Phantom Power not working. Please help!

H

Hakulakhe

New member
I recently bought a BM800 microphone, V8 sound card and a Phantom Power Supply. The mic and sound card works fine but when I connect the phantom power into this setup the mic stops working. The connections are fine and I have tested them.
The mic always works when I shut down the phantom power and the power is leaving the power supply. But stops working after the phantom power shuts down completely.
I have already tried replacing the phantom power supply with a new one but the same thing happens.
 
I tried to read about your mic. It seems that it pairs with your V8 sound card (sold together) but does not require a separate phantom power supply.

Does it work fine just with the V8? Perhaps the V8 supplies power to the mic....but it's not clear.

Mick
 
First thing is that I'd bet the issue here is using this interface - because it's not remotely a serious recording product. The BM800 is a very strange mic. It has the ability to run off phantom power, via the usual XLR connector but also 5V power - like camcorders, so called hot power that just adds the 5V to the unbalanced signal connector.

The absence of XLR connectors suggests the V8 is an unbalanced device and the condenser mic socket will have the 5v powering voltage. Your phantom power supply may well simply not be needed. it's adding the 48V across XLR pins 2 and 3 but the unbalanced output of the F8 with the adaptor lead I assume you have to go from 3.5mm 4 (or 3) circuit will be shorting 2 or 3 to ground as it's unbalanced. If your phantom unit has 3 pin XLR in and out, then some designs have a direct link between in and out, and others use blocking capacitors to remove DC.

What I would try is to connect the F8 direct to the mic. I bet this will work. A device that takes a few seconds to stop working when switched off suggests capacitors are discharging. You have a short probably - where the random cables and XLR power supply are connecting things.

Try the mic direct to the F8 - I bet it works. The F8 has a very different design to anything we usually deal with - and is dirt cheap. One of my suppliers has them - cost price £12 including shipping. Don;t expect too much. But - I don't think it's faulty - just incompatible with your phantom power unit's wiring.
 
Mickster said:
I tried to read about your mic. It seems that it pairs with your V8 sound card (sold together) but does not require a separate phantom power supply.

Does it work fine just with the V8? Perhaps the V8 supplies power to the mic....but it's not clear.

Mick
Click to expand...
Hey Mickster, thank you for your reply. Yes, its exactly like you said, though the mic and sound card work together but the mic recording is not clear and the sound it records has very low volume and is difficult to hear.
 
rob aylestone said:
First thing is that I'd bet the issue here is using this interface - because it's not remotely a serious recording product. The BM800 is a very strange mic. It has the ability to run off phantom power, via the usual XLR connector but also 5V power - like camcorders, so called hot power that just adds the 5V to the unbalanced signal connector.

The absence of XLR connectors suggests the V8 is an unbalanced device and the condenser mic socket will have the 5v powering voltage. Your phantom power supply may well simply not be needed. it's adding the 48V across XLR pins 2 and 3 but the unbalanced output of the F8 with the adaptor lead I assume you have to go from 3.5mm 4 (or 3) circuit will be shorting 2 or 3 to ground as it's unbalanced. If your phantom unit has 3 pin XLR in and out, then some designs have a direct link between in and out, and others use blocking capacitors to remove DC.

What I would try is to connect the F8 direct to the mic. I bet this will work. A device that takes a few seconds to stop working when switched off suggests capacitors are discharging. You have a short probably - where the random cables and XLR power supply are connecting things.

Try the mic direct to the F8 - I bet it works. The F8 has a very different design to anything we usually deal with - and is dirt cheap. One of my suppliers has them - cost price £12 including shipping. Don;t expect too much. But - I don't think it's faulty - just incompatible with your phantom power unit's wiring.
Click to expand...
Hey Rob, your reply was very informative for me and I would like to thank you for it. Though the phantom power supply was advertised to go along with this mic and sound card, I think you may be right and the V8 sound card may just not be compatible. But without it the mic is practically useless.
So, is there any way to solve this compatibility issue?
 
Did you try the mic direct into the condenser mic socket? Or maybe use the dynamic mic socket to go to the phantom adaptor? This gizmo you have seems to require loads of adaptors to get it to talk to things - some I notice are 4 circuit jacks. The chances of getting the right mini jack pins to an XLR for the phantom adaptor my luck seem unlikely.

Can you make leads up yourself - as in soldering? Since my supplier got my inquiry, they've dropped the price to $5 if I buy ten. I've not been tempted. I'm wondering what cable you are using between the phantom supply and the V8? 3 pins on the power supply end and one connector of some sort for the V8 - I've never seen one of these for sale - so where did it come from? This is your likely culprit - but the units has condenser and dynamic mic sockets fitted. Ask yourself why? The only thing I can think of is power - as in the dynamic socket does not have it, but the condenser one does? Do you have a simple test meter? This will tell you if the V8 mic socket is powered and will tell you if that power is getting to the phantom unit - because it does NOT want it?

First thing though - try the mic direct to the condenser socket - you could be lucky with the cable wiring.
 
Many people in the last years wrote about Neewer microphones saying they don't work off standard phantom power or they don't work at all! Surely they aren't standard microphones. The idea would be to make microphones working on standard 48V phantom or unbalanced 5V power, but they aren't reliable. Search for BM800 on Amazon and read the reviews!
If you can, send back the BM800 and buy a good condenser microphone, only running off 48V phantom power.
 
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I've got one - didn't like it much, but it would run off virtually anything - hot power from a video camera, a PC and a Mac and ordinary 48V.
 
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