Big Issues with Lightspeed Aviation. This is a set of Lightspeed Aviation Thirty 3G they were placed in climate controlled storage (Rubber amid tub in a closet) 8-10 years ago. There are No Ear Seals or Parts available form the manufacture.
These Ear Seals and headbands Deteriorate and Cannot Be replaced. The Manufacture no longer makes them and there are no third party vendors.
The Cables are very low quality and suffer form dry rot like the 99.00 low end headsets. Lightspeed Aviation CEO said these were rebranded items form a china vendor refused to disclose the vendor maybe a chance to source some.
Photo of the of the Ear Seals they just flaking and they fell off the clips. If someone was good with a sewing machine and seam ripper one could break them down and reproduce these in lambskin leather and glue them to the mounts and they would last almost a lifetime.
Ear Seal Clips
Right Now if you are considering a Lightspeed Aviation Headset I Say Stay Far away from Lightspeed Aviation products Run Fast!
The Lightspeed Zulu Headsets also suffer form Cable Rot and Deterioration of the earseals and head pads along with turning to sticky goo..
Teardown, Small Battery Leak Repair, And Firmware Backup.
This headset initially was Shelved and used as a Passenger set when I got my Zulus and Batteries Leaked they were removed and leakage was neutralized prior to storage.
I Removed the Wires and Cleaned up the Boards a Little, Still a Lot of Dried up Flux form factory Production. Not sure what the deal is with that tantalum cap maybe a factory bodge?
Other Side of the PCB, I am not Going to Remove the Can Covers.
MCU is a PIC 16F505 (Generally Most Pic Chips are Code Protected.) Since Lightspeed Aviation is not #righttorepair friendly I will attempt to backup this chip up.
Lightpseed Aviation 3G MCU PIC 16F505 Chip Removed
Lightpseed Aviation 3G MCU PIC 16F505 Chip Removed In an Adapter Socket.
I Lit up the Xeltek 6100N Programmer Loaded the PIC16F505 8K Algo Set the Mega Magic to DX2045 Crossed Fingers Click on Read and Verify…
Check the Device Configuration… Ohhh Yes Code protection is Off 🙂
Lets Check the Buffer, We now have a backup of the Firmware for the Lightspeed Aviation Thrity 3G Firmware
There is also an eeprom U2 24LC00 1K
Same Procedure but general Serial eproms code cannot be protected (Some modern ones they can)
LS Thirty 3G U2 24LC00 Chip Removed
LS Thirty 3G U2 24LC00 Chip Removed In SOIC Adapter.
Thirty 3G U2 24LC00 Chip Read and Verify Success.
Check the Buffer and See data Not Much May be a counter or Firmware may access it to give model info who knows.
If I Get Any More Info I Will Let You know!
Download Firmware Backups For Repair Purposes.
Maybe Lightspeed Aviation will play ball and embrace the right to repair!
No FCC Data.
Last Updated on July 1, 2025 by Steven Rhine