OPEN SOURCE DIY Mic Project - ORS 87 - Stripped Down u87

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MP3 to upload later. Now I need to learn how to Bias. This was my third attempt after a couple on another PCB. It's a definite breakthrough for me. Not possible without this thread.

Where do the JFET pins connect, and the 1G resistor? Could you take a closer (and well-focused) photo of that area?
 
Where do the JFET pins connect, and the 1G resistor? Could you take a closer (and well-focused) photo of that area?
Soldered to the center pin of the jfet. I"ll wrap it around before I put it in next time. My one complaint about the otherwise very logical board is had to lay capacitor down to reach the resistor to the center pin.
 

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Soldered to the center pin of the jfet.

Why???

https://www.onsemi.com/pdf/datasheet/mmbfj113-d.pdf

The JFET is a J113. Not a 2N3819. Thus, as can be seen in the datasheet linked just above, the center pin is the source pin. There's a hole in the PCB where the other end of the 1G resistor goes - this time it IS meant to solder onto the board.

So right now your gate pin is completely floating (DC-wise), connected only to the capsule...
 
Why???

https://www.onsemi.com/pdf/datasheet/mmbfj113-d.pdf

The JFET is a J113. Not a 2N3819. Thus, as can be seen in the datasheet linked just above, the center pin is the source pin. There's a hole in the PCB where the other end of the 1G resistor goes - this time it IS meant to solder onto the board.

So right now your gate pin is completely floating (DC-wise), connected only to the capsule...
Because the hole was plugged. I thought on purpose. It isn't in this next board. Wasn't I the one asking these questions before that didn't get answered? so I take my best guess. So I just solder in the resistor, and the jfet. boom. done?
 
Plugged with what?



Got a link to those posts?
they got erased because I'm an idiot? plugged with plastic from board? couldn't get wire through. I started with capacitors on this build, maybe I dropped some solder on it? Honestly thought it was on purpose. My bad. A picture of a completed board would have really helped.
 
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they got erased because I look like an idiot?

There are these two posts here (#1033 and #1034 that look to be "empty", just replies to my post), so no idea what happened there.

plugged with plastic from board?

As in, soldermask / solder-resist? There should have been none, in that whole area. Got a photo of that plugged hole?

couldn't get wire through.

Got a pointy pair of tweezers, or a sewing needle, or even a chunkier piece of terminal from an electrolytic capacitor? We're (moderately) advanced primates, we can use tools, can we not?
 
There are these two posts here (#1033 and #1034 that look to be "empty", just replies to my post), so no idea what happened there.



As in, soldermask / solder-resist? There should have been none, in that whole area. Got a photo of that plugged hole?



Got a pointy pair of tweezers, or a sewing needle, or even a chunkier piece of terminal from an electrolytic capacitor? We're (moderately) advanced primates, we can use tools, can we not?
only with magnifying lenses. Sewing needle. I can do that. thank you.
 
I started with capacitors on this build, maybe I dropped some solder on it? Honestly thought it was on purpose. My bad.

"Assumption is the mother of all f**k-ups..."

Usually one would start with resistors & diodes, the least-high-off-the-board-surface parts, but i guess what's done is done..?

A picture of a completed board would have really helped.

Point taken, unfortunately real life events have temporarily severely limited the time i could dedicate to this. That being said, some others have managed to successfully populate some of these boards, so...
 
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There are these two posts here (#1033 and #1034 that look to be "empty", just replies to my post), so no idea what happened there.



As in, soldermask / solder-resist? There should have been none, in that whole area. Got a photo of that plugged hole?



Got a pointy pair of tweezers, or a sewing needle, or even a chunkier piece of terminal from an electrolytic capacitor? We're (moderately) advanced primates, we can use tools, can we not?
It was filled with the yellowish substrate of the board. It would have been the first hole I started to fill with resistors, and this one I put aside, and decided to start with capacitors. I was able to poke it out. The next 2 boards at least do not have this. I remember checking all the other holes on the board to see if they had anything similar, but that was the only one. It seemed on purpose.
 
It seemed on purpose.

Statistically, it couldn't have been. Four boards drilled through properly, but the fifth one not, and THAT is presumed to be on purpose? Can't fathom why one would assume that, but what do i know?

But anyway, see how it works now, with the 1G soldered to where it was meant to go... Maybe post an "after" photo, if feasible?
 
It was filled with the yellowish substrate of the board. It would have been the first hole I started to fill with resistors, and this one I put aside, and decided to start with capacitors. I was able to poke it out. The next 2 boards at least do not have this. I remember checking all the other holes on the board to see if they had anything similar, but that was the only one. It seemed on purpose.
 
I got 10, but I started with one. I checked the other holes on the board, not other boards. Now it doesn't work. Probably time to start a new board.
 
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Every now and then I find my ORS87 doing this every ~0.62641875 seconds:
View attachment 134911

First time this happened my kid was trying to whistle (he's 7, doesn't know how to) and a puff of air or something really loud and deep made the mic enter that state. It only went away when P48 was turned off. It's a very loud signal. I had to lower the gain there to capture the signal without distortion.

It looks like I can reproduce something similar by getting really close to the capsule (headbasket with windscreen) and saying loudly the word "tres" extending the s:
View attachment 134912
It doesn't recover from that unless there's silence.

I know what to do: Don't say the word "tres" right next to the capsule and don't blow air into the mic (which is sound advice anyway, pun intended), but I'm just curious on what would be causing this.

Did you found out what causes it?
 
That sounds like a good strategy, we all do it that way... :cool: (y)

I would probably try to isolate the problem first. Change the capsule and see if the problem is still there. If yes, then your impedance converter has problems (my bet), if not the capsule is to blame.
I had a problem like this with a damaged capsule…. Best
 
Just changed the high frequency attenuation cap (C6) on my 2nd build from 240p to 100p as I wanted to tune it for a little more treble and I think I prefer that value. Although now that I have it socketed I may try some more values, this was just the closest value I had to the suggested 120p in various places in the thread.

This is the BOM I used for build #2 in the event anyone needs a reference. I used homero's v1.1 board:

ORS87ORS87 BOM for build #2
R7:1G
R8:1M
R9:10k
R9b (measuring input)560Ω
R10:25k Trimmer
R12:33k
R13:1M
R14:10k
R15:1M
R16:10k
R182k2
R19:2k2
C5:33n
C6:100p
C71uF (big yellow vishay 250v)
C8:22uF 25v (went for a smaller cap here to add in measuring input, but only needs to be 6v)
C9:1uF Film
C10:22uF 63v
C11:10n Film
C1222uF 63v
C13:10n Film
D133v Zener
Q1:J113
Transformer:Neutrik NTE 10/3 (wired 10:1)
Capsule:87 single side BaiFeiLi
 
Very cool mic and it sounds good!
Replaced 2N3819 with BF256B and it works.

Anyone tried building this mic with SMD components?
 

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