Another cheap voice amp

[johnnymac]

Here are a couple pics of the unit taken apart.

 

It's nice that both the microphone and speaker have a plugaking the wiring much simpler.

Here's a pic of the main chip in the "Bell Curve" of my TE2.

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Edited March 24, 2022 by gmrhodes13
link removed no longer working

[TK8776 jgarrettg]

Here's mine, I cut off the battery contact portion of the circuit board and soldered a 9V clip on connector. It made it a little more compact. Shortened the mic cable and replaced the single speaker with a couple of Hovi sized speakers. I shortened a couple of film canisters with a hole cut in the bottom to add a little air space behind the speakers and insulate them from the mic. Works great! With full volume I have no feedback.

 

Forgive the inside of the helmet. It's a work in progress.

 

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Edited March 24, 2022 by gmrhodes13
link removed no longer working

[R2Dan[TK]]

VERY cool!

[johnnymac]

Here's mine, I cut off the battery contact portion of the circuit board and soldered a 9V clip on connector. It made it a little more compact. Shortened the mic cable and replaced the single speaker with a couple of Hovi sized speakers. I shortened a couple of film canisters with a hole cut in the bottom to add a little air space behind the speakers and insulate them from the mic. Works great! With full volume I have no feedback.

 

Forgive the inside of the helmet. It's a work in progress.

 

 

 

Nice idea cutting off the battery clips. Can you show us where you soldered the wires to? Thanks!

[ArtTrooper[TK]]

I've just started on an mrce myself. Which hovi speakers did you use, and pics of connections would be awesome.

[TK8776 jgarrettg]

that might have been a good angle to shoot.

 

 

The large area is the negative. I scraped off the emulsion with an exacto to clear a spot to solder. The tiny trace is the far left peg of the positive terminal. Looks like I'm going to have to clean up those connections. I don't think their gonna last. Last time I let my monkey use the soldering iron.

[johnnymac]

that might have been a good angle to shoot.

 

 

The large area is the negative. I scraped off the emulsion with an exacto to clear a spot to solder. The tiny trace is the far left peg of the positive terminal. Looks like I'm going to have to clean up those connections. I don't think their gonna last. Last time I let my monkey use the soldering iron.

 

Thanks for the pics!

 

I installed mine today in my TE2. Sounds great with Stomper's Hovis w/ Speakers and louder too. I would recommend this unit over the Walmart Voice Changer. It would be even better if the circuit board was a bit smaller, but for 9 dollars, it's a fantastic unit!!!!

[TK-743[501st]]

Did you solder the wires for the battery to the back side of the board where the battery clips were??

[johnnymac]

Did you solder the wires for the battery to the back side of the board where the battery clips were??

 

I didn't bother cutting the battery clip off. I just soldered the 9v battery clip from radio shack directly to the old contacts and then put some tape over it. My soldering skills aren't the best and I didn't want to weaken it. I figured that if I soldered the battery wires directly to the board that there was a good chance that they would eventually come off. Here's a pic of my setup. It's hard to see because of the flash, but I just put a small bead of glue from a glue gun along the top of the board to secure it in the helmet.

 

[TK8776 jgarrettg]

Did you solder the wires for the battery to the back side of the board where the battery clips were??

 

That's what I did. I soldered to one positive battery terminal on the back side of the board and and then the negative directly to the copper on the board. I think I'm going to put a drop of hot glue on there to keep the wires from breaking off.

[Laspector[TK]]

In reference to the part about cutting down the film cannister and adding them, the plastic will shield the speakers from the mic to eliminate feedback? I have a bad feedback problem with my Skullworx. Just wondering if this would work on it.

[johnnymac]

In reference to the part about cutting down the film cannister and adding them, the plastic will shield the speakers from the mic to eliminate feedback? I have a bad feedback problem with my Skullworx. Just wondering if this would work on it.

 

The feedback is usually caused by the microphone picking up the sound from the speakers -creating an infinite loop which causes the unpleasant high pitched feedback problem. Anything that you can do to insulate the microphone from picking up the speakers is an improvement.

 

I've had the most success with simply microphone placement/adjusting. I have placed the mic really close to my mouth. (1 or 2 cms). If feedback ever happens, you simply touch your lip to the mic and it stops. This also keeps the mic from picking up the output from the speakers since it's not too close to the frown holes.

[Hyper[TK]]

Just got mine and I love it, so I ordered another .

Now I have to figure out what way I'll go with the mike setup

[psychotropic]

thats so awesome i might look into this

[garth]

nice find thanks heaps, and thanks for the tutes, ordered two as im gettin them shipped 'down under' and was only a couple of dollars more for the shipping

[tk0471]

Yep, I got mine last week, glad to hear this works great with the Hovi-speakers!

 

I'm actually pretty close to having my MRCE done, having moved my fan system from my FX bucket to the MRCE last night, and hardhat suspension is in place using Velcro (thanks, Craig!). I am going to tear apart the SmallTalk tonight, just wondering if I want to find some kind of kit box to keep it in, as to protect it from the elements.

[tk0471]

OK, I'm lookin all over the place here, need help! What is the best way to wire up the Hovi-Mix speakers, do I take one black and one read from each, and connect right to the two wires on the uniit? Or do I run these in a series (like, run the red wire from the unit, to a red wire on one Hovi-Mix, and then wire the black wire over to the red wire on the other Hovi-Mix, and then the other black wire back over to the green wire on the unit?).

 

Thanks!

 

ps, just been told to do these in parallel! I think I'll be OK!

[garth]

any idea if i can wire an output from a diff voice changer the the mic input instead of the mic so it would be just an amplifier

i am getting a plecterlabs voice core and am hoping to use 1 of these as an extra amplified speaker (instead of the little 1 it comes with) under the chest plate most likely and run the hovi's off the voice core's inbuilt amp output

 

voice core link

 

thanks in advance

[SkyGlider]

I just purchased one of these to try out. I have a TI and TX and wanted to try it out in both. Any advice on how to hide the wire if I were to use this unit without modification? I can put the amp unit easily on the inside of the TI chest armor, but wouldn't know a good spot to try it on the TX. Any advice on this would be great, thanks.

[RocketFinch[TK]]

Just got mine. It works great.

I was working on wiring up some mic options and ended up destroying the "quick board connector" for the mic. Checked at Radio shack for it. They didn't have it. Really don't want to solder the mic to the board. Anyone know of a place to get a replacement part?

Thanks in advance

 

Arrow in the picture points to what I am taking about.

[garth]

try an old computer looks similar to ones that connect to the motherboard

[gjw]

Is there a Fry's Electronics near you?

They should have them.

Looks like a connector for a cordless phone battery and those are sold all over the place... Target, WalMart....

You could cannabalize one of them.

[RocketFinch[TK]]

Thanks for all the advice. I cannibalized an old computer connection that worked. It works great now. I have it set up to go behind my chest armor. With the mic shielded I can turn it almost all the way up without feedback.

[synaptyx]

What did you shield your mic with? My ROM/FX is giving me horrendous feedback at the moment.

[RocketFinch[TK]]

I used a big foam wind screen that I had from another mic lying around. Put it over the mic and taped it closed. With the foam in place the mic sits right on my lips. I only get feedback if I turn the amp way up. I hope that helps.