pick-ups melt in heatwave!

[dave burraston]

well this ultra hot heatwave we had, followed by very strong winds has given us a good idea just how long a set of our piezo pick-ups will last. just about 10 months! which is pretty good going, as we were expecting to renew them after 6 months. i've uploaded some photo's i took yesterday showing just how much the weather has taken its toll. they are in an album on my page. i was quite surprised just how much they had been stressed by the heat, well we did get up to 45c and the heatwave lasted nearly 2 weeks. the piezo elements themselves actually cracked and fell apart! as u can see from the ground the grass is now a scorched brown and we are right into bushfire season now (which ends officially on march31st). also we have had a bit of damage done by the local wildlife, most likely by kangaroo's, which resulted in some of the shielded audio cables being sheared off as well.

so the next stage for us here will be to wait until the heatwave is fully finished and then we can put another set of pick-ups on the wires. of course we can still record using some of the portable ones i cobbled together last year out of guitar pickups and old bits of transformers (thanks critter!! + the ones critter made as well). i'll up load some pictures of these soon too.

cheers
d

[jody allen]

Hi Dave,

Just picked this up now. Thanks a lot for taking the time to respond, much appreciated.

Jody.

[dave burraston]

we did a pickup workshop last year during an open day. i posted up some info which i'll repost here ->

the piezo pickups we got are from www.rsaustralia.com. ours came from alan, who's bought them from rs since the 80's. rs components are a global firm, so u should be able to obtain them in most countries very easily.

the item part is 285-784 and come in packs of 5 for $5 ->

http://australia.rs-online.com/web/search/searchBrowseAction.html?method=searchProducts&searchTerm=285-784&x=0&y=0

the company that sell them to rs components are called low power radio solutions (lprs). lprs seem to buy them from fuji ceramics corp, see the data sheet available here -> http://www.lprs.co.uk/product_info.php?cPath=39&products_id=127

also note that lprs have an australian subsidiary -> www.lprs.com.au

fuji ceramics have a cool range of sensors + info, hopefully we will be trying out some of their others in the future -->
http://www.fujicera.co.jp/index_e.html

this was the hand out from the pick up workshop, plus there are quite a few pictures in my photos of attaching the pickups ->

PIEZO PICKUPS :

PIEZOELECTRIC BIMORPH ELEMENT CONVERTS MECHANICAL
VIBRATION INTO ELECTRIC SIGNAL (RS PART NUM 285-784) @ 5$

ATTACHED TO WIRE BY DOUBLE SIDED TAPE

SOLDER CONNECTIONS ARE ENCASED IN WATERPROOF SEALANT
(e.g. SELLEYS ALL CLEAR MULTIPURPOSE CO-POLYMER SEALANT.
USED FOR SEALING BATHROOMS / ROOFS ETC

PIEZO PICKUP TIP IS GLUED TO THE WIRE. WE USE SELLEYS KWIK
GRIP CONTACT ADHESIVE

OUR PIEZO PICKUPS HAVE BEEN RUNNING SINCE APRIL 2008

BEST POSITIONED AWAY FROM THE POLES. CHOOSE LOCATION
CAREFULLY. WE AIM FOR ABOUT +/- 45 DEGREES FROM VERTICAL

OFTEN REQUIRE THE WIRE TO BE EARTHED (& SOMETIMES THIS
EARTH NEEDS CONNECTING TO RECORDING DEVICES EARTH). WE
EARTH CENTRALLY BETWEEN THE PICKUPS

GUITAR PICKUPS :

VERY QUICK & SIMPLE METHOD, CAN BE FIXED OR MOVEABLE. WE
TRIED THIS FOR THE FIRST TIME THIS RESIDENCY

EASILY OBTAINABLE. OURS ARE FROM A CHEAP OLD ELECTRIC
GUITAR

PREAMPS :

WE USE FISHMAN POWERJACK MINIATURE ENDPIN PREAMP.

RUNS OFF STANDARD 9 VOLT BATTERY.

ULTRA LOW POWER AND HAS A BATTERY LIFE OF 12,000 HOURS!


cheers
Dave

[jody allen]

Interesting that you get such excellent results from cheap components.

I would love to learn more about the technical set up. -The recording process and your hardware, how you construct your mics and how they are placed/optimised on and around the wires etc.

Is this something that is documented anywhere? -I think your findings would be a priceless resource for other people interested in similar fields of work. -No pun intended!

Jody.

[dave burraston]

we use these from RS Components, they are v. cheap, which is why we use them, that war we dont worry about them getting trashed :)

PIEZOELECTRIC BIMORPH ELEMENT (RS PART NUM 285-784) @ $5AUS

[stephen s]

damage from a heat wave AND kangaroos? sounds like you are falling out of favor with some higher power ;)

i'm quite curious, what specific piezos did you select for this project?