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Asked — Edited
Resolved Resolved by Rich!

What Microphone For ARC?

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 EZ builder?.... I realize I probably need to avoid the cheap ones from China that of course flood eBay auctions...

Thanks
R


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United Kingdom
#1  
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 http://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).
United Kingdom
#3  
Added another alternative after I hit reply too soon, possibly a cheaper alternative.
#4  
Ouch, seriously pricey!....A bit out of my price range so I will have to keep looking....
#5  
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
#6  
Ha, ha... No Bluetooth in my CF-19, either.... Thanks Alan
United Kingdom
#7  
Bluetooth dongles are only around $5:)

Dongle plus Motorola Roadster looks like it could be a cost effective option.
#8  
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
#9  
I'm having good luck with the USB connected Blue Snowball. It has 3 different settings for sound detection.
#10  
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....
United Kingdom
#11  
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

Code:

Set(D0, on)

and "turn off" to run the script command

Code:

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:)
#13  
Yep, it works Rich... only 2 months to try it out now...:)
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