What Microphone For ARC?

Question

My Panasonic Toughbook does not have a built in mic... Before I trawl eBay for one does anyone recommend a good quality one that will work well with ARC?.... I realize I probably need to avoid the cheap ones from China that of course flood eBay auctions...

Thanks R

Rich · Answer

You are right, avoid cheap ones - I've got through about 7 mics so far and yet to find a good one because I've been trying to be cheap. Tony (@toymaker) recommends the revolabs xtag wireless mic https://www.revolabs.com/products_wm/xtag.htm although it is expensive I have no doubts that it is very capable. Alternately, you could use a bluetooth mic, one designed for a hands free headset for a phone. I got a cheap one and it didn't work too well (constantly playing up although the mic was great when it worked).

Dunning-Kruger · Answer

Thanks.... Cheers

Rich · Answer

Added another alternative after I hit reply too soon, possibly a cheaper alternative.

Dunning-Kruger · Answer

Ouch, seriously pricey!....A bit out of my price range so I will have to keep looking....

thetechguru · Answer

I have had good luck with the Motorola Roadster hands free speaker. It has a noise canceling microphone that is the best I have tried, and the speaker is really loud (probably louder than max volume on the Toughbook). Prices are dropping because Motorola just launched a version 2. Alan

Dunning-Kruger · Answer

Ha, ha... No Bluetooth in my CF-19, either.... Thanks Alan

Rich · Answer

Bluetooth dongles are only around $5 Dongle plus Motorola Roadster looks like it could be a cost effective option.

thetechguru · Answer

Is the CF-19 going to be on-board the robot? Decent quality wired microphones should not be hard to find or very expensive. (really good ones are, but less than an equivalent quality wireless). Alan

Dave Schulpius · Answer

I'm having good luck with the USB connected Blue Snowball. It has 3 different settings for sound detection.

Dunning-Kruger · Answer

Thanks guys, got a basic desktop mic (3.5mm jack).... Seems to work well with Windows 7 speech rec and my CF-19... Have to wait to get my EZB to see if it will be good enough for ARC....

Rich · Answer

If it works with Windows speech recognition then it'll be great with ARC. Also, you can test it in ARC before getting the EZ-B. Just play with the SR settings and commands, an EZ-B and servo do not need to be connected for the speech recognition control and scripts to make a servo control move You could make a project with a simple Digital Switch set for D0 Add speech recognition and set up the phrase "turn on" to run the script command
Set(D0, on)

and "turn off" to run the script command
Set(D0, off)

The speech should make the control turn from red to green when turning on and green to red when turning off. Ignore the debug messages though

Dunning-Kruger · Answer

Thanks Rich... I'll have a look....

Dunning-Kruger · Answer

Yep, it works Rich... only 2 months to try it out now...

Dunning-Kruger

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