TICKOPRINT has sophisticated routines for signal detection, signal acquisition and signal processing and therefore can be run basically with the standard head set which came with your ANDROID(TM) device. But for proper and more precise results and to eliminate all environment noise an external body sound detector is necessary. This body sound microphone can easily be assembled with some cheap components available at various suppliers.
You will need:
- A simple and inexpensive piezo buzzer, which also can be used as a body sound microphone, for example like this.
Please take care for a medium voltage model (~9-12V). - A piece of shielded audio cable like this, single or dual core (actually only one core needed)
- A jack to fit into the head set connector of your Android(TM) device, commonly (on majority of the devices) a 4-pole, 3.5mm RCA jack like this, but you should check your own device.
- A soldering iron or a friend with a soldering iron, a plier to cut the cable and some solder.
Solder the shield of the cable to the “GND” pole as shown below, and one core of the cable to the “MIC” pole as shown below. Connect the other end of the cable to the thin cables which are attached to the piezo buzzer. That’s it!
The more sophisticated users can use a microphone pre-amplifier, too. We have achieved perfect results with this type. It easily connects to a piezo buzzer and increases the signal quality dramatically. Please notice that the microphone capsule on the photo which is part of the supply is unnecessary and can be dropped.
We are still working on a cost effective TICKOPRINT mic pre-amp which will be shipped ready-to-use. More to come soon after our design work for this add-on has been finished.