Speaker

10 Initial Ideas

Here is a photo of my in-class sketches and ideas. The circled ones are my favorite ideas, and the underlined ones have elements of their design that I would likely incorporate into the speaker.

Feedback Summary

The feedback that I received was pretty split between my two ideas, though I think that the soundwave visualization received slightly more positivity. I did not draw the soundwave idea very thoroughly, so some of the feedback talked about what it might really look like, where speakers would go, etc. The steampunk idea has definitely been done before, though, which some people noted in their feedback.

Phase 2 Drawing

I think this will be an excellent design to build because it not only incorporates more electronic elements (challenging for me), but also mixes different materials and ways of manipulating the materials (both with pretty hands-off machines and also more manual methods of design). I am challenging my current skill set by adding more electronics and having an aesthetic design that will be a potentially difficult and may require outside of class work time (but I am excited for it!).

In Progress Digital Design

So far, I have modeled on Rhino the shapes needed to be cut out in sheet wood with the laser cutter. I will then need to prototype this with cardboard to ensure that all electronics will fit, and after that, begin fabrication (after adjusting if necessary). At the end (to ensure I have full time for the base enclosure), I will work on aesthetic additions with metal.

Cardboard Prototype

For this speaker, my idea is to make a retro/steampunk themed design. Most of this design is wood, so with the prototype, I laser cut the major wooden pieces (shown in the screenshot from the previous post) to put together. I learned that I need to allocate more space between the passive resonator and one of my speakers, as the metal part of the passive resonator is attracted to the magnet within the speaker. I accordingly adjusted my 3D model and laser cut layout to be a bit wider. Some of the design's pieces are not included in the prototype because the sizing of the laser cut lines accomodates the thickness of the wood which does not match the thickness of the cardboard, so the cardboard pieces do not all fit together. However, the major, most important parts are there and fit nicely.

Amplified Speakers Circuit on Breadboard

Now that I have spent time prototyping on the breadboard, I understand the functionf of capacitors a lot more, and how they can improve the sound. From this, I also learned that the flow of current from a power source is not actually constant all the time -- it can fluctuate, even if on a very small scale. Having a capacitor helps to mitigate the effects of this. Additionally, I learned in general a bit more about breadboarding circuits where elements of it are in parallel, and this activity really helped to strengthen my understanding and reading of schematics.

I was not quite sure what the function of the ferrite beads were. Upon research, I learned that these beads essentially filter out and absorb unwanted, high-pitched sounds and turn that energy into heat. This is important because parts of the wiring here has a tendency to pick up other electromagnetic signals from the environment, which the ferrite beads also filter out.

Page updated

Report abuse