Custom Electronic Ear Plugs.....

[Alantoo]

Caorach I really appreciate that detailed response. I do fire all my rifles with moderators fitted, so the 20db protection afforded by the passive protectors is just another layer of protection. However, there will be occasions in the future where I may be standing near unmoderated rifles, so point taken. I will save up for the LEP100.

Even with the LEP-100s I go belt and braces and wear muffs over the top if some wazzock turns up with a muzzle brake. Some un-moderated guns are worse than others especially when confined in the railway tunnel range and even though the LEPs cope with them I still regularly double up for comfort if I am near the gun line when they are shooting. I bought some £25 electronic muffs from a stand at the shooting show a few years and the combination of them with the LEP electronics still allows conversation when doubled up.

Tool station had some 30db translucent electronic muffs for around £20 and the SNR25 db Howard Leight ones are around £40 which might do you whilst saving!

Alan

Just looked and Toolstation don't list them on line currently...

Dortech are the same sort by the look of it...

PPE | Personal Protective Equipment | Dortech Direct

A vast selection of protective equipment available, designed to protect the body from injury. Our extensive range includes cut resistant clothing specifically manufactured for glaziers working with glass. Suppliers of cut resistant gloves and cut resistant wrist guards for glass. Dortech also...

www.dortechdirect.co.uk

Amazon same again but even cheaper...

Silverline 659862 Ear Defenders Electronic SNR 30 dB: Amazon.co.uk: DIY & Tools

Shop Silverline 659862 Ear Defenders Electronic SNR 30 dB. Free delivery on eligible orders of £20 or more.

www.amazon.co.uk

 

[tony rentokil]

Well spec saver guy told me what, I already new,, left ear not as good as the right,,,then tried to flog me hearing aids,,,starting at £1,395 up to £2,895,,
got an appointment with ent speacialist,,,mid April,,,can you believe,thats the closest they could do,,,I was given this date in November,,
Not sure if this will stop the constant high pitched singing noise, though,,,

 

[Oh6]

Not sure if this will stop the constant high pitched singing noise, though,,,

It might, I think that they can tune some hearing aids to cancel out some of the noise from tinnitus.
Hopefully someone can confirm this though.

 

[Alantoo]

Well spec saver guy told me what, I already new,, left ear not as good as the right,,,then tried to flog me hearing aids,,,starting at £1,395 up to £2,895,,
got an appointment with ent speacialist,,,mid April,,,can you believe,thats the closest they could do,,,I was given this date in November,,
Not sure if this will stop the constant high pitched singing noise, though,,,

I am sure there are different types and causes of noises so may not be applicable in your case...but a Swiss blacksmith friend had an tumour in his ear a year or so ago and after treatment he had a noise. They provided him with an in-ear device which acts like an internal noise cancelling system. I gathered that it was tuned to produce the same pitch tone but opposite phase to cancel the original. Obviously hearing on that side was reduced.

Alan

ah just seen @Oh6 's post, sounds similar.

 

[zambezi]

...The LEP-100s have an internal rechargeable battery which means no changing of batteries and they have a very neat and robust case which also acts as a charging station. It is quite an interesting and effective solution as they offer about 16 hours run time on a charge so unless you shoot for more than 16 hours at a time this will not be a problem but, clearly, there is also a certain advantage in just being able to change a battery. I keep the case in the car when shooting and simply pop them into it if driving between areas or whatever and the charger will run off AA batteries or the USB from a phone charger or even your car.

3M Peltor LEP-100-EU Level Dependent Earplug Kit - Earshot Communications

3M PELTOR LEP-100-EU Level Dependent Earplug Kit Get hearing protection and improve situational awareness in potentially noisy environments. Integrated with state-of-the-art level-dependent technology, the LEP-100 EU amplifies weak sounds whilst noise, including sudden loud noises like a gun...

www.earshotcommunications.co.uk

Because the internal Li-Ion battery on the 3M LEP100 cannot be user replaced at end of life, I decided to ask the 3M support team what their take on that was. It turns out that the sealed for life Li-Ion battery gives the LEP100 product a life of between 18 and 60 months per reply from the maker's support team below. So the cost of this unit has to be considered in terms of its estimated 5 year lifespan. Anyone had them longer?

