Bat detector

[josh911]

Thank you Edwin for the quick answer, i was only not shure if the TDA 2030 works with 5 Volt.

regards

Jürgen

[JimC]

Hi,

I could use some advice on building the detector with Edwin's excellent PCB. What difference would it make in practice if I mounted the audio board and teensy with pin headers and sockets on the reverse of the PCB rather than using the resistors? I understand I would expect more noise but would the unit be unusable for casual listening and recording?

I ask because I just put the whole project together and it worked briefly. But then I shorted out a pin on the teensy/audio assembly with the SD Card socket on the display(dumb dumb dumb). I have taken off the teensy and audio board, I think the problem is the audio board but not 100% sure. I will replace the audio board but dont want to end up having to take it apart again.

Many thanks for any guidance

Jim

[pe1pwf]

Hi Jim,

Sorry to hear you damaged something.
What is still working, and what is not working right now?


There is a small fuse on the teensy, so if that blew you might be able to fix it.

You can uses pinheaders, the resistors are just to keep the noise out. If you turn up het gain the display will start scroling so you loose a bit of sensitivity and recordings do not look as good as with the resistors but it will still work with header pins. Oh, and the whole package will be much thicker of course. I know Corbee also built one this way so the Teensy could be pulled of the mainboard.


Edwin

[CorBee]

Hi Jim

This shows the way I have mounted one of mine with normal headers instead of resistors.

regards
Cor

[JimC]

Hello Edwin, thank you for getting back to me and so quickly.

The teensy seems to be OK as far as I can determine, no way to test all the pins though without the circuit working. I concluded it was probably the audio board but I cant be sure.

Thank you for the advice, I will try with pin headers this time.... very carefully. I am very much looking forward to getting this going, its an excellent project. Even my wife is interested which is a first for my tinkering with electronics.

Jim

[JimC]

Hello Cor,
that is very neat. I hope the noise levels are reasonable. I plan something very similar but am trying to put use sockets so I can remove either board it goes pear shaped again. I found some extra long headers which should allow that. I will post a photo if it works.

Jim

[pe1pwf]

I would not expect the audioboard to get into trouble when you make a short on the teensy board.

Did you lose microphone audio, or headphone (playback) or both?
If the teensy does not "talk" to the audioboard the problem could still be in the teensy.

Just check the voltages on the Teensy, audioboard and mainboard before you rip it apart, or did you already disassemble the detector.

Edwin

[JimC]

Hi Edwin,

Yes, I took it apart. The 3.2 volts on the main board was going straight to ground. So it was dead with board power. As I say, the teensy powered up via USB and definitely at least partly working.

As it happens I was using a current limited power supply set at 100ma. In hindsight perhaps I should have turned the current limiter up to 5A and watched to where the smoke came out before pulling it apart. Hey ho, these things happen.

Jim