Acollapsibleandeasytobuilddish

microphone
Currentprojectstate:
finished.
Lastupdate:
20131003
Home
Intro
Calculationand
Construction
TheMicrophone
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I wanted to have a directional microphone for bird and insect sound recordings in the
field. The local electronics shop offers a small plastic dish reflector (diameter of about
30cm) which I purchased. But the first test was more than disappointing. Both gain
(signal to noise ratio) and directionality effect were miserable with this small dish so I
decidedtobuildsomethingmorecapable.Itshouldstillbeeasilytransportable,though.
The larger dish therefore had to be made collapsible in order to fit into a tramper
backpack.Icameupwiththefollowingdesign.
The small
dish is used
as a base to
carry a set
of
two
extension
rings
that
approximate
the parabolic
form
well
enough. The
whole thing
is
held
together by
screws.This
picture
shows the
first
build
which I cut
from
polyacrylic
(Plexiglass)
sheet which
turned out to
be
an
expensive
mistake.
Polyacryl is
too brittle, it
will
break
and splitter
while
cutting, and
it can not be
bent well enough for the purpose without the risk of breaking it. Polyethylene (aka
polycarbonate) will probably work better, and I found polystyrene most comfortable
to cut and handle (2mm PS sheet can actually be cut using scissors). In my
country, there is plenty of this material used (and dumped) as advertisment panels
onconstructionsites.Naturally,withtheextensionsthedishbecomesquitedeep.I
didnotfindthistoimposenegativeeffectsonthefrequencyresponse.
Ifyoudon'thaveabasedishavailabletobuilduponyoucanalsosimplyuseaflat
plateonthebackside.Thiswilllowertheperformancebyonlyasmallfraction.
The extension rings have been cut into pieces of two (inner ring) and three (outer
ring)inordertomakethemtransportable(theassembledouterringismorethan1m

wide).Assemblingitinthewildtakesabout5minutes.

CalculationandConstruction
Iincludeathuroughexplanationofhowtocalculatethedimensionsoftheextensionsas
a PDF file. The calculations involve some fairly simple trigonometry. There's also a
spreadsheet available that does the math for you (even in a more exact way than how
it's done in the PDF). You only type in the basic dimensions and how big you want to
have your extension(s). The spreadsheet should work in LibreOffice or in OpenOffice.
Explanationofthecalculations,PDF
Explanationofthecalculations,OpenDocumentsourcefile
Spreadsheetforthecalculations,OpenDocumentfile

TheMicrophone
Adding to this, I custom built a stereo microphone from arrays of 5 mic capsules in
parallel at each channel. Such an array assembly helps to dramatically raise the S/N
ratio:theaudiosignalsfromthecapsulesaddupbecauseoftheirsynchronicitywhilethe
noisefromtheindividualcapsules(whichisstochastic)tendstocancelout.ThemicsI
used had a sensitivity of 58dB (IIRC), the best I could get at this size and at a
reasonable cost at that time. I estimated that the sensitivity of the whole assembly
(microphonearrayanddish)iscomparabletothatofahumanear.Notbad!
The spacing
between the
two arrays
has
been
made
so
thatawallof
cardboard or
plastic can
be put in
between.
This
wall
wouldactas
thekeyelementinseparatingthechannels,bypracticallycuttingthedishinhalves.
Itshouldfittightlyaroundthemicareaandbethesizeofthewholecrosssectionof
the dish. I never got around to making a more permanent solution than crudely
cuttinginapieceofcardboard(butitworks).

Size matters. Because the mic cartridges are small and because an electret
microphone responds to air pressure waves rather than to motion of the air, they
shouldpracticallybenoobstacleforsoundwavesdowntoawavelengthofdouble
their size. The ones used are 4mm and therefore respond in an omnidirectional
(spherical) manner at up to 42kHz. Field recordings (with Crickets) show that this
particular type works well above 30kHz (I think the datasheet showed linear
responseuntil28kHz,sorryIforgottheexacttype).

Therearealsocartridgesavailablethathavecardioidcaracteristics.Duetotheparabolic
approximationofthedish,Iexpecta"focalspot"ratherthanafocalpoint.Myfeelingtold
me to put the capsules closely together, so to have them all in this area. Peter from
SouthDakotabroughtmetotheideathatarrangingtheminasphericalshape(insteadof
flat) would make them space a little more and block each other even less. Using
cardioids pointing outward from the focal point would also help in separating the stereo
channels.
(tobecontinued...)

CollapsibleparabolicdishmicrophonebyMarkusPetz(Mintaka)is
licensed under a Creative Commons AttributionNonCommercial
ShareAlike 3.0 License. Permissions beyond the scope of this
licensemaybeavailableattheprojectwebsite.