Kevin Darras
May 12, 2019
Edited: May 12, 2019

Adapting external microphone to Audiomoth

We would like to use the Audiomoth as a recording platform for adapting some ultrasound microphones to it (the Bufo or Myotis from our Sonitor system) to get low-noise recordings.


I would like to know whether in principle, it is possible to de-solder the built-in microphone (or install a switch, simply) to connect another microphone (like the Knowles SPU0410LR5H-QB or Vesper''s VM1000) to the PCB even though those microphones' native sensitivity would be much lower than the built-in microphone's, around -38 dB.


Are the pre-amps on the Audiomoth strong enough to boost the signal to an acceptable level? If it worked, we would be keen to show that the Audiomoth can be expanded with this open-source mic system. We would like to show that in an upcoming new version of our aforementioned article for which we would be glad to get new collaborators involved.

Alex Rogers
May 12, 2019

Hi, The next version of AudioMoth which we are working on now and will hopefully be out early next year will support external microphones. In principle you should be able to modify the PCB to accept any microphone. Alex

Kevin Darras
May 13, 2019

These are excellent news Alex, thanks! Could you disclose more information about what kind of interface (connector, solder pads) would be used?

Hugo
Mar 13

Hi Alex, your post on twitter was really eye-catching. Do you have any news about the next Audiomoth with external microphone ?


https://twitter.com/OpenAcoustics/status/1185968565960220673

Alex Rogers
Mar 16

Hi, It will definitely be later this year. We have the case coming out next, and then an update to the firmware to support triggering. We're ordering the final PCB versions for the external microphone this week and will be testing it over the next couple of months. Alex

Werner Marais
May 4

Hi Alex,


Thanks that is such good news! It also relates to one of my other posts where I asked about a triggering function, so that's also answered now.


Just a quick question, will the external mic be a specific Audiomoth microphone with a specific cable? Or will we have to use other types of microphones (if the Audiomoth only comes with an external mic port)?


Also, I need to monitor at heights of 100 - 120m for wind farms, will the hardware be able to support such long microphone cable extensions for me to have the actual Audiomoth device close to the ground?


As far as I know the higher frequency calls may suffer a bit at such long extensions.

Thank you very much for the help.

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