I cannot put a price on my hearing. I must protect that. But at circa £80 p.a. I wonder if I can justify the purchase of LEP100s? If I shot every day maybe. But I do not. Or if I had other applications for them like machine shop or similar environments. But I don't. Foam plugs are looking a better match for low frequency usage.

" Unfortunately the unit is sealed and the battery cannot be replaced. I looked into the obvious questions raised by this fact some months ago and after some discussion with factory concluded that the battery capacity is chosen such that considering 20% depletion in capacity over 500 cycles from a starting point of 16 hours run time for 100% then the usable life of the battery is most likely to outlive the complete unit. Naturally the way in which these are used will vary greatly and 500 cycles could mean 18 months or it could be 5 years.

3M Service centre
5 Seymour court
Tudor road
Manor park
Runcorn
WA7 1UZ "

 

[Cooter]

After struggling for many years to find something that works effectively around my glasses, and which I could wear all day without noticing, I bought two sets of custom molded ear plugs from Pluggz (about £90 in total).
They come in a proper box and are fitted with a removable lanyard, although I always keep the lanyard on.
One set is solid, for work and riding the motor cycle, and the other has a sonic valve in them for when I am out shooting.

They are not solid, and are made from soft medical grade silcon.
They both seal perfectly so long as I stick them in my gob and warm them up before I try and fit them.

I wear the solid (read that as blank) ones for at least six hours during a work day and, apart from the significant reduction in my tinnitus, and the obvious reduced ambient noise, I hardly notice they are in.
To be fair, when wearing the solid plugs, I can still hear people speaking when they are close enough, and I prefer them to the sonic units as they don't have the irritating problem with wind noise that I notice with the sonic valves.

Best advise is to get a blank pair made up, about £45, and see if they work for you.
Pluggz have all the options that the more expensive suppliers have, and you can get an electronic set made up later if you feel the need.

One thing I particularly liked was when I had the impressions made at Spec savers (£25) I couldn't hear anything, which made a nice change as I can normally hear the ringing/hissing in my ears all the time.

 

[Alantoo]

Because the internal Li-Ion battery on the 3M LEP100 cannot be user replaced at end of life, I decided to ask the 3M support team what their take on that was. It turns out that the sealed for life Li-Ion battery gives the LEP100 product a life of between 18 and 60 months per reply from the maker's support team below. So the cost of this unit has to be considered in terms of its estimated 5 year lifespan. Anyone had them longer?

I cannot put a price on my hearing. I must protect that. But at circa £80 p.a. I wonder if I can justify the purchase of LEP100s? If I shot every day maybe. But I do not. Or if I had other applications for them like machine shop or similar environments. But I don't. Foam plugs are looking a better match for low frequency usage.

" Unfortunately the unit is sealed and the battery cannot be replaced. I looked into the obvious questions raised by this fact some months ago and after some discussion with factory concluded that the battery capacity is chosen such that considering 20% depletion in capacity over 500 cycles from a starting point of 16 hours run time for 100% then the usable life of the battery is most likely to outlive the complete unit. Naturally the way in which these are used will vary greatly and 500 cycles could mean 18 months or it could be 5 years.

3M Service centre
5 Seymour court
Tudor road
Manor park
Runcorn
WA7 1UZ "

Depends on your use of course. If you are just needing ear protection without the need or advantage of the ambient sound or conversation facility, certainly passive plugs are more than adequate, and likely to have a higher dB rating than most of the other active plugs or muffs.

It is when in proximity of others shooting that the active ones come into their own.

Not that I have any reason to persuade you, more you having made me think about justifying them to myself...

I suppose at 20% depletion after 500 cycles, they will only hold their charge and remain active for 12.8 hours....I normally stick mine on to recharge when I think I have used them for 10 or 12 hours so that can be every two or three weeks. I seem to remember reading that Li-ion batteries don't like being kept topped up, they don't suffer from memory like Ni-Cads but they have a longer life if they are allowed to cycle down regularly.

