• You can now help support WorldwideDX when you shop on Amazon at no additional cost to you! Simply follow this Shop on Amazon link first and a portion of any purchase is sent to WorldwideDX to help with site costs.

Recorder install help

Ocean cruiser

Active Member
May 20, 2019
88
30
28
55
Hey guys, I have this little recorder I’d like to install in one of my radios. It doesn’t have instructions because I found it. Now I hooked it up to a power supply (6v) and connected a small mic element where it says mic and then connected it to a speaker where it says speaker and it worked. So my question is how would I install it into a radio so I could use it as a watergate? I know there’s other toys out there but I like to try and make this work. Let me know. Thanks
 

Attachments

  • AC0DE5C1-0106-4CFC-8921-4F5BDDAF582C.jpeg
    AC0DE5C1-0106-4CFC-8921-4F5BDDAF582C.jpeg
    1.4 MB · Views: 19

Watergate Simple Interface.png

I used to build "Watergates" out of Hallmark card recorders, pocket memo minder recorders like the Memo Mate, or even ISD1000 chips from Radio Shack, sometimes I would retrofit other ISD based noise toys (most were at the time), adding in the recording and AGC components.

On the "Mic" input of the toy, I would add a 100k potentiometer from the high side of the radio volume control to ground, so the volume control of the radio would (should) have no effect on the volume that the recorder receives, independent of each other, center leg of the pot through a DC isolation capacitor, maybe a .01 uF (103) to a .1 uF (104) to the mic input of the board. .022 (223) or .047 (473) work good, too, higher value capacitors increase the lower frequency audio.

On the output side of the toy, use the same setup, in reverse. R1 is a load resistor, so the output of the toy "sees" the proper load of a speaker.

Optional, see if when the Play button of the toy is pushed, the SPK + and - lines on the toy have a nominal voltage, like 1.5v or 3v, this can be used to automatically "key" the PTT on the radio. R2 can be 1k to 4.7k, enough to turn Q1 on, any NPN switching transistor, like a 2SC945, 2N3904 or 2N2222, mind the pinout, 2SC945 has the Collector pin in the middle, instead of one of the side pins like the 2N transistors..
 
View attachment 44470

I used to build "Watergates" out of Hallmark card recorders, pocket memo minder recorders like the Memo Mate, or even ISD1000 chips from Radio Shack, sometimes I would retrofit other ISD based noise toys (most were at the time), adding in the recording and AGC components.

On the "Mic" input of the toy, I would add a 100k potentiometer from the high side of the radio volume control to ground, so the volume control of the radio would (should) have no effect on the volume that the recorder receives, independent of each other, center leg of the pot through a DC isolation capacitor, maybe a .01 uF (103) to a .1 uF (104) to the mic input of the board. .022 (223) or .047 (473) work good, too, higher value capacitors increase the lower frequency audio.

On the output side of the toy, use the same setup, in reverse. R1 is a load resistor, so the output of the toy "sees" the proper load of a speaker.

Optional, see if when the Play button of the toy is pushed, the SPK + and - lines on the toy have a nominal voltage, like 1.5v or 3v, this can be used to automatically "key" the PTT on the radio. R2 can be 1k to 4.7k, enough to turn Q1 on, any NPN switching transistor, like a 2SC945, 2N3904 or 2N2222, mind the pinout, 2SC945 has the Collector pin in the middle, instead of one of the side pins like the 2N transistors..
Thanks NZ8N. Lots of info. I’ll give it a try.
 
Hey guys, I have this little recorder I’d like to install in one of my radios. It doesn’t have instructions because I found it. Now I hooked it up to a power supply (6v) and connected a small mic element where it says mic and then connected it to a speaker where it says speaker and it worked. So my question is how would I install it into a radio so I could use it as a watergate? I know there’s other toys out there but I like to try and make this work. Let me know. Thanks
Ok guys one more question, how can I take the 13.8v in my radio and drop it to a consistent 6v. I’ve tried the 6.2v zenen diode with a 1k 1watt resistor. Which gave me my 6v but when I try to use the recorder, the volts seem to drop almost 4v. Please let me know. Thanks
 
LM7806 or LM76L06 voltage regulator
Hey NZ8N, so I finally got the voltage regulator L7806 and it works when the toy is outside of the radio. Voltage is perfect. But when I install the toy in the radio, all of a sudden it starts to pull more voltage. So, out of the radio the output voltage of the regulator is 6.02 and drops to 5.54 when toy is in use. (No wires hooked up just the power and ground)

When the toy is installed in the radio, the voltage regulator output sits at 6v but when the toy is in use the voltage drops to 4.24. Do you think I should go with the L7808 to compensate for the voltage drop? Lmk and Thanks again
 
I do not know if the toy will react bad at 8v. The toy should not be pulling that much current to pull the regulator down like that.
 
I do not know if the toy will react bad at 8v. The toy should not be pulling that much current to pull the regulator down like that.
That’s what I was thinking. Lol. Ok I’ll try to do it again. Thank you again for the help my friend.
 
  • Like
Reactions: NZ8N
I do not know if the toy will react bad at 8v. The toy should not be pulling that much current to pull the regulator down like that.
Hey NZ8N, just a follow up question. So the recorder is working just fine but the output is a little to much going into my mic. Could I use a resistor to bring it down a little? If so, what value would you recommend? Please let me know. Thanks
 
Did you use the mic input pot like I put in the schematic above? You could add a 47k or 100k in series with the mic input side after the pot, or between the speaker + side of the recorder and C2 before the pot. You want the load resistor left across the + and - of the output of the board.
 
Did you use the mic input pot like I put in the schematic above? You could add a 47k or 100k in series with the mic input side after the pot, or between the speaker + side of the recorder and C2 before the pot. You want the load resistor left across the + and - of the output of the board.
No I did not use the Pot. For some reason with the pot in circuit, play back volume is really low. So I connected it straight to the mic and it works but it’s just a little to much so I’d like to bring it down just a bit.
 

dxChat
Help Users
  • No one is chatting at the moment.
  • dxBot:
    Tucker442 has left the room.
  • @ BJ radionut:
    LIVE 10:00 AM EST :cool:
  • @ Charles Edwards:
    I'm looking for factory settings 1 through 59 for a AT 5555 n2 or AT500 M2 I only wrote down half the values feel like a idiot I need help will be appreciated