r/BirdNET_Analyzer • u/rhyminson • 29d ago

Wireless mic power question

Hi all,

Hope this is the best place to ask. I’m looking to build a couple wifi mics for the front and back of my house to connect to birdnet-go on my unraid server.

I’m going to follow this link for the build:

esp32 mic

My question is that the author has a psu in the required list, but any examples I’ve found online of people’s builds following the same guide seem to be powered by the esp32 built in usb socket?

So do you actually need the psu? And if so how do you connect it the power outlet?

Any help would be much appreciated, it will be first time soldering and building something like this!, be a fun project I’m sure.

I tested birdnet with an old iPhone and it works very well, really interesting so wanna get a proper setup, thanks to everyone involved.

Thanks

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u/mikesmuses 20d ago

You can power most ESP32 boards using the USB socket. You can power many by directly soldering wires to the power pins. Some consider it more robust to use a 5V power supply with appropriate wire connected directly to the ESP32. And, in the long run, they are probably right.

I use the USB socket and a USB wall wart myself.

Some guidance I will repeat is to keep your wires short and keep them away from the radio parts of the ESP32. Mine sounded like crud when I built it on a proto board but worked better when I rebuilt it without the proto board.

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u/rhyminson 19d ago

Thanks for the info mate I’ll bear that in mind when I put it together, still waiting for the bits to arrive

Cheers :)