Oxbow Renegade X and bluetooth PTT

[KTMDirtFace]

While I was waiting for the oxbow wireless PTT button that was on pre-order/back order... I had a couple of these BTech PTT buttons at my house.

BTECH BS-PTT Wireless PTT (Push-to-Talk) for GMRS-PRO - BaoFeng Radios

BTECH BS-PTT Wireless PTT (Push-to-Talk) Device - Compatible with GMRS-PRO Radios and HFP Bluetooth Headsets for Effortless Wireless Communication

baofengtech.com

They do pair with the oxbow, but with one nasty bug if you press it really fast it freaks out and will continually keep keying up the mic over and over and over until you hold it down.

My actual Oxbox bluetooth PTT buttons will be here tomorrow, hopefully they don't do that lol. ( plus they are rechargeable where the Btech ones use a watch battery )

Also I have mine paired to a cardo edge in my helment, seems to work great.

 

[KTMDirtFace]

My one gripe with the oxbow renegade x's so far is every time you turn it off it can't remember what it was paired to, so before every ride. I have to pair it to my cardo ( and the PTT button ). Not a huge deal but I wish it remembered its pairing.

Luckily its stupidly easy to pair.

 

[05rmksteve]

Hopefully my Oxbow PTT and Renegade X Ulcear bundle shows up soon. Can't wait to try this set up.
#Oxbowgear

 

[KTMDirtFace]

Another Oxbow tip... that I found out the hard way.

If you buy the rivet mount, for like your klim avi pack. and decide you don't want the long end of the rivets pointed at your chest and put the rivets and washers outward.

The rivet ends stick out just a hair too far and your oxbow will not fully seat and clip in and will fall out very very very easy.

I took a dremel and grinded maybe a 1-2mm bevel off the clip by the screws and now it will lock in fully with the rivets in..apparently backwards. ( note to self, take the clip off first next time as I dinged up the radio a little lol )

Or don't put the long end of the rivets facing out and have them point in towards your chest, but I didn't want them facing my chest.

 

[KTMDirtFace]

I received my 3 oxbow PTT bluetooth buttons.

They have the same bug as the BTech bluetooth buttons.

Its probably not a big deal just don't do this.

- Push the button repeatedly really fast

It will get stuck in some sort of infinite mic queuing loop. Only way out of it is to hold the button down for quite a bit.

Probably not something you would do unless your being a spaz at your desk like me trying to break it.

Gonna go ride with them and the whole setup with some buddies tomorrow.

 

[KTMDirtFace]

Tried them out today, oxbows and blueooth buttons worked great.

My cardo packtalk edge on the other hand the mic must have got really wet or something as it just died and no one could hear me after awhile worked great at first. Even "Hey Cardo" commands quit working..so I think its mic died.

Disconnected the cardo from the oxbow and just used the oxbow like a normal radio the rest of the morning and it worked great.

 

[05rmksteve]

My PTTs and Renegade x ulclear bundle showed up yesterday. Pairing the Renegade to the PTT was very simple. Ill mount the ulclear to my helmet tonight. I got a second PTT to put on my 8 year old daughter's handle bar. Hoping that the button on her handle bar will be easier for her to use vs the button on the radio.

#Oxbowgear

 

[KTMDirtFace]

My PTTs and Renegade x ulclear bundle showed up yesterday. Pairing the Renegade to the PTT was very simple. Ill mount the ulclear to my helmet tonight. I got a second PTT to put on my 8 year old daughter's handle bar. Hoping that the button on her handle bar will be easier for her to use vs the button on the radio.

#Oxbowgear

Nice yea pairing it to the cardo and the button is super easy. The button worked great for me today.

I'm not sure whats up with my caro's mic, its right in front of my mouth and I have the breathbox in my helmet. It got super wet from me huffing and puffing all over it. Doesn't work at all now lol.

Gonna pull mic from my other helmet to make sure that's whats going on, maybe I can find a mic that's more water resistant, or move it to the side so its not right in front of my mouth or something.

