Recently my microphone (indispensable for making Skype calls) started to annoy people I phoned with crackling noises, so today I pulled it apart to see why:
 |
| Who the fuck wired this up? Godzilla? |
Here's your problem! Short-circuits lead to no-good sound quality. So I desoldered the electret microphone, hunted down a bit of shrink-tubing and then started to resolder it. Word of advice: Think before you start soldering, or else you'll find that you forgot to thread on a crucial piece, and have to start over again. Not that this happened to me, obviously.
 |
| Always store some isopropanol right next to hot soldering irons. Makes your life more interesting. |
I used a C-clamp as a temporary third hand, because some #$%@#^! colleague had stolen mine.
 |
| Hot soldering action |
If you don't have a hot air blower, use the soldering iron to shrink the shrink-tubing. It'll stink a bit, but it works just fine.
 |
| Shrinky-dink |
Here is the finished piece. put some shrink-tubing over the lower part of the mic to stabilise the whole thing a bit. That's how it should have been done in the first place, goddamit. That'll teach me to buy cheap microphones...
 |
| Good as new |
It amazes me the caliber of work some people perform. The original looked terrible. Smart to use shrink tubing.
ReplyDeleteI have a hard time finding mic that works properly without paying an awful lot. I wish I knew how to do that sort of thing.
ReplyDelete@Stephanie: Oh, I use shrink-tubing for everything, especially since I have a near-unlimited supply at the university, ahem. Not that I'd use that for private projects!
ReplyDelete@Marilynne: Just buy a cheapish soldering iron and have at it! If worst comes to worst, you can always use it to burn decorative patterns into wood...
Great reaad
ReplyDelete