Mando Mercs Costume Club

Mandalorian Armor => Equipment & Accessories => Electronics => Topic started by: Deepfriedmando27 on Jun 07, 2014, 09:40 PM

Title: Cheap voice amp idea
Post by: Deepfriedmando27 on Jun 07, 2014, 09:40 PM
What if I took a small portable speaker and a mini mic and connected them via a 3.5mm coupler? (twin female ends)

Would this work? If it does its about $5 to make...

edit: and the speaker you were using has an amp inside it...? (I think)
I'm almost clueless about this stuff, but I know you need a mic+amp+speaker combo to make it work
Electronics guru needed
Title: Re: Cheap voice amp idea
Post by: Vraeden on Jun 07, 2014, 10:26 PM
You'll also need a power supply and you will probably also want some kind of volume control.
Title: Re: Cheap voice amp idea
Post by: Deepfriedmando27 on Jun 08, 2014, 12:48 AM
the speaker has a rechargeable lithium battery built-in, but no volume control. i think that the battery could support the whole rig, but I'm not sure. Anyone tried this before?
Title: Re: Cheap voice amp idea
Post by: Conner Adenn on Jun 08, 2014, 04:08 AM
You have a link to the speaker you're thinking about using?
Title: Re: Cheap voice amp idea
Post by: Deepfriedmando27 on Jun 08, 2014, 12:41 PM
It's called the speaker bomb, they're sold new at $10 so I may have exaggerated the cost, but I had one lying around :P you can get mini mic and coupler online for about $3each. There's an Altoids can amp kit that you can get as well, probably cheaper to buy the parts and assemble yourself
Here's a link to the bomb
http://m.ebay.com/itm/140928605182?nav=SEARCH
Title: Re: Cheap voice amp idea
Post by: rafamacamp on Jul 17, 2014, 01:31 AM
What if I took a small portable speaker and a mini mic and connected them via a 3.5mm coupler? (twin female ends)

Would this work? If it does its about $5 to make...

edit: and the speaker you were using has an amp inside it...? (I think)
I'm almost clueless about this stuff, but I know you need a mic+amp+speaker combo to make it work
Electronics guru needed

Hi. I am almost a Mechatronic technician so listen to me :D
When you say speaker, you can see a bunch of stuff. You can or can not have a amplifier inside, so open this damn plastic box and look, if have a circuit board with some heatsink, congratulations you have a amplifier, then you can discover where is the input of it and plug a microphone. But the amplifier need a energy source, and if you are talking about an speaker with a wall plug, this can be hard. Or not.
For shure, will be the amplifier board and a transformer board, or all built in a single board. DON'T CUT THE BOARD.

You will need to look for the voltage of the amplifier, or the output voltage of the transformer, if it's 12V 9V some like this, you're done, take a battery plug on it instead of the transformer and it will work.

Now, if this speaker don't have a amplifier, you can build one with an LM386, it's a integrated circuit board that can operate in 6~9V and have a nice amplification.

Any question PM me  ;) I'm bulding an LM386 amplifier and voice modulator.
Title: Re: Cheap voice amp idea
Post by: Nishi Ja'tejag on Jul 18, 2014, 09:32 PM
Okay, I tried this with a Rocketfish Stereo PC Headset (RF-PH4201 (http://www.bestbuy.com/site/rocketfish-over-the-head-analog-stereo-headset/1637236.p?id=1219058134828)) and two amplified speakers (a Zimri (http://www.zimrispeakers.com/zimri-mini-rechargeable-bluetooth-wireless-black/) and Mini Boom (http://www.amazon.com/Ultimate-Wireless-Bluetooth-Speaker-Speakerphone/dp/B00E9YIFQ4)). But it doesn't work.

Both speakers work with output from an MP3, and the headset mic worked using the voice recorder program on my phone. But plugging the mic into the audio input jack of either speaker gets NO sound. If I plug the mic into my computer, and the computer audio output into one of the speakers, it works, but with a delay. I was hoping to avoid the delay.

What am I doing wrong?
Title: Re: Cheap voice amp idea
Post by: Jorad Werde on Jul 18, 2014, 09:58 PM
Aaronsneary- the issue with your attempted rig is that there is nothing to translate the input from your mic to the speaker, the connections are just slightly different (this is why if you look at earbuds with a mic built in they have 3 bands on the 1/8" connector instead of 2.

However there are speakers that you can buy out there that can take a relatively cheep ear mic input.  One of my teachers (who had some vocal issues) would use a belt mounted speaker with an over the ear mic (like the kind that pop stars used in the early 2000s) when teaching large classes.  The speaker had internal batteries and volume control.  I don't know what it was called or where she got it, but I know it's a thing (I was thinking of reaching out to her and asking about it for my kit)