mic with different size pins?

darklow

I bought a rode M3 condensor mic from thomann a week or 2 ago, but only tried it out today. When i plugged it into my edirol UA-25-ex, nothing happened and the led on the mic didnt come on, no matter what setting the switch was on. I made sure every connection was right and my software had the right input and output selected, but still no light or sound. Phantom power was switched on on the edirol 2.

I looked at the pins and saw that they were all different lengths, and thought it was strange but then im no mic expert, any suggestions, should the pins be all the same length or did i get a lemon?

eoin5

Sounds like the pins might have dislodged and pushed back up into the mic, are they loose?

madtheory

The length of the pins should not be noticeably different. Phone Thomann (don't email, that takes too long) and arrange to have the mic replaced. They're very good at that sort of thing.

kfoltman

darklow wrote: »

I bought a rode M3 condensor mic from thomann a week or 2 ago, but only tried it out today. When i plugged it into my edirol UA-25-ex, nothing happened and the led on the mic didnt come on, no matter what setting the switch was on.

The led on that mic isn't supposed to come on! It's a battery low indicator or something like that. It should still work.

You can try it with a 9V battery instead of phantom power, too.

What are you planning to use it for?

I've just checked mine, and one pin (the leftmost one, when the middle pin is oriented downwards) is longer than the two other ones. Can't think why, maybe it's to ensure that ground pin is connected first? (just a guess, may be totally wrong)

PaulBrewer

darklow wrote: »

I bought a rode M3 condensor mic from thomann a week or 2 ago, but only tried it out today. When i plugged it into my edirol UA-25-ex, nothing happened and the led on the mic didnt come on, no matter what setting the switch was on. I made sure every connection was right and my software had the right input and output selected, but still no light or sound. Phantom power was switched on on the edirol 2.

I looked at the pins and saw that they were all different lengths, and thought it was strange but then im no mic expert, any suggestions, should the pins be all the same length or did i get a lemon?

Contact -

http://www.sourcedistribution.co.uk/

who are the 'local' support for Rode.

Remember too, if you open the mic you've nulled your guarantee.

kfoltman

PaulBrewer wrote: »

Contact -

http://www.sourcedistribution.co.uk/

who are the 'local' support for Rode.

Remember too, if you open the mic you've nulled your guarantee.

Well, M3 can be sort-of-opened (well, unscrewed?) to insert a battery or set the pad switch (or maybe high cut? don't remember) - I don't think that nulls a guarantee! (-:

PaulBrewer

kfoltman wrote: »

Well, M3 can be sort-of-opened (well, unscrewed?) to insert a battery or set the pad switch (or maybe high cut? don't remember) - I don't think that nulls a guarantee! (-:

kfoltman, no one likes a smartarze , you know what I mean.

I mention it because someone inexperienced may attempt to 'fix' something unaware opening the unit with remove their guarantee protection against faulty build.

kfoltman

PaulBrewer wrote: »

I mention it because someone inexperienced may attempt to 'fix' something unaware opening the unit with remove their guarantee protection against faulty build.

True, true.

Still, I think it's just not broken in first place - my wife's M3 has both "flaws" that darklow is complaining about, yet it's not faulty (but we still don't like it! :-)).

godfrey

pin (socket if you want to be pedantic) 1 on a female XLR connector does indeed connect first, but all the pins on the male should be the same length.

g

madtheory

kfoltman wrote: »

I've just checked mine, and one pin (the leftmost one, when the middle pin is oriented downwards) is longer than the two other ones.

He said all the pins are different lengths. That's not right (if it's true).

madtheory

godfrey wrote: »

pin (socket if you want to be pedantic)

Hole?

kfoltman

madtheory wrote: »

He said all the pins are different lengths. That's not right (if it's true).

If. The longer pin is also different - it has a small circular golden "base", where the "bases" of the remaining ones are larger and white. Must be a ground pin, not a manufacturing defect.

By the way - either our XLR cable is seriously lousy, or the connector is. It very easy to cause really loud "crackles" by just moving the XLR plug slightly. Better don't use it as a hand-held mic (well, it's a condenser, duh!).

(yes, I know that there are portable condensers like Shure SM86, but they don't seem to be very popular)

darklow

cheers for replies guys, the mic actually works fine when i have a battery in it, the led is supposed to flash when you turn it on first to make sure it works, but when i turn phantom power on in my edirol interface, no joy.

Is there something im not doing right when using fantom power? the pins might be ok but i might get in touch with source distribution anyway, cheers paul.

Opening something usually does null a guarantee but hopefully wont in this case because the mic has to be unscrewed by the user to get the battery in.


thanks again!

kfoltman

darklow wrote: »

Is there something im not doing right when using fantom power?

Do you have a multimeter?

Try unplugging the cable from the microphone and measuring the voltage on the mic end of the cable. If the voltage between the signal pins (actually holes ) and the ground pin is 24V or higher (should be 48V, but who knows?), then the cable is fine and the mic is broken. Otherwise, either your mic cable or your audio interface may be to blame.

In that situation, you can try the same method on the interface's socket instead of cable's socket.

eoin5

darklow wrote: »

Is there something im not doing right when using fantom power?

Are you using an xlr to xlr lead or is there a jack involved?

darklow

Hey Eoin, I'm using an xlr to jack lead into an edirol ua-25 ex. At least it works with a battery and i probably wont be using it live but still prefer not to have to rely on batteries.

kfoltman

darklow wrote: »

Hey Eoin, I'm using an xlr to jack lead

There's your problem. Eoin is right - most likely there's no phantom power on the jack socket (it's a line level, not mic level input, it's not meant to power microphones or to provide a decent amount of gain).

You should also get more gain if you connect the M3 using the proper XLR-XLR cable. They cost like 15€ or less in a local music shop, so no good reason not to get one.

eoin5

Yea I had the same issue when I started off with a condensor, they only work xlr to xlr.

darklow

ah i seeeeeee, also on second examination, only 1 pin is longer than the rest, its not the middle one tho so it confused me, (easily done)

cheers lads!