Geek.Farm.Life

Comment by John G

August 21, 2006 @ 8:05 am

Jeana Yeager is the name of the other pilot on Voyager, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burt_Rutan

I thought ethylene gas (C2H4) was used as the ripener for fruit, not CO2.

Organic farming is by far the fastest growing segment of ag-business. I think Misty’s comments regarding the Fair entries is spot on–4H should have segments for heirloom varieties and ought to promote diversity of plants and animals.

I love the new ending!

Other Podcasts I listen to:
Daily Source Code
Hoosier Geeks
Cheap Date
Diggnation
Diffusion Science (2Ser from Oz)
Amateur Traveler
Commonwealth Club Radio Program
Ctrl+Alt+Chicken
Culinary Podcast Network
Distributing the Future
Engines Of Our Ingenuity
From the Hills of Florence
Frommers.com Podcast
GeekBrief.TV
Hak.5
Indiana Week in Review
John and Elizabeth Edwards’ Podcast
Living on Earth: Sound Journalism for the Whole Planet
Lonely Planet Travelcasts
MAKE Magazine
Math grad Podcast
Nature Podcast
New York Times Science Times
NOVA scienceNOW
P.O.V. - Podcasts | PBS
PodAsia Travel & Leisure Program
PodTravels.TV - Tuscany [iPod Travel Video]
Science Friday - Making Science Radioactive
Scientific American
Slacker Astronomy
Stone Pages Archaeo News
Systm (videos)
TEDTalks (video) — [Very Important!!!!]
The Science Show
Tiki Bar TV
Travel with Rick Steves
Universe Today
Wiggly Wigglers
Zee And Zed — [retired]

Comment by Charles of Mostly News

August 21, 2006 @ 7:43 pm

Hey Andrew,
What type of headset mics are you using? I’ve tried to use the Altec Lansing ones with a 802 mixer and couldn’t get them to work. I was told the problem was that they’re stereo and the 802 will only accept mono, don’t know if that’s true or not but sounds good. Can you post a picture of your set up? I like the headset mics and would like to use them with the 802. Maybe I should get a 1002?!? Thanks. Charles

Comment by andrew

August 22, 2006 @ 3:23 pm

Hi Charles,

I assume the Altec Lansing are something like:

http://www.alteclansing.com/product_details.asp?pID=AHS515

Those look way cooler than out $15 radio shack things.

Anyways, no the problem isn’t stereo/mono at all. The UBB1002 won’t help either. I talked about it on barncast 24 a bit. It’ involves getting pretty geeky.

So let’s start with the microphone. It’s an electret microphone capsule, and it’s wired to talk to “sound blaster” computer microphone input. It has 3 wires, signal, gnd and bias (2v-9v). Problem is your mixer has option a) Signal+, Signal-, Gnd. Or option b) Signal+, Gnd, and -40db gain.

Now option a, the balanced XLR jack, has the option of giving you +48v which will blow that little electret into little pieces, which most people consider to be bad. (ok so it’ll smoke the fet and you might not see the little pieces) So how do you wire it up?

This web page is great:

http://www.epanorama.net/circuits/microphone_powering.html

It has some simple diagrams and you can buy the parts from radio shack to make a simple box that provides bias power and the cap needed to interface with the mixer. The problem with the mics I’ve run into is the amount of amplification they need, you start picking up all sorts of hum. They would really like a preamp, see below.

The headphones are pretty easy. Just plug them into a unbalanced output. The control room/monitor output on the 802 works I think.

—

On the DMCEX with Micheal Carrino talks about making your own gear. This really peeked my interest. I did some searching and found a really cool IC that would make an awesome mic preamp, it even has a noise gate and compression. The chip at digikey is $2.50 or a fancy version is ~$5.00. I think I could cook up a a really cool pre-amp with sliders for compression and noise gate, provide bias power for under $10-$15 in parts, all run from a 9v battery. It would be fun to publish the schematic and see what people come up with.

I wonder, if the less tech savy would be interested in buying a pre-fabbed box with everything made and built?

Food for thought. I hope this helped.

Comment by Charles of Mostly News

August 22, 2006 @ 4:30 pm

Wow! Great feedback, thanks! I would love to buy one of them boxes. If you ever build them let me know. Mike and I have been talking for a while about the Altec Lansing headsets and the 802 and, I thought, we were both stumped. Now knowing that a pre-amp may work and I might be able to figure it out.
Mike is one of the reasons I got into podcasting and I’m pretty much a loyal slave, I mean fan of his. He has been responabile for most of the podcasting equipment I have. He talks about something and I buy it. I recently purchased the Aiptek 2K6 digital camera ($90 ebay) and love it. I shot some video of my son at his first day of kindergarten with it. I have some of the Giant Squid mics on my wishlist for next month’s pay check.

BTW, here’s my headsets, though they are not the USB ones and cost about 20 bucks. They’re not as fancy as the ones you posted. :) Charles

http://www.alteclansing.com/product_details.asp?pID=AHS302usb

Comment by andrew

August 22, 2006 @ 7:11 pm

Hey Charles,

You sure don’t _need_ the pre-amp. We’re doing our recording with 2 of these:

http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2036282

My “box” that allows me to use the head set contains a 9v battery, 1 cap, and 1 resistor. It’s really easy to assemble. I’ll post pictures.

Edit: I’ve sampled a couple of the ICs I mentioned from Analog Devices. Looks like they have a limit of 2 on the website. Grumble. I think I’ll put a board together and see how they work. If they’re good I’ll try and sample some and try building out a couple boards to see what others think. (assuming costs don’t rise)

Comment by Safado

August 25, 2006 @ 1:58 am

Hey Guys,
Thanks for putting out the great podcast! It has been fun to hear about all of your experiences. I also listen to the Wiggly Wigglers podcast, and was wondering if you have ever thought about trying out Vermiculture. I am sure you have plenty of stuff to compost there. I have a small worm bin, and have enjoyed it. I figure since you are thinking of giving bees a go, which I was thrilled to hear about, you might want to think about another project for the future. Thanks again for the great podcast!

Comment by andrew

August 26, 2006 @ 8:04 am

Hello Safado!

Your question would be an awesome question for the Farm Phone ya know! :) 206-202-GOAT If you’re not in the US you can call out with skype for free. Some info on your worm bin would be awesome too.

I’m glad you enjoy the show! Thank you very much. :)

-Andrew