The 2$ Tactical Hearing Amplifier
 

Cheating a little by calling it a 2$ project, but it really did cost only 2$ (+GST) since the other parts came out of my parts bin.
http://www.killernazirobots.com/s_hearing.jpg
LINK

Time will tell how well it actually works in the field, but it works great in my basement (famous last words...)

Very cool Don. I'll be very interested in an AAR. I'd had this thought previously as well, but I was looking at something like these, made for hunters.

I hope they have a good cutoff... with the pyro we use.

Very neat invention.I'de by that for like...10 times as much.

Very Cool! Do you find you get much background noise when wearing them?.

Haha... Secondary purpose: keep my ears warm.

I've wanted to do something similar, but with a parabolic dish so I could get some directional feedback.

I had an ideal awhile ago. I wanted to integrate a pair of parabolic mics with a digital compass so you could mark bearing to a source of sound. Hook up the digital compass to a laptop which is integrated with a Rhino GPS so you could communicate both listener coordinates and bearing to sound to another similar setup.

It'd be pretty difficult to sneak up at night on two setups able to triangulate to brush noise. Heh heh, a battery of players with higher power AEGs could rain fire in when the sound source moves into range if you work out an elevation range table beforehand.

Any plans of selling these? Please let me know, this is a terrific idea.

Oh nice idea.Very Nice idea MadMax.Don you could easily make some loose cash by making those and selling them for price of material and a few bucks so you benefit.I'de most likely buy them and use them in class cause my hearing sucks..

Super awesome idea anyways.Copyright it before some crazy people steal it.

Guys, you understand that the components he bought only cost $2, but the Peltors he used as the shell are worth A LOT more...

Just googled; the Peltors are in the area of 200 Canadian; BUT, I'm pretty sure this project could be done just using a set of cheapy "Earmuff" headphones.

EDIT: However, there's the issue of feedback; in his version, the michrophones are in an acoustically isolated zone to begin with (the sound blocking ear muffs), which I'm fairly certain a standard everyday headset wouldn't be able to offer. I suppose it's worth a try, I mean, what is there to lose? (Besides possibly your hearing from immense feedback..) :cheers:

Whoa, I had no idea these things existed. I think I'll keep my eyes peeled, I'd love to try them.

Yeah, what he said. I got really creative with the math to call them a 2$ project. (The parts I bought were 2$, I had the rest already)

The Peltors are just passive ear protection. Any other (cheap) hearing protection should work for the project just as easily, but they'll probably be big and yellow or something.

I'll see if I can find anything similar to the Peltors fro cheap.


And DonP, check your PM's please.

OH SNAP! I actually had a pair of those hunters ears things; except mine were advertised as hearing aids :P. They did work very well, but gave off horrible feedback at louder volumes. On low // medium volumes, they worked very well.

I know that he had that stuff before in his scrap bin.I just thought it was like...$30 scrap he had and threw it together with a $2 piece...didn't know it was that much... :hammer:

I didn't hose 200$ Peltors! I hosed like 29$ Peltors (if memory serves).

Hmm, cause googling the exact model name brings up a very different price. Bought used / on sale ? At any rate, it's an interesting concept and I'd love to either buy, or build my own.

I'm assuming you didn't rip apart your fancy Peltors then right Don? Cause I was under the impression you used your nice sound amplifying/cancelling ones as the base for this project... My bad.

You must spell "Peltor Shotgunner" differently than I do. :wink:

I didn't build these into my Peltor Tacticals. They are for use at the range. It's a little hidden but the web page says I used to wear my Peltor tacticals but didn't find them comfortable enough over long game periods, and the automatic sound dampening clamps some sounds I'd rather hear.

So the Tacticals get used at the range, the non-electronic and more comfortable Shotgunners got the bionic treatment.

I found those "Spy Ear" amplifiers at Dollarama (toy section) on the weekend and picked up two of them. Pretty cool, don't like the crackly plastic sound, but aside from that they aren't bad at all. Gonna figure out something different to make out of it (my hearing is above average, and I use my left ear for my headset.)

Good stuff Don, keep em coming!