 

[NBD925]

I got my second Oxbow Renegade X Bluetooth Radio this year but added, PTT Button for each radio and a UClear 4Lite on my helmet for testing. I wanted something in helmet so I could hear the radio transmissions while riding my snowbike. Its loud, so you have to stop the bike to hear the radio or at least what anyone is saying on the radio.

I had to return the Uclear after this weekend for many reasons.
1. After full charge, Bricked out of the box. Had to full reset to get it to turn on or off.
2. Two 4 hour Firmware Upgrades to get to the most current firmware.
3. Would garble or make transmissions and receptions sound like a robot. This seemed to happen after about 3-5 minutes of being connected.
4. Each reception cuts into the music. Thats fine but every time is a 30 second delay. I dont listen to music much at all but imagine it would be annoying.
5. Would randomly disconnect while riding. You never knew if it was working or not until a buddy was next to you and you were not getting the calls he was.
6. Randomly Would say connecting over and over until you shut everything down and repaired the headset and bluetooth button.
7. Very finicky bluetooth connections to the Oxbow. Sometimes it connects sometimes it just doesn't.

After all this, I got tired of messing around and never knowing if it was working so I just turned it off.

Side note: the Oxbow Bluetooth Radio by itself (Bluetooth 1) will not connect bluetooth 1 to Iphone or Beats By Dre bluetooth headphones. Thought that was odd. Bluetooth 2 is for the PTT button only I believe. Talked to Oxbow about this and they know it will not connect to Iphone products or Beats by Dre.

I used the Renegade X Radio with the Bluetooth button and it seemed to work but I have more testing to do on that.

Problems with Radio:

I would randomly hear my radio Rodger Beep and thought my helmet was somehow hitting the PTT button on the radio itself. My buddy, who just bought the same radio and button (riding a different day and place 100 miles away) experienced the same thing. He said his was so bad that his riding group had to turn off their radios because it was so annoying. He ended up being the only one who didnt turn off his radio, so the problem was narrowed down to him and the Oxbow. He is bring his Oxbow Renegade X to work tomorrow to test with my two radios. He just purchased his radio Friday.

I am not fully confident this radio is receiving all transmissions, all the time. It seemed like some of the guys with older BCA radios were hearing transmissions I could not. I need to confirm this though as fact.

I love my Oxbow setup but I need to answer some questions and make sure this thing works. I have two Oxbow Renegade X Bluetooth Radios and talked a few buddies into getting them so I will try to do some range tests and other tests to make sure.

Anyone have similar experiences? I used my first Oxbow radio last season about halfway through the season to the end but kept convincing myself that any missed transmission or problem was not the radio but something else. Love the form and idea of the radio and the PTT button is bad ass but now Im starting to wonder.

Testing some things tomorrow!

 

[KTMDirtFace]

I would randomly hear my radio Rodger Beep and thought my helmet was somehow hitting the PTT button on the radio itself.

I let a buddy borrow one of mine, he kept hitting the radio button with his shoulder. User error. Every time he pull started I would hear the roger beep. ( You can just turn the roger beep off ). But my buddy the way his was mounted his arm or something kept hitting the button.

But no I havn't had any problems with mine other than I killed the mic on my cardo edge from it getting wet.

I wish it remembered the bluetooth pairings thats my only complaint. Every morning have to do the bluetooth pairing dance. on the Radio and the button.

 

[NBD925]

Update: so we tested the radios with some BCA. The Oxbow seemed to come in louder at the same given distances.

My buddies problem with the radio randomly transmitting was the voice activation. He did not realize it was on. So that makes sense and explains that problem.

But During testing we realized my new Renegade X has a problem. Below is what I wrote to Oxbow. So far they have been amazing to deal with and I cant imagine it would be any different but I will let you know what they say.

