teletech Posted January 20, 2023 Share Posted January 20, 2023 I've got a random pile of cruft here and wondering if any of if might be a good start on a vehicle intercom system (at least commander/driver) for my previously-Bowman-equipped Spartan? I don't know if the ANR electronics are located in the headset, the pressel, the interconnect box, or the radio. I also don't know how one would power an interconnect box or if can even be used standalone. Any suggestions to point me in the right direction here would be appreciated. I'm passing familiar with radio gear in general and have a lot of experience with Motorola radios as fitted to AMR, police, etc. so some concepts are comfortable for me and I'm not afraid to hack up cables or modify equipment, but I also have quite enough on my plate with two CVR(T) and a Ferret, so if the right answer is to buy a COTS aircraft intercom, then so be it. 2x Headset Crew Tank Vehicle 5965-99-614-7484 (Bowman?) 2x PTT switch 5965-990763-7913 (Clansman) 2x Racal EA545/1000 interconnect box (Bowman) 1x CPU (ANR) 5820-99-894-0515 1x ancient CVR(T)-appropriate CVC helmet with headset. 1x Interconnecting "C" Box 5820-99-949-1007 (larkspur) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sirhc Posted January 20, 2023 Share Posted January 20, 2023 Much easier and cheaper to buy some clansman intercom boxes, although the cables are getting hard to find. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
attleej Posted January 21, 2023 Share Posted January 21, 2023 Yes but the cables can be made up. If you have a cable that is too short you can use the connectors with new cable.. You can get the 12 core cable from RS components. John Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sirhc Posted January 21, 2023 Share Posted January 21, 2023 I made all the cables for my Ferret intercom using the cable from RS. Soldering the plugs on was a fun job… Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andym Posted January 21, 2023 Share Posted January 21, 2023 There's some useful information here, together with wiring diagrams: http://daimlerferret.co.uk/intercom-radio Andy 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richardfv432 Posted January 22, 2023 Share Posted January 22, 2023 http://www.ferret-fv701.co.uk/intercoms_&_radios.htm 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
teletech Posted January 23, 2023 Author Share Posted January 23, 2023 Some great resources here and it looks like Clansman is the way to go. It's frustrating there is so much kits that's almost compatible (ANR or not). How much better is the niose-reduction gear, I imagine it's a big upgrade? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AmmoMan Posted January 23, 2023 Share Posted January 23, 2023 ANR is brilliant, you can have a full conversation at any speed. Just sell all your old bits and get a couple of gold front boxes and a pair of ANR headsets. Tested headsets are on ebay about £40 each. You can tell if your headsets are ANR if they have the slim mic (as in pic below). The old round mic is not ANR. You also need the green pressel switches to work with the ANR headsets (also in pic below). As for gold boxes, you just need one IB3 and one CB2 as you can plug in 2 headsets into one CB2. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
teletech Posted January 23, 2023 Author Share Posted January 23, 2023 Looking into this stuff, it appears that if I buy it as single pieces, the shipping to the US might exceed the cost of the parts, so if anyone has a suggestion for a vendor where I might get most of it as one lot, that would be appreciated. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AmmoMan Posted January 23, 2023 Share Posted January 23, 2023 4 minutes ago, teletech said: Looking into this stuff, it appears that if I buy it as single pieces, the shipping to the US might exceed the cost of the parts, so if anyone has a suggestion for a vendor where I might get most of it as one lot, that would be appreciated. https://www.lrseries.com/ Or message Dominic Blanchard directly on facebook and work out a deal maybe, he's usually got all the kit and will do a bundle. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
teletech Posted January 23, 2023 Author Share Posted January 23, 2023 OK, so the ANR is actually well-implimented and worth having then, good to know. LRSeries looks to have a good stock and prices, so I'll reach out and see if I can get my needs met there. I'm reading that the gold-face boxes are ANR, but Clansman interconnecting box (ANR) NSN 5820-99-721-4311 has a black face. Is this actually a suitable ANR box? It seems the IB-2 and IB-3 do most of the same things but the IB-2 has yet another headset port, so might have an edge in utility for vehicles that might want that one extra headset? Regarding all the 7-position and 12-position cables, is there any point in digging through sixty pounds of Bowman cables I have in the hopes of finding anything useful? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gordonb Posted January 24, 2023 Share Posted January 24, 2023 Having looked inside a number of them I am pretty certain that the only difference between a gold top IB3 and a normal one is the size of the fuse. 2A as opposed to 1A. Good luck finding the little blighters! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andym Posted January 24, 2023 Share Posted January 24, 2023 I'm not sure but think that most of the trickery for ANR is in the headset itself. The important thing is that the headset must receive power from the harness (a non-ANR one doesn't need it) so the interconnecting box 7-pin sockets are wired to do so. You also need to use a green pressel as the old black ones don't have the internal wiring to pass power to the headset. Andy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
teletech Posted January 31, 2023 Author Share Posted January 31, 2023 I've got a cart going and think I'll be able to make a go of the clansman intercom, but I could use more clarity about some things: The IB-3 seems the most available these days, with some IB-2 available. Was there an IB-1? I found the following CLANSMAN RADIO LINES BOX (ANR) 5820 99 156 3548 5820991563548 SD0/269743 FE9518M0003 BOX ASSEMBLY,RADIO. and can't identify it, but it looks a lot like an IB-2, but not quite. The drawings on the Ferret site and others show not one but two 12-pin cables running between the IB and CB, or other cabling arrangements so that it's a daisy-chain. Is this correct? The sites describing the gear have numbers for the big parts (CB-2, IB-3, etc.) but part numbers for the power cable and 12-pin cables are lacking. Is there a source for these number online? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andym Posted January 31, 2023 Share Posted January 31, 2023 I don't think there's such a thing as an IB-1, but either an IB-2 or IB-3 will work for what you want. The Clansman Radio Lines Box isn't the same as an IB-2, it's for vehicles like the Abbot that may have land lines fed to them from a command post. The 12-pin cables are indeed designed as a daisy chain but you don't actually need to close the loop to make it a ring, that's just for redundancy. You won't easily find part numbers for the cables because they are vehicle dependent due to length etc. Just try to find ones of the correct length or make them up yourself as has been suggested above. The 12-pin connectors are particularly "interesting" to solder up! Hope that helps! Andy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
