I have a microphone with a XLR output and a XLR to PL cable. I don't get from it any signal on my PC. Can I test with a DMM the microphone and the cable in order to locate the problem?
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\$\begingroup\$ what sort of microphone is it? \$\endgroup\$ – Jasen Oct 12 '18 at 9:14
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\$\begingroup\$ @Jasen It's a Pyle PDMIC58 \$\endgroup\$ – OMGsh Oct 13 '18 at 8:57
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it's a moving coil dynamic. microphone so a resistance mesurement between the signal pins (pins 2 and 3) should show a few hundered ohms. the microphone may emit a clicking sound during the measurement this is normal.
measurement from pin 1 should show no connection to the other pins.
the cable on the on the other hand should be taking a few miliamperes from the microphone socket, (you'll need to make up a an adaptor so you can measure the current going into the microphone cable also measure the voltage on the plug it shopuld be about 1 to 4 volts.
the other test is to put a signal on the XLR input end of the cable, it only need to be a few millivolts, you could use bare loudspeaker driver and shout into it - you should get some audio outof the cable - so run some software tha graphs what it hears on the microphone socket.
As @PeterBennet prompts me. the microphone cable could be just a plain cable with no in-built circuitry. if that's the case it's not going to work with a direct connection to the PC.
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\$\begingroup\$ The microphone or cable SHOULD NOT draw any current from the microphone socket. It does not use phantom power. \$\endgroup\$ – Peter Bennett Oct 13 '18 at 3:56
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\$\begingroup\$ @PeterBennett The phantom power from a MIC socket will often be present with a dynamic microphone even if it is not needed unless a decoupling capacitor is present or a smart MIC socket switches off power when loaded more than a FET microphone would draw. \$\endgroup\$ – KalleMP Oct 13 '18 at 6:36
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\$\begingroup\$ @PeterBennett I'm expecting a pre-amp run from the PC's microphone socket bias power. is that's not part of the cable it's not going to work with a PC, \$\endgroup\$ – Jasen Oct 13 '18 at 9:07
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\$\begingroup\$ @Jasen I tested the mic as you described and it's Ok. I didn't understand the last remark (the in-built circuitry) but I saw people claim that it worked on their PC. As for testing the cable - do you mean shouting into a speaker and connecting it's cables to - to which pins exactly? \$\endgroup\$ – OMGsh Oct 13 '18 at 12:53
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