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GX80/85 External Microphone Input Modification (if you dare)


BTM_Pix
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So, I've happened across the service manual for our old friend the GX80/85....

A while ago, a brave soul on DPReview cracked open his LX100, located where the internal mics connected and made a breakout cable.

lx100mic.thumb.jpg.522cba2f62c52152eb23274f41318d83.jpg

Its documented here 

https://***URL removed***/forums/thread/3845240

So with the aid of the newly acquired GX80/85 service manual, I had a look to see where the mics were and was there a similar potential.

The good news is that there is.

The mics themselves are located under the hotshoe .

96162059_ScreenShot2019-08-08at16_54_51.png.05c32cbf414481bc710259e77744ec80.png

The service manual provides all the information you need to trace the signal and connect a break out to your own connector. You could conceivably do the same for the speaker output and make a headphone port if you were so inclined.

1851695289_ScreenShot2019-08-08at15_33_22.png.2f939d7aef6a61c4a419c205c3bbe105.png

You can use this IR mod guide to get you going with the cracking open the case.

https://www.lifepixel.com/tutorials/infrared-diy-tutorials/life-pixel-panasonic-lumix-gx85-diy-digital-infrared-conversion-tutorial

And then take it from there with the service manual I've attached here to do the rest of the steps to get to the hotshoe removal.

LUMIX GX85 Service Manual.pdf

Now, I'm no expert on consumer law but I have a sneaking feeling that doing this mod might invalidate your warranty a little bit so its all at your own risk.

What we could really do with is someone who already has a completely dismantled GX80 to try this out for everyone eh @Andrew Reid ?

 

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1 hour ago, Márcio Kabke Pinheiro said:

@BTM_Pix, where did you got the service manual?

I need one for the Olympus E-P1 (to try to bring its Ibis back to life).

Dumb luck while looking for some other information.

Can't find one for the Olympus but here is a thread about fixing the ibis on the EP-L1 (same internals I believe regarding the sensor etc)

https://www.mu-43.com/threads/e-pl1-ibis-problem-fixed-finally.59751/

And these various repair guides for it should put you on the right track regarding opening it up.

https://www.ifixit.com/Device/Olympus_E-Pl1

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Nice one. Although i would not hesitate to do it, we have to think where to put the mic in physically. And on top of that: i am not an audio engineer but afaik, we cant just solder directly the 3,5mm mic in to the cable that connects to the onboard mics unless you accept crappy quality and whatsoever, can we?

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10 minutes ago, jase said:

Nice one. Although i would not hesitate to do it, we have to think where to put the mic in physically. And on top of that: i am not an audio engineer but afaik, we cant just solder directly the 3,5mm mic in to the cable that connects to the onboard mics unless you accept crappy quality and whatsoever, can we?

If I were to do this, then the sacrifice of the central part of the hotshoe (at least) to get the cables through would be the logical option and then terminate them with two sockets to plug into. You could use a male connector as the guy has with the LX100 if you wanted and use couplers but I'm not sure why.

A mod would remove the onboard mics completely so yes you could either go in just before the pre-amps or if you look at the schematic in the service manual you can trace it and go in after those ( at c7 and c8 on IC9101) providing you have external pre-amps.

Or just buy a G85 and be done with it ;) 

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39 minutes ago, BTM_Pix said:

Or just buy a G85 and be done with it

Quite...

One thing with modding the GX80/85 is that the camera would still be doing all the (IBIS and focusing) noise-suppression processing on the audio. With a proper external mic jack like on the G80/85, the camera knows when an external mic is plugged in, so it can turn all that off (to give you cleaner audio).

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17 hours ago, BTM_Pix said:

Dumb luck while looking for some other information.

Can't find one for the Olympus but here is a thread about fixing the ibis on the EP-L1 (same internals I believe regarding the sensor etc)

https://www.mu-43.com/threads/e-pl1-ibis-problem-fixed-finally.59751/

Yeah, this thread was my inspiration to try to fix mine (first will try to "realign" the sensor without opening.

 

17 hours ago, BTM_Pix said:

And these various repair guides for it should put you on the right track regarding opening it up.

https://www.ifixit.com/Device/Olympus_E-Pl1

Will take a look. Thanks!

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53 minutes ago, ac6000cw said:

Quite...

One thing with modding the GX80/85 is that the camera would still be doing all the (IBIS and focusing) noise-suppression processing on the audio. With a proper external mic jack like on the G80/85, the camera knows when an external mic is plugged in, so it can turn all that off (to give you cleaner audio).

I have to confess I'm not sure how much that plays in terms of noticeable impact on the signal, (I'm presuming its doing it with phase cancellation or filtering at specific frequencies as it does with the wind filter setting which is also bypassed when a mic is put in the G80) because if its always on there is no way to do an A/B ;)

On balance, even with that, it would still have the net benefit of slightly degraded signal from a good microphone being more preferable to a similarly degraded signal from those internal microphones.

 

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  • 10 months later...

Hi folks...

I got a GX85 a few months ago. There's a few quirky things about it that I find odd. Since this thread is really about external mics I won't go into them here.

1. Thanks to BTM-Pix I now have the service manual

2. I;m an avid modder of all sorts of things

3. I had been using a Panasonic point and shoot for years before getting the GX85. I was astounded at the poor sound quality of the GX85. It's noisy, there's always hissing noise, etc. Not very good microphones and you are stuck with them.

4. Looking at the service manual, I have a pretty good idea what to do and where to add an external mic jack.

5. My camera will get taken apart soon to see what I can do to add a mic jack.

 

 

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 6/19/2020 at 3:51 AM, ElectricGod said:

Hi folks...

I got a GX85 a few months ago. There's a few quirky things about it that I find odd. Since this thread is really about external mics I won't go into them here.

1. Thanks to BTM-Pix I now have the service manual

2. I;m an avid modder of all sorts of things

3. I had been using a Panasonic point and shoot for years before getting the GX85. I was astounded at the poor sound quality of the GX85. It's noisy, there's always hissing noise, etc. Not very good microphones and you are stuck with them.

4. Looking at the service manual, I have a pretty good idea what to do and where to add an external mic jack.

5. My camera will get taken apart soon to see what I can do to add a mic jack.

 

 

Dear Electric God, have you found something that could help you make miracles for all of us here below ? :)

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On 6/19/2020 at 2:51 AM, ElectricGod said:

Hi folks...

I got a GX85 a few months ago. There's a few quirky things about it that I find odd. Since this thread is really about external mics I won't go into them here.

1. Thanks to BTM-Pix I now have the service manual

2. I;m an avid modder of all sorts of things

3. I had been using a Panasonic point and shoot for years before getting the GX85. I was astounded at the poor sound quality of the GX85. It's noisy, there's always hissing noise, etc. Not very good microphones and you are stuck with them.

4. Looking at the service manual, I have a pretty good idea what to do and where to add an external mic jack.

5. My camera will get taken apart soon to see what I can do to add a mic jack.

 

 

Did you do it? If so can you put pictures up of where you put the Jack? And do you think there's a way to have the onboard mics work when there's no mic plugged in and then when you plug a mic in it runs off that? Is there some sort of switch or something you could do to have that work?  Thanks

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  • 5 months later...
On 1/4/2021 at 10:49 AM, webboggles said:

I've done it, need to do more testing but seems to work well and the audio is clear: https://webboggles.com/external-mic-jack-mod-for-lumix-gx80-gx85/

Are you recording external and iternal mic at the same time? In this case you need a 3'5mm stereo female jack,with inner swicht (normally closed) that disconnect inner mic when Jack is plugged. 

61JAUvyI1tL._AC_SL1500_.jpg

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