Bluetooth Woolly Hat

As it is getting towards the winter months (here in the UK): It is about now that I usually start wearing woolly beanie hats to keep my petite ears warm during the onslaught that Mother Nature brings this time of year. I also like to talk quite often on the phone; which becomes annoying when I have to expose my ear to the elements when talking on the phone. I had an old Bluetooth headset laying around and a pretty standard woolly hat so I thought I would make myself a hands-free Bluetooth hat for winter.

I used a Bluechip bh20 headset for this project.

Firstly, using a small flat head screwdriver, pop off the black back plate from the headset; exposing all the components within.

You will now need to remove the microphone.

You will see the microphone poking out with the red and black wire soldered to it; using wire snips or scissors clip off the microphone by cutting both the red and black wire attached to it.

You will be using the microphone later so please keep it safe for now.

Now we need to reduce the overall size of the plastic casing.

Using a Dremel or equivalent tool, cut in half the casing; leaving only the side that has the components housed within it. Be careful not to cut the cable connecting the battery.

The back plate you removed earlier will also need cutting in half.

Now we need to extend the microphone cables from the headset that we cut earlier to detach the microphone.

Using to pieces of wire (any wire will do) solder them onto the red and black wires protruding from the headset circuit board. You can further re-enforce the soldered joints by coating in hot glue and/or taping up with electrical tape. (I did both)

Now we need to put it back together again; using the half of the back plate you cut in half earlier; clip this back onto the headset and using electrical tape, secure it in place.

You are now left with what is half a Bluetooth headset with the battery hanging out of the side and two long wires protruding out of the electrical tape.

Now we will need to mark where the earpiece will sit on the hat.

Place the hat on your head and using a pointy implement (I used a small screw driver) poke through the hat gently into your ear. Now remove the hat with the screw driver still poking through wiggle this around to increase the size of the hole you have just made. You may need to use a pair of scissors or a knife to help you out here.

Once you have a hole the relevant size for your earpiece to poke through...... well poke it through and run the two long wires around to the front of the hat under the fold.

Now, using the tiny microphone you clipped off earlier; solver the long wires coming from the headset onto the two wires hanging from the microphone. Please ensure that you know which is your positive wire so that you can ensure that the solder the correct wires.

Once soldered then you can again re-enforce the joint with hot glue and electrical tape and poke it through the front of your hat.

Once you have poked it though and are happy with the location of it, then you can secure it in place. I used a needle and thread to sew it in place.

My microphone has a black rubber covering on it, I removed it once i had secured it in place. (personal preference if you keep that bit or not)

You now should have the microphone in place and the earpiece also in place, now all that is left to do is turn the headset on and connect to your phone.

You can charge the Bluetooth hat as normal by plugging a micro-USB charger into the charge port on the headset.