothing to lose right? If it was as good as the autocom, I'd make my installation and cabling investment on the Starcom1 instead of the discontinued autocom.

 

So I ordered the Digital unit with two headsets last week. It arrived on Friday, and I quickly removed the autocom and replaced it with the starcom. The installation was basic, power direct to the battery, a headset and music lead out the front of the seat for me, and a headset lead out the back and along the frame for my Pillion. I took the opportunity to run a heated jacket power cable to the back for my Pillion as well, as I had recently purchased a WarmNSafe jacket for her. The Starcom1 unit was a little more than 1/2 the size of the Autocom it replaced.

 

We had planned a two day loop around southern Washington for the weekend, but due to high wind and rain forecasts we elected to make a run down to Bandon on the Oregon coast. The trip would serve as a shakedown for the StarCom1 and her heated liner, and get us our first Dam for the 2010 DamTour. http://damtour.com

 

Friday night I installed the StarCom1 headsets in our Nolan helmets. No huge difference here. The cabling and connectors on the StarCom1 are smaller than the Autocom, but they are also reported to be difficult to connect properly. The speakers were similar in size, and the boom microphone on the Starcom was much more flexible than the boom on the autocom. The included coiled extension cords connect the headset to the cables that come out of the Starcom1. The cables extending from the intercom were just long enough to get to the right place on the bike to allow us to use only the coiled cords that come with the headsets. The Starcom1 cables are less heavy duty than the Autocom, which makes them a bit more comfortable. Time will tell how they hold up.

 

We went out to the garage, put our helmets on and started chatting. All of the programmable settings were as they came from the factory. The first thing I noticed was there is no sidetone with the Starcom1. You speak, but you do not hear yourself in the speakers. You can enable this feature if you like, but the default is that it is disabled. On the autocom it was always present. It was 'different' for us at first, but it seemed very natural just talking in the garage. The volume seemed good too. To get a bit more realistic test I briefly fired up the bike to generate some background noise. We were able to continue to chat without issue. I noticed too that the vox appeared much more seamless in that all we need to do was talk as we would normally and it worked fine, no big delay as with the autocom.

 

Before calling it a night I made one more test. I plugged the supplied music lead into my Motorola Droid and did a quick music player test. It sounded fantastic in the garage with the bike running, much 'cleaner' than the autocom was. I attributed all of this to the garage environment, and set expectations with Tracy that for a while we would be making adjustments to get everything just right.

 

Saturday morning we woke to a bit of drizzle, but were optimistic that it would improve which it did. Tracy mounted up and I connected the headset and jacket cables for her, then mounted and connected my headset and music leads. I had the Droid in my Darien front pocket, and just ran the music lead down the front. The headset cables are nicely marked for alignment, and I had no trouble connecting them during the entire weekend.

 

We had about 30 minutes of freeway before hitting the back roads for the balance of the day. We were talking away and having no issues, first on surface streets, then the freeway, then surface streets, then secondary roads etc. It was raining a bit too at the start, and there was a fair amount of wind from various directions throughout the day.

 

During all this time, we had no trouble talking. My initial good impressions from the garage extended into the ride. The volume was spot on regardless of speed, cross wind, shield position, etc. The vox just worked, with no need to prime it to avoid missing anything. The fidelity of the music was fantastic. So much so that we spent a lot more time listening to music than we do typically. And if we talked, the music went away as expected, then returned once we were done.

 

The weather improved over the course of the day, and 300 miles and one dam later we ended in Bandon. Sunday we had a late start and decided to work are way back across the coast range using forest roads, then head north to home from there. We were most of the way across, riding along the Smith River, when we came to a down tree that was impassable. We had to backtrack head south quite aways to work around it. The weather was beautiful though, and the detour route had some impressive views and great logging roads.

 

The whole time the StarCom1 just worked. We had no trouble hooking up and disconnecting, and we heard everything each of us said, enjoyed the music, and didn't adjust a think the entire weekend. It was literally plug and play. And as we went from rain to clouds to sun to clouds to coast to summit etc. Tracy enjoyed the heated liner and heat-troller immensely. The day ended with just under 350 miles. The Droid ran out of battery about 30 minutes from home.

 

The StarCom1 is not going back. I'm looking forward to a complete install. First up is the Zumo, listening to the music with the Droid is fine, but having a bike powered zumo with a touch screen in front of me is a much nicer alternative. Then I'll work on bike to bike, and may do the phone as well. I'll post updates as I go along. So far, the StarCom1 has greatly exceeded my expectations.

