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Re: hydrophone construction

Subject: Re: hydrophone construction
From: "picnet2" picnet2
Date: Tue Jun 2, 2009 2:59 am ((PDT))
Its been a while since I tinkered with Hydrophones, but last year I was quite 
busy and documented most of the work via my blog:-

http://urlme.net/blog 

There you will find a few different hydrophone examples:

Including the Construction Guides 

- http://www.urlme.net/blog/?page_id=435
and 2nd part - http://www.urlme.net/blog/?page_id=456

This, http://www.urlme.net/blog/?p=380 Snows the various DIY hydrophones ive 
made.

An electret mic covered with a thin layer of silicone will work underwater.

Polymer electret hydrophones:-
http://www.urlme.net/blog/?p=478

PVDF: http://www.urlme.net/blog/?p=498

My best advise would be to buy one from Aquarian Audio. 

BR,
Mike.
 

--- In  "jasonpudd" <> wrote:
>
> Patrick,
> 
> From a practical perspective only, I am not the best person to ask 
> technically about sound engineering but maybe someone else is in the group.  
> If you used an air filled enclosure like this where I am from (British 
> Columbia) you would have considerable build-up of condensation.  This is 
> caused by the colder temperature of the water in relation to the ambient 
> above water.  You may develop some problems with the unit due to this.  If 
> you had a small leak, even a drop, and this went un-noticed even for a short 
> time, this would cause considerable corrosion from the salt water.  Up here 
> we pack our underwater stobe connections with silicon to stop this from 
> happening and shorting our the contacts and causing corrosion.  This works 
> really well.  The same problem happens in other climates with cold water 
> temperatures.
> 
> Jason
> 
> --- In  ". m u r m e r ." <murmer@> wrote:
> >
> > and while i'm out of lurk mode...
> > 
> > i posted this question to the phonography list, but got no response, so 
> > i thought i'd try here.  any thoughts about this?
> > 
> > i've been fiddling with building a simple hydrophone for awhile now.
> > i'd made several attempts with hollow cavities filled with vaseline,
> > poster tack, oil, or nothing.  i'd read that a hydrophone ought to be
> > filled with oil, something about it having a similar density to water
> > and therefore letting the soundwaves travel through the cavity to the
> > piezo inside.  working with oil is messy, however, and it's very
> > difficult to reliably seal the cavity without any air bubbles inside.  i
> > managed one though, but i also had an identical one which i'd sealed
> > with an empty cavity.  i compared them, and both work great, and sound
> > remarkably similar, if not identical.  so what i wonder is: why do i
> > think the cavity needs to be full of oil?  what does that provide that
> > my empty one does not have?  anyone have any insight?
> > 
> > best,
> > patrick
> > 
> > -- 
> > 
> > |||  www.murmerings.com |||
> >
>








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