Speaker Box

My speaker is made of two things: an amplifier that takes an audio signal and makes it really loud and an exciter that creates sound by vibrating("DIY Speaker Kit - Make Your DIY Speaker Kit."). I placed my speaker in acrylic box the was laser cut by a 3D laser cutter.

"DIY Speaker Kit - Make Your DIY Speaker Kit." DIY Speaker Kit - Make Your DIY Speaker Kit. Technology

Will Save Us, n.d. Web. 28 Apr. 2016. <https://www.techwillsaveus.com/resources/diy-speak...>.

Materials needed

1. The speaker kit from technology will save us. Here is the link to buy the kit <https://www.techwillsaveus.com/shop/diy-speaker-ki...>.
2. 9v Battery

Tools needed

1. Soldering iron
2. wire cutter
3. 3D laser cutter
4. Acrylic or wood pieces, recommend wood (box materials)
5. 3D printer and filament

Find the 2 diodes which is black, red, grey, andred. Bend those 2 diodes' wires in a u shape and place them in the area on the PCB that has a triangle with a horizontal line through it and a vertical line next to the tip of the triangle. Make to check the polarity. The black stripe on the diode indicates that side is negative while the red color indicates that side is positive. Solder diodes on to the PCB and when you are done use a wire cutter to cut the excess wires of the diodes. Bend the wires of all the resistors in the kit into a u shape. Place the correct value resistor on the right ohms and the measurement unit of ohms is R, R7, K2. Place the gold, gold, black, brown resistors in the area that is designated with 1 R. Place the gold, brown, red, red resistor in the area with 220R on it. Place the gold, red, red, brown resistors in the area with 1 K 2 on it. Place the gold, gold, purple, yellow resistor on the area with 4 R 7 on it. Then solder the resistors on the PCB then cut the excess wire on the back of the PCB.

Solder the 2 ceramic capacitor which, is beige and has .1k63 on top of it, to the area on the PCB that has the number 100uF on top a absolute sign with two horizontal line coming out the edges of it. Solder the Electrolytic Capacitors to their indicated region according to their uF value and make sure to place the longer wire of the capacitor in the positive sign are for the specific uF electrolytic capacitor. Cut the excess wires on the back of the PCB after soldering. Bend the two LED legs down ward and place them in area with an LED symbol on it make sure LEDs are facing away from PCB, then solder. Next cut the excess wire on back of the PCB. Solder the integrated circuit which is a small box with 5 bent legs and has a metal with a hole on top of it on the area with Chip Amp word on it. Place the stereo jack socket, which is rectangular shape with a hole in it for the ox cord cable to connect, on area with 5 holes with the middle hole above others.

Find the switch module and place it on the area with three holes then solder it. Place the potentiometer, which is a cylindrical, on the area with 1m pot on it. Place the thermal block, which has a red and a black flip, on area with a speaker symbol on it. Make sure the swithes are facing outward of the PCB then solder it. Place the optocoupler, which is a block with four metal wires coming down of it, on the area with the symbol of a block that has three lines coming out of it then solder. Place the header pins a rectangular block with four metal on its bottom, on the area with SIG, VOL, GND, and 5V and solder it.

Split the small end pieces and twist the copper wire beneath into a neat cable. Remove the small pieces of wire casing. Split the remaining wire by 5 cm. Repeat with the other end of the wire. Find the exciter which looks like a U.F.O, them pass the wires through the exciter terminal holes which are the hole that are sticking out words of the exciter.Also avoid lengths of exposed copper cable that can touch and short the speaker. Solder the wires to the exciter. Split the other end of the grey wire and clamp them into the terminal block. Put a 9v battery into the battery holder. Bend the legs up of the battery holder.Flip PCB and place the battery holder through the back holes which are located near the ceramic capacitors. Do not solder yet but test it if it works. If it works then solder the battery holder onto the PCB.

Go to Adobe illustrator and use the rectangle tool to make faces of the speaker box. Make the faces of the box according to the dimension of the box you want. You need the top face, bottom face, two long side face, two short side face and a divider. For top face divide it in half and add 5 holes on one side of the half line mark. For the divider make a 50 mm hole in the center of it. Make sure the length of the long side face is the length of the bottom face and the twice thickness of the short side faces. I made the mistake of only adding the thickness once to the length of the long side face instead of adding twice the length .Make the length of the top face the length of the bottom face plus twice the thickness of the short side faces. I also did not do this so make sure you do this part to make the box perfect. I used acrylic pieces for my box but I recommend make your box out of wood so the speaker could sound better since wood has a smoother surface and sound moves better on smooth surface. Then cut these piece on the laser cutter.

Glue the short side faces to the width of the bottom layer then glue the long side faces to the length of the bottom layer. Glue the divider in the center of the box. Wait for the pieces to dry. Then glue 1.5" wide x 1.75" in acrylic hinges onto the top layers and wait for the glue to dry. Then glue to other side of the hinges onto the box and wait until the glue to dry. While you are waiting for the glue to dry, use tinker cad to make two custom knobs for the box. You could make the knobs your initial, which I did, or something of your design. Then 3D print your models. After the 3D printer printed your knobs. Glue one knob to one side of the top of the box and the other knob onto the other side. Finally stick the exciter onto the top side with hole on it. Plug the ox cord into a device that plays music then turn the switch on on the PCB. The speaker should work if it works well. My speaker sounds static, I think it is because of the acrylic box so again I recommend to use wood over acrylic.

To see other cool projects from Mrs. Berbawy go to http://www.berbawy.com/makers/