A man needs a hobby, right?

[MicMaven]

When I cannot sleep, instead of tossing and turning in bed, I mess around in the workshop and either make or break something.

This morning, I spent an hour crafting a basic cheap condenser microphone from parts on hand. I combined a $5 circuit board that works with either 48v phantom voltage or 2-10 v bias voltage, a $4 electret capsule, and a 6 inch length of 3/4 inch dia. aluminum tube left over from a home brewed ham radio antenna project. I cut vents and holes in the tube by hand with a hack saw and a hand power drill, and cut a slit to accommodate the guide ridge on an XLR plug, and sort of cleaned and polished the tube with steel wool.

VOILA! a basic condenser microphone is born, and it sounds good enough to use with a transceiver and computer speech recognition software. So, imagine me taking an afternoon nap as I enjoy that heady sense of self-satisfaction one gets from successfully completing a home brewed project.

James

[Disclaimer - Surely there is nothing special about this little diversion - but this IS a DIY group and this IS a DIY project that provides a useful tool for very low cost - it does not have to be fancy to be useful !!] JHR

 

[k brown]

Life can be sweet, if you make it so . . . don't delay.

 

[OneRoomStudio]

Very nice! How did you settle on the design for the rear porting?

 

[Ricardus]

Audio samples?

 

[MicMaven]

Very nice! How did you settle on the design for the rear porting?

First, I cut two lines with a hack saw. I drilled the holes because the saw kerf seemed too thin to allow enough sound in. Nothing scientific, although I was subliminally inspired by the Sennheiser MD431II.

I attach a short recording comparing it to the low cost Takstar CM-60. Please remember this is a quickie, budget build, not a high end studio mic. It sounds "good enough" with my transceiver. James

View attachment Home Brewed mic vs Takstar CM_60 no 1.mp3

 

[OneRoomStudio]

First, I cut two lines with a hack saw. I drilled the holes because the saw kerf seemed too thin to allow enough sound in. Nothing scientific, although I was subliminally inspired by the Sennheiser MD431II.

I attach a short recording comparing it to the low cost Takstar CM-60. Please remember this is a quickie, budget build, not a high end studio mic. It sounds "good enough" with my transceiver. James

View attachment 121778

Sounds pretty darn good to me! Not as much top-end as the Takstar, but a much nicer low end. Very usable!

 

[k brown]

What capsule did you use?

 

[MicMaven]

What capsule did you use?

It is an unbranded 16mm capsule purchased on eBay for $8. It easily fit the .75" aluminum tubing I frequently use to build ham radio antennas, another hobby I enjoy. I used one of these capsules to repair an old Optimus (RS) 33-3117 and more recently replaced it with a similar, roughly equivalent 16mm capsule from JLI Electronics for $9. I cannot say which one I prefer.

James