Microphones - What are you using?

[Skibum]

Skibum-

Are you using the ASEL or ASELPRO? How do you interface/control with HS? Did you create your own plugin?

Mark

Hi Mark

I am using the ASEL, which I believe has been superceeded by the ASELPRO. The interface to Homeseer is a free script, not a plug-in. The script is by Jay, and is available for download from my site in the downloads section. In fact I have to credit Jay for showing me the device in the first place.

[pp]

SkiBum Like these. Check them out.

http://www.global-teck.com/english/h...e_wireless.php

Scroll to the Cell phone and Bluetooth Mics sets.

http://www.overnightheadsets.com/index.php/cPath/32

[DanWheeler]

on second though, i think I'll go with wired mic connections. I dont want to worry about the possibility of eavesdroppers.

[Skibum]

Nevermind eavesdroppers... you want to walk around with a THING on your ear all the time?

[pp]

If it is dead on accurate I would keep it in my pocket like a remote, I can also travle to any where in the home.
Just a thought..

[Rupp]

Dan,
Unless you live in an apartment I doubt you'll have many eavesdroppers. These devices may advertise 300ft but you'll be lucky to maintain 75-100ft. Our help desk workers use these and they are constantly complaining about the range.

[DanWheeler]

Well, i got my PA-3 mics today. (4 of them)

The mics seem to work OK as a mic but I'm having a lot of trouble in my TV room which is big, has vaulted ceilings, wood floors and very little furniture.

I've done a few tests recording my voice and it sounds great to me but the computer must be having problems with echo and noise. volume levels are perfect but I'm just not getting good recognition. Not sure what the solution is - I may just be SOL in my TV room. Seems to work OK if within 5' to the mic and talk directly to it in a quiet voice.

I have a lot of experimentation to do - I have a feeling this is going to be a challenge. I'm even having some trouble in my studio which is entirely covered in foam for echo cancellation for music production - not sure what thats all about. These mics are good, but no silver bullet.

Has anyone experimented with using a dish and mic to collect sounds? Or would this just gather and concentrate more noise into the mic?

also - bad news - i fried a mic with a power supply with a negative center pin - i misread the diagram on the wallwart. Anyone know how to fix these things?

[Skibum]

You place them into that round recepticle under the kitchen sink.....and wave goodbye.


I guess this is another example of some of us having great VR, and others having marginal or crap VR.

[Rupp]

Dan,
What speed CPU are you running as your HS server?

[pp]

Dan,
By any chance did you extend the wires and make your own connections to the TV room? Sounds like a bad connection/ Bad wire. Also if you have multiple mics hooked up try eliminating all the others and try just the one.

[DanWheeler]

You place them into that round recepticle under the kitchen sink.....and wave goodbye.

oh come on, there's got to be a way to replace the components on the PCB with a soldering iron.

I have a P4 1.6 that barely gets hit when doing VR (12% CPU at the most)

pp: yes, I did extend the mic using 75ohm coax with BNC connectors / RCA converters on the ends. This extended mic is in the TV room so it's hard to tell if it's the echo'ing room or the cable.

I wouldn't say my VR is crap, but I do have a LOT of experimenting to do. I'll try to keep track of what i've done to get it working (for the benefit of newcomers to the board) and I WILL get it working. It's just going to take a little tweaking. With something so complex, there could be a million things wrong - I need to do detailed troubleshooting to find out what they are and find ways to fix as many as possible.

[Rupp]

Dan,
did you try the mic before the wiring mods?

[DanWheeler]

Dan,
did you try the mic before the wiring mods?

yes, i tried the mic directly into the soundcard. No noticeable improvement. I've tried many different configurations including volume, treble/bass adjustments on the mixer, mic orientation, not using the mixer, speaking louder/softer/slower, etc. I have found that when I am having trouble, slowing my speech and pronouncing every word individually gets better results but not for all phrases.

Is there any program that will dictate what I'm saying so I can get a better idea of what the computer thinks I'm saying? maybe I just have a few trouble words I need to avoid?

[JeffCharger]

Have you worked with the Voice tab of "Sound and Audio Devices" area within Control Panel? I found that it took some trial and error here to get it work with a cheap mike.

[Skibum]

By chance... is anyone that is having VR issues using an onboard AC97 sound card?