Making a mic, part2
First off, Hilary is leaving for Germany tomorrow. Traveling over-seas is cool because, hey that actually needs no explanation, but it can also be frustrating because of all the security stuff that goes on, and the fatigue involved. So pray for her trip tomorrow!
Ok, so the first post in this series was about making the condenser microphone capsule and diaphragm. I'm going to skip the part about making the body of the mic because I already showed a photo of it a couple posts back, and I didn't have a camera available when I was actually building it. So this part is going to be on the preamplifier. By the time I am writing this, I actually have the preamplifier finished up, and the final form looks quite a bit different than in this photo (you will see later). Well, I need to deliver some photos here in about 5 minutes, so i'm gonna skip the explanation and just post the pics:
some components
The board - complete with groundplane
My first amp that didn't work so well...
My desk. I installed a lamp - no hard lights!
The new circuit - looking like a rat's nest
Assembling the components
Testing - still not quite ready, but I'll show you the final version later
Ok, so the first post in this series was about making the condenser microphone capsule and diaphragm. I'm going to skip the part about making the body of the mic because I already showed a photo of it a couple posts back, and I didn't have a camera available when I was actually building it. So this part is going to be on the preamplifier. By the time I am writing this, I actually have the preamplifier finished up, and the final form looks quite a bit different than in this photo (you will see later). Well, I need to deliver some photos here in about 5 minutes, so i'm gonna skip the explanation and just post the pics:
some components
The board - complete with groundplane
My first amp that didn't work so well...
My desk. I installed a lamp - no hard lights!
The new circuit - looking like a rat's nest
Assembling the components
Testing - still not quite ready, but I'll show you the final version laterUsing IC's is normally frowned upon by audio enthusiasts and preamp builders but in my defense, I'm not making a normal microphone preamplifier. If you want a condenser microphone to be sensitive to DC (yes, all the way to DC) then you need to do think about things differently...
posted by tmm at
5:37 PM
5 Comments:
When ever I pulled a circuit board out of a computer, phone, or electro- gadget I always envisioned that only a computerized robot could have built it. You opened my eyes. Nice skill.
How about a picture of the underside with all the wire wrapping. Maybe a picture of the wire wrapping tool?
Pretty cool stuff.
Uncle T
Hey guys thanks for the comments,
Jacob - probably some of those things you are referring to were built by a robot. This circuit is made of large passive components and "DIP" IC's. These are easy (relatively speaking) to make. It takes a pretty skilled person to be good at soldering the type of stuff in the computer boards, which are mostly "surface mount" which can be so small you need a magnifying glass to see where to solder properly. Uncle Ted surely knows a lot more about how they manufactur those type of electronics
Uncle Ted - heh, erm, the underside. Well, it's not quite as pretty as the top. I didn't use wire wrapping, I actually soldered everything, and it looked like spaghetti with all the wires underneath. I conveniently forgot to photo that. But when I crack the mic open again (will need to eventually to fix an offset problem I'm having w/a difference amplifier inside) I'll try to remember to photo the whole thing.
Tim,
I always wirewrapped everything. Was there a reason to solder?
Your patience must be great.
Uncle T.
I normally go straight from bread-board to soldering. We don't have a wire-wrap tool around, that I know of, and I'm pretty used to soldering things. I ended up having to sandwhich two boards together, as well, so I think it worked out alright.
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