teletech Posted January 31, 2023 Author Share Posted January 31, 2023 8 hours ago, andym said: I don't think there's such a thing as an IB-1, but either an IB-2 or IB-3 will work for what you want. The Clansman Radio Lines Box isn't the same as an IB-2, it's for vehicles like the Abbot that may have land lines fed to them from a command post. The 12-pin cables are indeed designed as a daisy chain but you don't actually need to close the loop to make it a ring, that's just for redundancy. You won't easily find part numbers for the cables because they are vehicle dependent due to length etc. Just try to find ones of the correct length or make them up yourself as has been suggested above. The 12-pin connectors are particularly "interesting" to solder up! Hope that helps! Andy So a radio lines box won't power intercoms? I just ask since they are on the cheap side compared to IB-2 these days. I expect to wind up with a few IB-3 as a result of scarcity of IB-2. I'd sort of suspected as much on the redundancy of the cables, but thanks very much for confirming my suspicion. I'm not surprised by there being a plethora of part numbers for different lengths, but some vendors know part numbers and not applications and as pointed out, these cables are getting slightly hard to come by at reasonable prices, so to the extent I can find numbers, I can improve my odds of finding more cables for better prices. I did find clansman installation manuals for sale for Spartan, Sabre, and Ferret, so I'll buy up those manuals and hopefully they will provide a wealth of helpful part numbers, mounting locations, and the rest. Do we have a repository for online manuals on the forum somewhere? Tanks used to have the external phone and I was wondering if I can use the communal IC (IB3) / remote (IB2) connectors to attach a field phone to duplicate that functionality? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andym Posted February 2, 2023 Share Posted February 2, 2023 An IB-3 would be a better bet than the IB-2 for your application as you don't need the IB-2's extra complexity. That said, the Radio Lines Box will provide power to the harness, too. The external tank telephone is usually connected by yet another box, the TAB (Telephone Adaptor Box). There's a complete list of the boxes with explanations here: http://daimlerferret.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/Clansman-harness-manual.pdf Andy 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
teletech Posted February 2, 2023 Author Share Posted February 2, 2023 41 minutes ago, andym said: An IB-3 would be a better bet than the IB-2 for your application as you don't need the IB-2's extra complexity. That said, the Radio Lines Box will provide power to the harness, too. The external tank telephone is usually connected by yet another box, the TAB (Telephone Adaptor Box). There's a complete list of the boxes with explanations here: http://daimlerferret.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/Clansman-harness-manual.pdf Andy Thanks very much, this was pretty much the document I've been needing to help pull it all together. I've got an IB-3 driver's box, Commander's box, cables, and other random bits and bobs inbound, which should get me at least one vehicle set up and help me figure out how I want to configure the others. The Ferret is very loud in the driver's position, do folks have a preferred headset for that application? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
teletech Posted February 7, 2023 Author Share Posted February 7, 2023 (edited) Can someone enlighten me as to the difference between the ANR and digital ANR interconnect boxes? Are these compatible with the normal ANR boxes and headsets, or are they yet something else. I'm seeing for instance a commander's box 5820 99 117 9583 While on the subject, it seems like a non-ANR crew box could be put on the Clansman bus with ANR boxes and should work fine apart from not being compatible with ANR headsets, is this correct? Also, I found the IPC for a Clansman install in a Spartan, though it is lacking details about what brackets are needed, it does at least provide a list of the basic parts and their general locations. Those foot-switches are an interesting thing and I wonder how they are wired? Spartan-radio-CES.pdf Edited February 7, 2023 by teletech Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andym Posted February 7, 2023 Share Posted February 7, 2023 As far as I'm aware the "digital" simply refers to the way the internals work and doesn't affect compatibility with anything else. Yes, you should be able to mix ANR and non-ANR boxes with the expected result. The footswitch will be wired into the pressel circuit somewhere, possibly a connector on the commander's box. Andy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gordonb Posted February 8, 2023 Share Posted February 8, 2023 The Ferret is very loud in the driver's position, do folks have a preferred headset for that application? The less common A vehicle headset, with or without the helmet. Gordon Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
teletech Posted February 8, 2023 Author Share Posted February 8, 2023 7 hours ago, gordonb said: The Ferret is very loud in the driver's position, do folks have a preferred headset for that application? The less common A vehicle headset, with or without the helmet. Gordon Any chance of a picture or part number to help me identify what I'm after? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andym Posted February 8, 2023 Share Posted February 8, 2023 (edited) Surely any ANR headset would work? Look at Racal RA180 or RA195 as examples. Andy Edited February 8, 2023 by andym Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gordonb Posted February 8, 2023 Share Posted February 8, 2023 This one. The press studs at the top of the shell engage with straps in the helmet. https://armyradio.com/Racal-Clansman-Head-Set-and-Microphone.html gmb Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andym Posted February 8, 2023 Share Posted February 8, 2023 5 minutes ago, gordonb said: This one. The press studs at the top of the shell engage with straps in the helmet. https://armyradio.com/Racal-Clansman-Head-Set-and-Microphone.html gmb That one isn't ANR, it's the older version. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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