 

To be fair, the Autocom is a great unit too, just a little rougher around the edges audio-wise. I was seriously considering one of the new Autocom units just before they ran into trouble. I'm sure their latest and greatest would have been an improvement as well. It will be interesting to see what comes next.

 

A couple of pics from the shakedown trip...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[EddyQ]

Nice report Kevin. Thanks!

[KDeline]

If I was not so heavily invested in Autocom, I would look into Starcom.

[marcopolo]

In case some didn't know, Autocom was taken over by Tecstar Electronics earlier this year. Tecstar makes Starcom (and now Autocom).

[RocketMoto]

We have lots of experience with both Autocom and Starcom1. Each system has advantages (and deficiencies) when compared with the other.

 

What's different about Starcom1 is the mics are 'open' all the time. The vox just brings up the level of the intercom voice, but it never closes the mic completely. Starcom1's bike to bike and push to talk setup is friendlier than Autocom's. The units are also much smaller, which on a GS is a real advantage. Starcom1's headset speakers really sound great.

 

The new Autocom systems, OTOH, are remarkably versatile. The noise cancellation on the Super Pro-Automatic is way better, hands-down, as is the adjustable sensitivity for the background noise sensor. Having all aux sockets as stereo inputs with mic out, is the right way to go about the design.

 

We expect consolidation of both ranges of systems - there's a tremendout amount of product redundancy, so it'll be interesting to see which products and features remainm and whic one's dont make the grade.

 

[James H.]

Thanks for that write-up. I've considered Autocom for my R1100, but after their demise I stated looking at Starcom. Your report is definitely one more plus for the Starcom unit and moves me closer to a purchase!

[RiceToy]

+1 on the Starcom1 system.

 

My wife and I have been using IMC Camos BHS bluetooth units for the past couple years without success. In my experience with Bluetooth comm systems, IMC Camos is likely the best solution, and it works very well when the system is simple - like listening to music off a paired cellphone. The sound quality in the Camos BHS line is actually better than that of even the Starcom1 Digital. The problem starts when you add devices. At the height of it (last year at the BMWMOA rally), we had 6 bluetooth devices with 10 bluetooth channel/connections. Bluetooth simply does not work reliably at that level, nor does it want to pair properly at a busy gas station, motel parking lot, or BMW rally fairgrounds - so you end-up not using it because you can't get it started from where you are leaving. Combine that with the intricate startup sequence required to get everything started-up properly, and a finiky cellphone that drops the bluetooth signal if its inactive for more than 5 minutes, and you have a recipe for frustration. Additionally, all this bluethooth crap has to be charged-up every night. After that (very quit and frustrating experience), I promised myself we would never use them again for bike intercom.

 

I was waiting for the Autocom SP-RC system (with remote) and then Autocom went under, so I started looking at Starcom. I ended up with the Digital, digital remote, bluetooth thingy (for my wife's cellphone), headsets with dual speaker & ear monitor sockets, and a couple isolated cables (GPS in&out for cellphone via Zumo, and Radar cable). I absolutely love the Starcom digital system.

 

The Starcom1 Digital system answers all the problems of the bluetooth system and then some. The system is always there, bike powered. Put the helmet on, plug in and go - every time without any trouble. Never needs charging, sounds terrific, intercom is amazing. You can adjust the sound level of everything independantly - if your pillion doesn't like loud music, you can adjust her music level down and adjust yours up.

 

Hear this (and that includes you Starcom1 Digital owners)... You can set the "music mute" to OFF, and then adjust the intercom and music (or any other input) volume so that you can speak back and forth over the intercom while the music plays in the background. And that is just the beginning. The digital is loaded with adjustability, another example... your pillion can listen to your music, or bring her own and listen to that instead. I could go on and on about this system's flexability, but the bottom line is this system is very good, and I doubt you'll find anything else that performs this well, is this easy to install, sounds this good at any speed, and works this well on the road.

 

My only complaint is that Starcom1 doesn't focus on the US market like Autocom did with rally and motorcycle show presence. Starcom systems are redily available though - just Google or Bing it.

 

Although I'm probably sounding like a salesman, I have no affiliation with Starcom or distributor, etc. Just a very satisfied customer that's lived the frustration, and am glad that problem is solved.