Wiring up electret mic

[Drizzt321]

So I’ve got an electret mic I’m going to hook up. I was wondering if I one of the headers could be used to wiring a one of the headers, such as the one next to the LED header, the 5V, A3, A2, GND one.

Or should I wire it to a 3.5mm plug? And if I do wire it to a 3.5mm plug, should I wire it to both the T + R, or just one of them.

Have you given any thought to wiring plug-in-power for the cheap unpowered mics out there?

[Drizzt321]

Also, wonderfully easy to reprogram for custom number of LEDs! 🙂

[Michael]

I have used this electret microphone: https://www.sparkfun.com/products/12758

Connect the 5V line to the 5V pad next to the input, connect GND to a 3.5mm plug ground connection (the sleeve), and connect the audio signal to both the tip and ring of the plug.

It works pretty well, but the audio signal is not as clean as a direct audio connection from an amplifier.

[Drizzt321]

So I have the https://www.adafruit.com/product/1063 wired up, GND to shield, Vin to the 5v input, Out to T & R. I’m seeing some LED reaction, but not much. The output is, at steady quiet room, 2.5v as would be expected (Vin/2), but it’s not all that reactive, even when there’s music with a steady beat going on. I’ve tried with the sensitivity all the way to the right, and tried changing the Parameter all the way to the right as well.

Thoughts? Ideas? Should I just say screw it and use the SparkFun electret you linked? Or is there any better mics that can be hooked up that don’t cost too too much? Or any code parameters I can modify to make it better?

• This reply was modified 6 years, 4 months ago by Drizzt321.

[Drizzt321]

Hm, appears I can’t do a 2nd edit.

Ok, so…turns out somehow the LED count parameter had gotten changed. No clue, I didn’t do it. So instead I’ve changed it so all 3 60, 120, 180 are 36 LEDs. Now it’s lighting up quite a number of LEDs 🙂

[Michael]

Ok, cool. An electret microphone will never be as good as a direct line connection, but it can work pretty well.

[Drizzt321]

Let’s just say a direct connection isn’t workable. This is batter powered inside of a top hat. So a Mic is the only option, although I’m open to another mic type (MEMS, condenser) if it’ll be that much better. Which for my basic use case probably aren’t. I don’t need perfect fidelity, just something decent.

[Michael]

I tried a MEMS microphone and it did not work any better than an electret. Just FYI.

[Drizzt321]

Thanks, I’ll keep that in mind for the future.

[philsaudio]

In a companion thread I posted pictures of the circuit path I used to put mic audio directly into the A/D pin on the Atmel 328P.

I used a ten cent ebay electret mic and the shown $5 ebay “Max 1498 leveler” board.

If you look closely next to the + output pin you will see where I shorted across the decoupling pin so DC is input to the A/D converter. I tried several modules before settling on the pictured one. The cheepo’s are knock sensors and will not work well. Some of the ones with compressor chips work, but the one shown works best for my projects.

PS: I hope the pictures and links work because if IRRC this forum does not allow edits.

[Michael]

Cool, thanks for sharing!

[Author]

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