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
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