#11 sE Electronics sE X1 rebuild

It's been a good few years since this mic (sE Electronics X1) came into my possession. As many others i have, i bought this one as faulty. The main problem was, it was noisy as hell (think wind-noise, or the sound of blowing straight into a microphone).

Once i had another capsule to test this with (a temporarily removed capsule from a Shure KSM27), i figured i'd hook it up to the X1 to see whether the capsule was the source of the noise. Nope, the noise was still there. After i ruled out the (stock) capsule, i replaced it with a 100pF styroflex capacitor, for minimal hassle (and risk of damaging a capsule) during subsequent testing of the electronics.

#10 A litle K67 (microphone capsule) fun

From among my microphone collection, as a result (or rather, a consequence) of various upgrades and capsule replacements, i kept the stock ones (which were still good), for later experiments or "just in case". Today, that day arrived.

Among a few others, i had a some stock single-sided K67-type large diaphragm condenser capsules out of the several AKG Perception 200's i've collected these last few years. Fortunately, they're actually assembled out of two nearly-identical halves. The front has the gold-sputtered Mylar / PET diaphragm, and the rear one (since they're cardioid-only capsules) is skinned with a plain, non-metallized diaphragm.

#8 Low battery blinking indicator

This thought came out of the LED ring flash li-po mod, since the battery indication programmed into the microcontroller was "calibrated" for 100% being the 6v coming out of four full AA batteries, and (close to) 0% around 3.8-4v. Obviously, since a single lithium cell is only 4.2v when full, the stock battery indicator's out of whack.

Next step - i wanted a blinking indicator. Partially, because a solidly-lit LED would be a constant drain, and partially because a flashing light is more noticeable - think turn-signals on cars, or the emergency lights on police cars & ambulances.

#7 Cheapo ring LED flash / light teardown & li-po mod

I had been thinking about grabbing a LED ring flash for my camera for quite some time, but finally last week, i pulled the trigger on one. Cheapest of the cheap (from what i could find on the British eBay), but still cost me a bit under 30 bucks.

That being said, it's a reasonably well-featured package: four different coloured diffusers (that go onto the front of the LED ring), eight different size adapter rings (for lens/filter threads, and onto which the light clamps on to), and the control unit that mounts into the camera flash "hot-shoe". Also, the LEDs in the light "head" are split into two halves (ie. left and right), for <ahem> creative effect when using the ring flash for macro work.

The thing normally works on 4 AA's, buuuuuut... given some of the previous posts here, you oughtta have half an idea about my feelings regarding disposable power sources... <wink-wink, nudge-nudge>

#5 Another Li-ion Upgrade - Cordless Trimmer

Due to my openly-admitted laziness, a while back i got myself a trimmer - it's way quicker and easier than a full shave, and i rarely need (or want, for that matter) to be totally clean shaven. But that's enough background babbling, on to the nitty-gritty. This one's mainly "what for increasing the chooch factor", as it were - thank you AvE, you crazy canuck.

#1 M-Audio Fast Track (mk1) gain and 18650 Li-Ion mod / upgrade

So i had this old, pre-"facelift" M-Audio Fast Track since 5-6 years ago, which had been lent to a bandmate for the last couple of years. A few weeks ago, i traded him up to a Scarlett 2i2, and i got my Fast Track back.

And then i got thinking - it has the convenient mono/stereo switch on the front (to have both inputs in mono, or input 1 on the left and 2 on the right), a headphone output, doesn't need a specific power supply (it being bus-powered)... 😏