So now my New Radio seems suspect. Renegade X Bluetooth. Here are the symptoms:

Quiet Speaker Output
Comparing it to the Renegade X Bluetooth I bought last year, This radio Seems to be at volume level 1 when comparing output. You can barely hear transmissions even room to room.

This lowered volume effects Bluetooth Paired Headsets too. I thought that was odd. I pair this to a bluetooth headset and the volume is very low in the headset. I pair the same headset to the older Radio and its louder.

Another odd thing is transmitting from the new radio to the old while in close proximity, the old radio squeals. Transmitting from the Old radio to the new there is no squeal. Almost like there is reduced receiving power on the new radio. This might be caused by a bad Mic Amp circuit or Transmitter circuit.

All tests done on Channel 4-20 High output
Volume 9

 

[KTMDirtFace]

Yea they are great to deal with.

I reported a bug to them with the blue-tooth button. Actually its a bug with any bluetooth button as it does it with my Btech buttons too. I think its the radio.

If you spam the bluetooth button really fast the radio gets stuck in an infinite PTT loop and wont stop lol. Total tester bug but its a bug none the less.

 

[KTMDirtFace]

Killed another cardo mic. Well my buddy did.

I dunno if the Uclear mic's are any better. But the cardo ones do not like getting wet inside your helmet at all.

Cardo Edge + Oxbow X + Oxbow Bluetooth button work great when they work, but we keep ruining cardo mics.

Mine worked great the other day no issues, but when the cardo mic gets wet it ruins it and no one can hear me and I don't know why.

Probably just going to pull the cardo stuff out of my snow helmet and leave it for my motorcycle days in the summer.. Just use the Oxbow radio like a normal radio.

 

[KTMDirtFace]

I might get something like this to stick over my Cardo Mic

Universal Circles

Frogzskin

frogzskin.com

its what Oxbow uses to keep from ruining the mic on the radio from water
, I'll try one over the cardo mic inside my helmet

 

[KTMDirtFace]

Leave it to me to find a real world application for the pressing the button to much into infinite radio chatter. But I did it twice today. while rolling my sled.

what I thought was a tester bug is not.

Also i ruined another Cardo mic. from my breath..

About to use the oxbow like a normal radio and ditch the paring to my helmet and handle bar mounted PTT.

 

[KTMDirtFace]

So more updates on the oxbow x.

Works GREAT as a radio by itself. But has problems

• Me and my friends keep killing Cardo/Amazon helmet mics. they don't work in the snow/wet. Ends up being no one can hear us after awhile "you sound garbled like your talking in a sock".. to then "i cant hear you at all other than you are keyed up". I have destroyed 3 cardo mics in 3 rides to where they don't work at all anymore. I even tried ordering frogskins circles to put around the mic to keep water off it made no diff. This isn't really oxbows fault these moto helmet com mics just are useless in snow/wet. But I don't understand what helmet com they expect anyone to use.
• The Bluetooth PTT button is cool and all but that bug I was talking about that I didn't think would happen in real life, happens every time I roll my sled and the button gets pushed into the snow.. it will repeatedly keep keying up over and over and over and over. Also 2 rides ago it just quit working completley. it works now but it just stopped doing anything that ride.

My friends and I have decided to rip our cardo/amazon/uclear stuff out of our helmets, ditch the push to talk Bluetooth button and just use the radio as a radio ( which it works great as and is loud )

 

[05rmksteve]

I never got to try out my PTT button or Uclear Motion infinity set up when I went out to Colorado this past week. I got half way out there and realized I left it all sitting on the kitchen counter.
At least I still had my renegade × radios still in the trailer but ended up somehow loosing the antenna on 1 of my radios. The renegade x radio did out perform the other brands of radios in the group. Most had issues with the mics not working because of the pow, dead batterys, out of range, or accidentally changing channels. Out of 4 of us that split off from the main group to do a little climbing, my radio was the only one working/able to connect with the other group. I did have a little issue with static when using my radio while my sled was running. I'll be reaching out to Oxbow on that. Their customers service has been great!

#Oxbowgear