Electronic – arduino – Why is microphone + opAmp + Arduino circuit not working

arduinolm386microphoneoperational-amplifier

I followed the mic + op-Amp part of this schematic exactly using an Lm386 chip:
https://randomskk.net/projects/lightstrip/schematic.pdf

and sent the output from the op-amp into a pin on an Arduino Pro Mini.
BUT, when do an analogRead(pin) and print the value in the serial monitor, the value seems to level out to some constant, no matter how much noise I make into the mic!

Can someone tell me what I could be doing wrong?

As extra information:
I left out the capacitor on pin 7 of the IC that is shown in the schematic.
And the power supply I'm using is my old phone charger that plugs into the wall and outputs 5.9V DC.
I am trying to make this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Km6ObG_xKm4

Also, how do you tell the anode and cathode on an electret microphone?

Thanks!

Best Answer

Personally I'd have the input more like this:

enter image description here

That will provide 100x amplification. If you want less then increase R2 or decrease R5. If you want more then decrease R2 or increase R5.

It may not be a 100% perfect circuit, but it's one I have used successfully.