Weatherproof Recording Box

In earlier posts I’ve mentioned that I do most of my field recording by dropping off my gear and recovering it later. This works great for a lot of reasons, not the least of which is that I make noise constantly. By using the drop-and-recover technique, I can get as far away from my mics as possible.

Another advantage of this technique is that I’ve found it takes between fifteen to forty five minutes for wildlife to return to their normal behavior after they’ve been disturbed. Since I can record for upwards of 24 hours using this technique, this means I get lots of time in each recording during which I know the animals I’m hearing aren’t stressed.

The big drawback to this technique, though, is that when something goes wrong I’m not there to deal with it. The first time I left my gear out overnight it rained. I’d planned for it by draping my recorder with a plastic bag, but it was a stop-gap measure at best. I wanted something more permanent.

Months ago the nearby Costco began selling ammo boxes. My wife picked one up for me, figuring it would be a good starting point for a weatherproof recording box. I hemmed and hawed about what I wanted the box to do and how I wanted it to do it, and finally came up with a plan.

I wanted the box to be able to hold my recorder and an external battery pack, and provide weatherproof XLR connectors I could plug mics into without risking the integrity of the weather seal. I came up with a couple of pencil sketch designs, but none of my plans beat a piece of equipment that already existed: the weatherproof outlet cover.

I had to modify the outlet cover so it had an opening large enough for the four XLR panel connectors. I did the work on the Bridgeport, but similar results could be had by using any number of other techniques such as saw and file, Dremel or Foredom, etc.

The panel connectors are standard Neutrik parts. I picked up the rainbow colored grommets (also Neutrik parts) to provide additional weather sealing and to let me color coordinate the connectors on the inside.

Cables route in through the slots at the base of the box (in this case I only opened up one, though I’ll probably have to open up the other once I start recording four channel sound.)

Once the cover is closed the only way water can get into the connector area is to come in through the slot at the bottom of the box. It won’t stop immersion or flooding, but it stops even the horizontal rain we get here in town. (I had my kids spray the box aggressively with the garden hose before I trusted it to hold my equipment. Everything stayed nice and dry!)

I lined the inside of the box with foam that I covered with leftover head liner material I had from when I replaced the head liner in my Civic. The foam panels are removable in case I change my mind or need more space inside, but for now they provide some measure of cushioning and no small amount of insulation for when conditions turn cold at night.

The inside connectors are also standard parts from Neutrik with boots that match the colors of the panel grommets. Unfortunately connector lengths caught up with me.

When I started this design I hadn’t planned on lining the box with foam. That came later once I realized how much my gear would rattle around if I did any hiking with the gear inside.

But once the foam was installed, the full-sized Neutrik connectors poked out so far I could only plug things in on one side of my recorder. Since the fourth channel is located on the opposite side from the other three on the DR-70D, this means I can’t actually plug in all four channels yet. At some point down the road I’ll replace all four with low profile right angle connectors from Cable Techniques, but for now I get two (well… three) channel sound.

I’d intended to build this box in time for the 2017 International Dawn Chorus Day. Unfortunately I missed by hours. IDCD 2017 happened at dawn this morning, and I just finished the box an hour ago.

Ah well…

Meanwhile I’ve got a setup that will let me do drop-and-recover recording, rain or shine, and keep my gear safe, sound, and dry.

UPDATE: I finally had the chance to answer one question I had about this design: With the foam lining, would I run the risk of overheating the gear in the box?

The answer is a qualified no. I put my recorder and my 10000mAh battery pack in the box with a temperature probe and closed the whole thing up. Ambient temperature was 21C. The temperature in the box rose steadily for the first hour, then began to roll off. After seven hours the temperature reached 32.5C with clear signs it would asymptote at or below 34C. That’s a delta of around 13C.

The DR-70D operating range is 0C – 40C, according to the Tascam web site. When I originally ran this test I thought this meant I was marginally safe. I’m pretty sure I was wrong. In the test I was measuring the air temperature inside the box, not the temperature of the electronics, which were considerably warmer than the air temp.

I came up with a fix for this and the connector issue, which I describe in the second part of this article: Weatherproof Recording Box – Part 2.

Tom