£80 pa? £300/5years =£60 pa...whatever...with your use though £1.50 a week doesn't sound too bad...one less round of factory ammo fired or a bottle of tap water rather than a Diet Coke? It is one of the cheaper shooting expenses for me.

I think the 500 cycles is also likely to be a long way away by the time the dog eats one or they go phut. Of course if they last for 500 cycles I will be very pleased, especially if I am still around to use them!

I have managed to renew the unrenewable batteries in an iPhone and a MacBook and would guess this iPad of mums I am using now will be similar....they are also presumably designed around their battery life...so I guess we balance that drawback with the benefit of the item while it is working. Like the advances in computing and phones, by the time the LEPs die there is likely to be something better to replace them with.

I was an early adopter of the very expensive Horning Speedglass welding helmets back in the 1980s when £250 was £250! I was miffed that my then assistant kept chucking it down on the bench that when it packed up I decided he would have to revert to a flip down fixed shield...my resolve lasted until I had to do a bit of welding...I was on the phone to the supplier to order another Speedglass before the glow had gone out of the weld!

It is a it like that with these plugs, they are so good and convenient for my circumstances that I would bite the bullet and buy again as soon as they fail even if that was after a year or two....a consumable item....December 2017 and counting.....

Alan

 

[tony rentokil]

Cooter any links to the plugs that helped with your,tinnitus,,,,
Cheers,

 

[fizzbangwhallop]

It might, I think that they can tune some hearing aids to cancel out some of the noise from tinnitus.
Hopefully someone can confirm this though.

I was following up on the various bud options the other day and found the tinnitus options on the Puretone site.....

Tinnitus - Puretone Ltd

Restore your inner calm What is Tinnitus? Tinnitus is often called ringing in the ears, but it can be buzzing, hissing, whistling or any sound. Tinnitus can start for a number of reasons, and for some people have no obvious cause. If you suspect you have tinnitus, then it’s important to talk to...

www.puretoneretail.net

Fizz

 

[caorach]

I suppose at 20% depletion after 500 cycles, they will only hold their charge and remain active for 12.8 hours....I normally stick mine on to recharge when I think I have used them for 10 or 12 hours so that can be every two or three weeks. I seem to remember reading that Li-ion batteries don't like being kept topped up, they don't suffer from memory like Ni-Cads but they have a longer life if they are allowed to cycle down regularly.

It is the other way around with lithium ion - the best way to use them is to recharge as often as possible with shallow discharges and never to allow them to run flat, if they do run flat then recharge asap. You are right though that there should be no memory effect.

Cycles in battery terms is usually defined as a complete discharge and so 3M may be being very conservative with this - if you only use the plugs for 3 - 4 hours at a time and recharge afterwards then you are likely to be looking at many more than 500 cycles and as the shallow discharge helps prolong life plus you'll only be subjecting the battery to a "cycle" once every 4 times you use the plugs. Add to this that for most people a life of 4 hours may well be enough most of the time and I'd be surprised if a recreational user would kill the battery within a reasonable lifetime of the plugs. Foam earplugs come in around 50p - £1 a punt and if you pay £300 for electronic plugs then you'd need around 600 cycles to put you ahead in terms of cash. My bet is that unless you are running them completely flat with every use and require 12+ hours of use every time then the 3M plugs will easily exceed this break even point.

 

[Alantoo]

It is the other way around with lithium ion - the best way to use them is to recharge as often as possible with shallow discharges and never to allow them to run flat, if they do run flat then recharge asap. You are right though that there should be no memory effect.
Snip..

Now you have me scurrying off to see if I can find where I read what I did or didn't and how I managed to get it round my neck!

