Microphone mode not working as expected

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Biqola
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Microphone mode not working as expected

Post by Biqola »

Hi.

I have a brand new 2B with 2.104 firmware and I enjoyed it the last days. But I doubt the microphone mode works as expected. If I set the mode, a constant output will be feelable just beyond around 29%. The strength indicater does hardly move for music or loud talking about 20 cm to the device. If I tap on the case, one bar will appear. If I heavily blow on the power switch or one of the other openings, up to 9 bars might appear for short as strong sound to the internal microphone. Can the sensitivity be increased somehow? Is this a malfunction?


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admin
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Re: Microphone mode not working as expected

Post by admin »

Possibly. have you tried dropping an email to info@e-stim.co.uk?
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Biqola
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Re: Microphone mode not working as expected

Post by Biqola »

I still have to give a reply here. Meanwhile, I got an excellent support and a replacement unit which actually behaves exactly the same way. The microphone's frequency range was more selective than I thought. The input has to be high pitched, then it works. Thanks again for the outstanding support.
dirtyslave0

Re: Microphone mode not working as expected

Post by dirtyslave0 »

I can confirm the same. The microphone mode is like a continuous mode, and the sensitivity of the microphone is very bad. Even with screaming loudly it is just a few bars showing up. The microphone also seams to consider the frequency of the sound more than the level. Is it really designed like this?
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neo80
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Re: Microphone mode not working as expected

Post by neo80 »

Same here. I was used to microphone mode of Erostek ET232, and it had a very good response (8/10)
The 2b has a very bad response (I'd rate it as 2/10), you need really loud noises to get some response, and the adjust knob does almost nothing. Still waiting to get some acceptable results on beta versions...
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Re: Microphone mode not working as expected

Post by SklaveDaniel »

I can confirm the same. The microphone works fine for singing with a high voice and a few centimeters distance. This way I can get it up to 50-70% easy.
So it might be able to react to female screams directly next to it, but not much anything else.
Is there a chance that something will be done about this in the near future?
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Re: Microphone mode not working as expected

Post by SklaveDaniel »

Is there any chance this will be improved in the nearer future with an firmware update?
I've observed the same effect as well, and it basically needs a high freequency continous sound close to the box to pic up anything. Like a female scream or singing voice with a few cm distance.
This renders the mic pretty much useless.
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Re: Microphone mode not working as expected

Post by admin »

We have played with different responses with the microphone, so there is likely to be an upgrade. Have you tried the Beta version?

Si
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Re: Microphone mode not working as expected

Post by birdburdy »

I posted in the developers forum but since people are discussing the mic and audio modes here I will repeat some of it.

The mic modes on the ET units are great, very fast and responsive. One of the reasons for this is that they don't make the feeling of the e-stim dependent on the frequency/volume of what the mic picks up. One "problem" with the 2B mic mode is that it can be tempting to turn the intensity up, because you're trying to get it to respond to soft moans or load breathing, but then a siren goes past outside and you to turn the unit off.

I also noticed the frequency response range of my 2B is very narrow, and blowing/tapping the mic gives the highest reading by far. I played with this using the speakertest program in Linux and found it responds mainly to sound between 50 and 700Hz.
Unofficial Python API for the E-Stim 2B: https://github.com/fredhatt/estim2bapi
Generating sounds in Python: https://github.com/fredhatt/estimsoundsynth
SklaveDaniel
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Re: Microphone mode not working as expected

Post by SklaveDaniel »

admin wrote:We have played with different responses with the microphone, so there is likely to be an upgrade. Have you tried the Beta version?
I have the 2.105 firmware. Is there a more recent beta than that?
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