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Microphones and USB audio sound cards for BirdNET Pi

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DD4WH edited this page Dec 13, 2022 · 11 revisions

WORK IN PROGRESS, not yet ready

this will be filled in the next weeks ;-)

  1. Ready-to-use options
  2. DIY: microphone capsules to use
  3. DIY cable and plug soldering

There are two different standards for 3.5mm audio plugs, TRS and TRRS (see the figure). You should use the plug standard which matches your soundcard. If your soundcard has a TRS input, use the TRS plug. If your soundcard has a TRRS input, use the TRRS input. Most of the soundcards on the market are MONO input, so use the MONO option depicted in the figure for your mic cable connection.

For a low noise system, you have to take good care of three things:

  • use three-wire-cable: cable with shielding and TWO wires inside the shield (for STEREO use four-wire-cable: cable with shielding and THREE wires inside the shield)
  • be sure you use the right 3.5mm plug for your USB audio sound card (TRS or TRRS, see figure below)
  • use a 3.5mm audio plug that you can directly solder wires onto. Do not use ready-made-cables with a presoldered plug (with these cables you will not achieve lowest noise and with these cables you cannot use the connections in the figure below)

Mics DIY BirdNET-Pi

STEREO TRS

This soundcard HERE has a TRS STEREO input, so for this specific soundcard, use the STEREO TRS option. [The specs in the description say "Mono mic input": Nonetheless my sound cards of this type are able to record in Stereo via the TRS plug. I do not know whether the product was changed in the last months . . . !? This STEREO recording was made with the same soundcard via the TRS input: HERE]

A perfect and felxible solution is to use the Rode AI-micro which has the possibility of using two mono TRS inputs or a Stereo TRS input.

DIY Low Cost, Low Noise Stereo Recording

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