Alan

 

[caorach]

Try something like this, I didn't read it all but just picked the first one I came upon, however it looks pretty close to what I'd expect for the depth of discharge/discharge cycles bit

How to Prolong Lithium-based Batteries - Battery University

Discover what causes Li-ion to age and what the battery user can do to prolong its life

batteryuniversity.com

 

[Dodder]

Try something like this, I didn't read it all but just picked the first one I came upon, however it looks pretty close to what I'd expect for the depth of discharge/discharge cycles bit

How to Prolong Lithium-based Batteries - Battery University

Discover what causes Li-ion to age and what the battery user can do to prolong its life

batteryuniversity.com

Chaps, I too suffer with Tinnitis, like most of us I never realised what damage I was doing firing a shotgun without hearing protection.
I now always wear electronic muffs when shooting but find other 'noisy' activities cause me grief such as mowing the lawn with my ride on and riding a motorcycle. My cure has been to invest in a pair of in ear Bose Quiet Comfort QC20 earphones. I find wearing them under my crash helmet on the bike and under a set of the bose over ear noise cancelling headphones on the mower makes a huge difference and stops my ears from ringing so much. Not cheap at around £250 but worth every penny IMO.

 

[Alantoo]

It is the other way around with lithium ion - the best way to use them is to recharge as often as possible with shallow discharges and never to allow them to run flat, if they do run flat then recharge asap. You are right though that there should be no memory effect.

snip...

I couldn't remember where I had read it, I have been involved with 5 Li-ion battery devices and instruction manuals recently, Makita impact wrench, Deben torch, iPhone and MacBook and the LEPs....but I see from your linked article what I had understood when I said they "don't like being kept topped up".

What Can the User Do?
Environmental conditions, not cycling alone, govern the longevity of lithium-ion batteries. The worst situation is keeping a fully charged battery at elevated temperatures. Battery packs do not die suddenly, but the runtime gradually shortens as the capacity fades.
Lower charge voltages prolong battery life and electric vehicles and satellites take advantage of this. Similar provisions could also be made for consumer devices, but these are seldom offered; planned obsolescence takes care of this.

Interesting that the article talks of cycling between 85% and 25% power as being the optimum for number of cycles...apparently you can treble the number of cycles to 1500.

Alan

 

[Cooter]

Cooter any links to the plugs that helped with your,tinnitus,,,,
Cheers,

The link below is to the passive plugs I use the most.
Paul is the guy I dealt with.

Plugzz - Plugzz

Plugzz are a custom made earplug made from soft medical grade silicone to give excellent comfort over long wearing periods, they can be used for pastimes such as Motorsports, Shooting, Sleeping, Swimming, Etc where there is a need to stop excessive noise, water, Etc damaging your hearing, They...

plugzz.co.uk

It probably helps with the tinnitus as I am not being exposed to the ambient noise of around 60db that I hadn't noticed was present.

 

[BigPat]

Just a quick update....

I still remain undecided on what are the best option for me. The Peltor Lep/Tep look good but I am not sure on the sealed battery issue. The Cens custom hobbies still seem excessive at £700 but reviews from people using them seem very happy to wear them all day without any issues. Then we have the Cens non-custom which appear to have all the benefits of the Peltor ones but have a replaceable battery and come in a lot cheaper than the custom ones at £299.

 

[rhhudson]

A few years back I thought I'd have some cens ones. Went to the shooting show and had impressions taken. A few weeks later I was called up only to be told I couldn't have them as my ears were too small for the electronic bit so I am still in search for the answer and like your self the 3m lep look ideal apart from the possible battery life issue. But the only other so.ilar thing I've found is the cens mino but they don't offer as much sound reduction.

 

[Alantoo]

A few years back I thought I'd have some cens ones. Went to the shooting show and had impressions taken. A few weeks later I was called up only to be told I couldn't have them as my ears were too small for the electronic bit so I am still in search for the answer and like your self the 3m lep look ideal apart from the possible battery life issue. But the only other so.ilar thing I've found is the cens mino but they don't offer as much sound reduction.

True the CENS Mino only offer half as much protection as the LEPs (about 3dB SNR less) but they do offer twice as much as the fitted CENS versions and many people are happy with those.

