Cracking Open The Motorola HS820 Bluetooth Headset

Many people have been repurposing bluetooth headsets for use in their projects.
http://www.grooveking.com/blog/2006/03/grooveking-geekout-make-your-old-brick.html
http://kamalot.blogspot.com/2005/09/nes-bluetooth-handset.html

Both radioshack and Amazon had the Motorola HS820 on sale for 30 dollars this week. I bought one, popped it open. I wrote this up to show how easy it is and why you shouldn't be afraid.

Step 1: Remove the Ear Hook and screw

First off, we need to remove a couple of things so we can get inide to the guts.

1) I'm not sure of the technical name, but I'm going to call it the ear hook as it hooks around your ear. It just pops right off if you give it a slight tug. It's supposed to pop off so you can change the orientation of the set. It turns out that I'm left earred.

2) After you remove the hook, then take out the screw. It's a hex screw but, I found a mini-flathead screwdriver that was able to fit perfectly.

Comments

[mtdna]

How do you rewire the On/Off/Call switch for easy hacking? For example, how do you wire it to a separate push button?

It just looks like a little pad - do you tear it off?

Thanks!

[beehard44]

you desolder the switch and solder wires to the 2 pads

[Thaikarl]

i opened an much earlier model of one of these motorala jobs. there were these two tiny tiny bits, along the edge of the seam on each side that flew away. i examined the thing carefully, and decided that those were "anti-hacking" bits. if you took the thing apart - i was trying to see if the battery could be replaced - the little bits would fly off, and when you put it back together, it wouldn't work

[stankdog]

would it be possible to hook this up to a regular speaker (6x9) say for a garage application. I hate the ear phone but would love to answer the phone. Let me know as I have several types of speakers left over from a wall of sound project! Thanks,

[lopoff]

wow that took me 2 hours to try and get it open and fail .......... i envey you

[mikebook]

You were actually dead on. It is an 'ear hook.' Sometimes technology companies name things exactly after their purpose... I never thought I'd see the day either :-D

[airwalker20]

hey, just found this headset and tried to charge it, but the led doesnt light up, and i opened it but couldnt find anything( in my unexisting experience ) wrong, ill try to charge it tonight and see if maybe the leds wrong, any suggestions on how to check if its still worth anything? by the way, great job

[Makemeasandwich]

I checked this out because I've wanted to build a bluetooth headset for a radio transceiver for a while now. The idea is a 3-point network: transmitter, PTT button, and headset. Any resources y'all could share for making this work would be appreciated.

[nim6]

i'm sorry that i can't help you, but i gotta say, i'm really lking forward to seeing it come to life!

[uhsnamih]

i have a broken bluetooth,only mic wires are broken. i want to know how can i use it for making anything.

[Yerboogieman]

build a computer mic and theres an instructable for having a bluetooth for ipods

[guided]

these headsets were on woot.com today 2 for 20 bucks. i plan on making bluetooth receiver for my handy for home/office use. with 2 of them i feel i'll have adequate room for experimentation. now...where to find an old telephone....

[Boss_Sauce]

Excellent tear-down! I put a Jabra into an old AT&T handset (see the flickr set) but destroyed a second headset-- a Motorola-- trying to solder leads to its circuit board...:( Those components are tiny!

I just w00t!'d two Jabra BT350's (and ordered tiny conical solder tips too...;) and will do an Instructable on tearing it down _and_ soldering leads to a separate board to make it easier to hack onto/into other devices.

[linpagla]

Another new idea! How about running some wires from the bluetooth headset to the line in of the PC, so as to be able to record the mobile conversation in PC? Any technical viewpoints on this?

[infrared]

i tore apart a nokia hdw-2 to use to transmit audio to my bluetooth usb adapter. you have to be carefull with the mic voltage if you want to add a line in connector instead like i did but a resistor worked fine also the only way to get it apart is to break it cuz it is glued together where the plastic post join together

[Myself]

You should isolate your input with a series capacitor, possibly one in each lead, since the mic might not be referenced to ground. Remember that it's expecting a very small signal from the mic!

[infrared]

on the hdw-2 headset the mic has been decoupled on the board already with some smt caps. i would have liked to build my own line level circuit but not knowing the details of this headset..... it works great to send simple "voice" 1 channel audio but thats where this headset is limited

[yousetmeonfire]

Is there any way to separate the microphone from the headset? I have a newer bluetooth headset that I don't use and want to see if I can separate them for a project!

[binnie]

just simply desolder it:)

[P_cal17]

I was thinking of linking the speaker wires to a red white aux cable so that my cellphone would play mp3s through my stereo, any thought?

[easement]

probably, but you may need to run it though a preamp before sending it to the stereo.

[Nightshade]

Very cool ideas. I wonder if it woul be possible to put it into an Ipod. Tell everyone you just got back from Japan and it's a prototype. Thank you all for the great ideas.,

[irritant#9]

Flathead screwdriver = football bat

[irritant#9]

At least you are done with that flathead screw driver.

[irritant#9]

Flathead is not a screwdriver type. Flathead is a screw head profile: in the case of the screw shown above, It most likely is a oval or pan head torx.

[wdejong]

I just got a couple of those Star Trek communicator garage door openers....yeah, I'm making myself a real communicator

[Crash2108]

What will we use that for? I am thinking RC car or something, but how would I actually control it?

[radiorental]

got one after reading this. Planning on putting it in to a tradition handset for a more intuitive feeling skype phone call. Problem: my imac at work loves it, my powerbook at home 'does not support headsets' wtf! any idea?

[radiorental]

sorted, download: http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/bluetoothfirmwareupdater12.html and then run the utility

[sbusUltra]

Thats actually a torx screw. Its a six pointed star, not a hexagon. Good howto though.

[remarc solo]

Ylim is right if you are trying to send a lot of data. However to transcieve at say 1200 baud attach either a modem, or implement one using a function in a $5 dsp or microcontroller. (Should use about 10% of the CPU). If a hundred people want it I'll show you how and get the kit.

[ylim]

Interfacing bluetooth is seriously tedious, perhaps because of the tight requirement of synchronizing the hopping sequence. It is pretty amazing how the bluetooth is selling that much. The point that I am driving is without a proper datasheet, I guess this module is nothing much of a value in serious work.

[usbrit]

BTW these are pretty hardwearing units, mine has been through the washing machine (left in a pocket, not on purpose!) and survived after drying it out in the sun for a few hours.