• Project Blog 4

    aharris44 • 04/22/2016 at 14:54 • 0 comments

    So I'm nearing the end of my project, and I've talked to my advisor and made a couple more models since then, with one more still on the way. We've decided that the first one was entirely the wrong way to go with it, and have made it more of just a straight up rectangular box, with holes at the top for the antenna and the element, and an opening at the bottom to slip the microphone in. We've started it at about 1.4 cm thick, and then we've but it down to 0.7 cm, but we still think its too thick. So we're going to make one more model thats even thinner. We're going to make it 3/16 of an inch thick, about the same as a sheet of loan. The next step is to make one more model and gear up for presenting. Until then...

    -Alex Harris

  • Blog Post 3

    aharris44 • 04/09/2016 at 13:50 • 0 comments

    This is the first model of the case that I made about a week and a half ago. It wasn't great. It did hi light some very glaring problems that I couldn't see in the program that I had designed it in, that I just couldn't see while I was designing it. For one, there isn't actually any room for the microphone. The bottom half of it is hollowed out, but the top half isn't.

    Another problem is that I also forgot to hollow out space for the element and the antenna. And the last problem is that it isn't nearly thick enough. it protects from water well enough, but if I wanted to, I could crush it with a very small amount of force. So it needs to be much thicker. All in all, it was an ok failure, because it helped me see a couple of things that I got right, and a couple of things that I need to fix for the next model. So this is my first attempt. This was sort of what it was supposed to do. Fail beautifully right?? Anyway. The next step is to meet with my professor/advisor and talk about how we want to improve on this design. until then..

    -Alex Harris

  • Blog Post 2

    aharris44 • 03/01/2016 at 05:22 • 0 comments

    After talking with my professor, we agreed that the hardest part of this project is still going to be finding w way to protect the microphone element and the point of connection to the body pack. What we plan on doing is taking one of our microphones to a 3D printer on campus and making a sort of negative model to use as our guinea pig. We're also going to try a plastic case that opens up somewhere and possibly some foam inside if we make it big enough to be somewhat universal. We're also toying with the idea of whether or not the plastic should be wrapped/covered in something like silicone to make it moisture-resistant. I'm going to try and get a tutor to show me around the space our 3D printer is in, and then we're going to get to work. Hopefully one of the next couple of posts I have is about our first attempt or two with the Mic Box. Until then...

    -Alex Harris

  • Project Blog Post 1

    aharris44 • 02/29/2016 at 17:07 • 0 comments

    So this is my first blog post about the Mic Box I'm trying to create, and I thought I'd use it to talk about some initial thoughts I've had. The first thing is I didn't realize what the industry already had in terms of of protective cases for wireless microphones. There really isn't much. There are cases like the ones you'd hook onto a belt, but they aren't all-encasing, they're made of somewhat-thick fabric, few protect from moisture, and none of them seem to be able to protect the element from getting bent. The main objective of this project is to fix both the waterproof issue and the element issue, but I've also noticed that a lot of the cases I've seen, particularly the ones made by Sennheiser, are model-specific. They're made to fit certain models that they've made, which brings up a new objective for me: create cases that are at least somewhat universal.

    I'm about ready to begin experimenting with some materials, all I need to do is talk with my Professor, who's working with me on this project. We're going to continue discussing materials for the case, and ways that we can protect the microphone element, which is our biggest conundrum right now. We'll be meeting later today, and I'll probably write a post about it afterwards, so I'll talk to all of the people reading this again later today. Until then...

    -Alex Harris