The Minos offer 4 times the reduction of the Howard Leight muffs....so don't be put off from the Minos from that point of view.

But I also don't think you should be put off by the built-in battery life of the LEPs either.

The convenience and improvement to my protection when shooting is well worth the £1.15 per week if they only last 5 years...let alone have only 80% capacity after 5 years. An 80% capacity of 12.8 hours is still double the length of time I have worn them in one hit at the range...although I have worn them for 9 hours when driving the Telehandler.

The CENS batteries are not free! £29 per 60no. from CENS, @sauer says they last a full day so you will use a couple every time you use the plugs...3 days a week at 60p is half the total LEP's cycle estimate cost (which includes the LEP itself) and then you have the cost of the CENS units on top which will also have a design life...

Be interesting to ask CENS what the life of their units is reckoned to be...any one on here have any real world experience?

Although @coarach started off his response to my battery life post with "it is the other way around with Lithium-Ion" we weren't particularly at cross purposes...the article he quoted does talk about doubling or trebling the life and cycle time by not keeping them at maximum charge nor flattening them. @coarach focused on the flattening danger, I more on the danger of holding them at their top charge. Recharging them after 10 or 12 hours (two or three uses for me) ensures they do not flatten below 30% and means they are up near their top charge for fewer times than if charged after each use.

From the same article... How to Prolong Lithium-based Batteries - Battery University

Lithium-ion suffers from stress when exposed to heat, so does keeping a cell at a high charge voltage. A battery dwelling above 30°C (86°F) is considered elevated temperature and for most Li-ion a voltage above 4.10V/cell is deemed as high voltage. Exposing the battery to high temperature and dwelling in a full state-of-charge for an extended time can be more stressful than cycling

Besides selecting the best-suited voltage thresholds for a given application, a regular Li-ion should not remain at the high-voltage ceiling of 4.20V/cell for an extended time. The Li-ion charger turns off the charge current and the battery voltage reverts to a more natural level. This is like relaxing the muscles after a strenuous exercise

I haven't used the built-in AA battery charger but it might be an idea to only have AA batteries in it when you actually need the facility of recharging on the go, though presumably the charging circuit in the carry case is designed to bring the Li-ions to max and then shut off rather than keep charging them....

Alan

 

[caorach]

There are some things I've observed or are worth being aware of Alan:

Electronic devices often have what is sometimes called parasitic drain which is to say that even when turned off they use battery power. In some cases this might be to keep some useful function operating, say a clock or similar, but there are also devices that do it and appear to be keeping nothing running. With this in mind it is possible that the 3M plugs would eventually run their batteries flat when not being used. It hasn't happened to me, I've no idea if it could or will happen, but it is worth keeping in mind as you don't want to run a lithium cell flat and you don't want to leave it flat. So if you aren't using the plugs for a long period it might be worth giving them a wee boost now and again just to avoid this.

One thing I observed is that when I leave AA batteries in the charger they will be flat after maybe 2 months even if the plugs get little or no use. My understanding was that the plugs didn't start charging until the little button is pressed and so it is unlikely that this is down to the AA batteries constantly "topping up" the batteries in the ear plugs. My conclusion, and it is just a guess, is that there is parasitic drain in the charging circuit and it is draining the AA batteries - most likely they've used a microprocessor to control the charging process, as effectively charging lithium batteries is quite tricky, and the processor maybe also detects the button being pressed so it is kept alive with a tiny drain on the battery and over time this results in flat AAs. Due to circumstances beyond my control I haven't used the plugs much recently and they've gone through two sets of batteries with almost zero use for charging.

 

[Alantoo]

That potential parasitic drain is interesting...and good point re-longer unused periods. I have been using them every few days so far and keeping tabs on hours used to recharge when about 60-75% down, but will bear it in mind.

I have only used the USB lead to charge them so have no AA battery charging experience to compare.

The little button I had just taken as being a charging status tester rather than a charge starter...So far the LED has only shown red for charging and green for charged when I have pushed it.

Alan