Final Project Update 3 (It's Alive!!!)

Over the course of the past 3 days I've been making some serious headway on my DIY condenser mic project. last update you saw a video of me using the bread boarded prototype, and since then I've been putting my time into condensing that messy circuit into a manageable, presentable circuit board. So, while I won't be demoing the circuit again, I thought I would take a moment to show you all how I actually made it.

1. I sketched the pattern for my leads onto a plate that consists of copper outer layers and a center layer of some kind of composite material.

2. Using a Sharpie brand paint marker, I traced over my pencil lead sketch

3. I then floated the entire board in this agitator filled with ferric chloride, which ate the copper except for in the areas I had coated in paint marker. The result was a near-complete board ready for drilling.

4. I used this drill to drill holes for different components to be soldered onto the leads of the board, then I dipped the board in an instant tinning solution which "tins" the copper leads and protects them for long-term use.

5. After that, I simply soldered all of the components that were used in the original bread-board prototype onto the newly formed circuit board and tested the mic again. And..............

The result speaks for itself. This fully functional mic circuit is now compact and ready to be mounted in the 3D printed casing.

Before:

After: