Weekend Project: Parabolic MicrophoneShow Video Details ↓ [silence]Kip Kay: Hey. It's Kip Kay from Make Magazine with another weekend project. This camo umbrella hat serves multiple purposes: to keep the sun and the rain off your head and if you're out hunting it will help conceal you. Well today we're going to come up with another use for this umbrella hat, a parabolic mic, on this week's weekend project. [music] … … … … You can find the parabolic mic project in Make volume 14. If you hunt around your dollar stores you can find these umbrella hats. I picked up this cool camo one which fit the project real well. The first step is to remove the head strap that holds it onto your head and I used a pair of snips to just cut away at the plastic pieces that held the head strap in place. Then we need to cut off the very top of the piece that inserts into the umbrella to hold it in place and I used the old dremmel to cut the top off. And you may also find it handy to use a file just to kind of clean that hole up and you should end up with a nice clear hole going right through the umbrella. The dollar store also comes in handy for this paint roller which I picked up for a dollar and it needs to be disassembled because all we want is the handle and the metal shaft so I'll pull apart the expandable pieces of metal and discard those. And then I used a pair of pliers to break the plastic off. And you're just going to end up with the plastic handle and the metal rod which will be our holder for our parabolic mic. Then, using some black gaffers tape, I cut a square off. Now you could use any kind of tape and you want to cut it to the shape of one of the tops of an umbrella pieces and go ahead and apply it to that section. Then take a razor or exacto knife and cut a slit in that plastic, all the way through the umbrella fabric. Insert the paint roller handle and secure it with zip ties both on the outside and then also on the inside to keep our handle in place. This Make weekend project is powered by Radio Shack. Visit Radio Shack invention lab for more projects and exclusive videos and the chance to win Radio Shack prizes. Now the microphone I'm going to use for this project is a clip on lavalier microphone from Radio Shack. First I'm going to record the sounds without the parabolic mic and then we'll install it in the parabolic mic a see the difference. And we're going to be recording that pesky bird that's in our chimney. I'll be recording directly to my MP3 player to capture the audio. [noise] … OK. Now all we have to do is run the wire from our microphone to the slit we made and then attach the microphone about 3 inches up the shaft and use some some zip ties to secure it. Our umbrella parabolic mic is done and built and ready to test out. I've plugged it into my MP3 player and I've got a set of headphones where I can really focus in on the sound of those birds, so let's test it out. [noise] … … … … Well if you were to use a better quality microphone, you'd get a lot better response out of this parabolic mic setup. For the price, you can't beat it so give it a try and we'll see you next time with another weekend project. [music] [music] [music] [music] |