The megaphone initially worked as intended. However, when our singer brought it to our final rehearsal, the microphone stopped working.
Fortunately, we had some tools at hand and were able to sort of fix it for the time being, but I think the problem is a design issue and I intentionally didn't buy the cheaper product in the hope of getting better quality.
What does the issue look like?
- The siren still works as intended.
- When pressing the trigger button to talk through the megaphone, there's an audible electrical "click" sound coming from the speaker.
- When speaking/singing into the mic, the voice is not amplified.
What causes this?
When opening the battery hatch (this happens all the time by accident due to the cheap locking mechanism), there are six electrical contacts:
- Four springs holding the batteries in place and connecting them electrically.
- Two contacts in the center that connect the microphone sitting in the hatch to the rest of the electronics inside the megaphone.
Apparently, these two contacts for the microphone randomly disconnect, and because of that the megaphone no longer works. The siren feature doesn't need the mic, and the battery connectors are fine, so that still works though.
How to fix it:
We applied some contact cleaner (de: "Kontaktspray") to the two central contacts.
We also loosened the two screws inside the hatch that hold the microphone in place, and stuffed the area around the microphone with foam, in the hope that this would exert some pressure on the contacts, but that didn't work reliably.
We did also consider just soldering the contacts together using two flexible wires, but we didn't have that equipment at hand so shortly before the concert, and the contact cleaner works for now.
Also, we ended up attaching another mic to the megaphone, because while the siren is extremely loud (and easy to accidentally trigger), the voice amplification was not enough for our outdoor use case.
Why didn't I send it back?
Well, it sort of works now. Also, it broke like two hours before our concert and we needed a quick solution, so we opted for voiding the warranty instead.
