How to make a patch cable to use a professional microphone with a minidisc.

There are many darned good specialised minidisc microphones around, however, there will be times that you just want to be able to connect a standard 3 pin professional microphone. The problem is that the mic input on many semi-pro minidisc units is set up with a 1/8" tip-ring-sleeve minijack, with a small direct current voltage to operate those specialised stereo mics.

We need a patch cord that will connect a one point microphone source to feed both left and right minidisc input channels on, and which will block out the DC voltage

Materials used:
One RadioShark 6' 1/8" Stereo miniplug to 1/8" Stereo miniplug - one plug snipped off
One 22uF electrolytic capacitor, also available from RadioShark
One Neutrix XLR-F connector

Connections:
XLR Pin #1 & #3 to miniplug shield/sleeve wire (the bare one)
XLR Pin #2 to minus cap lead & plus cap lead to left & right (tip & ring or red & white wires) of miniplug

XLR Connector Miniplug Connector

Pin #1-----\
------------------- to miniplug shield or sleeve
Pin #3-----/

Pin #2 ------ (-)22uFcap(+) ===== to miniplug tip & ring

Solder a jumper wire between Pin #1 & #3,
Solder the miniplug uninsulated shield wire to Pin #3
Solder the minus end (-) of the capacitor to Pin #2
Solder the positive end (+) of the capacitor to the two (left & right) insulated wires of the miniplug cable.

Note; The capacitor and all your solder work should fit inside the XLR connector.

[end]