How to make bluetooth music-enable hearing protection

I've been spending a lot of time in the shop recently and it can get very loud; since I want to preserve my eardrums, hearing protection is important. Spending hours just listening to muffled clangs and grinding isn't that much fun, though, so I decided to make these bluetooth-enabled ear muffs at TechShop so I could listen to music while working.

Parts needed:

• Earmuff hearing protection. It's important that the cans are deep enough to hold speakers and the battery; I chose the 3M Peltor 105 (~$20); they provide +30dB attenuation, protecting you in up to 105dB environments.
• Over-ear bluetooth headphones. The key thing to look for here is good controls, a speaker that will fit in the cans, and quality. I chose the Kinivio BTH220 based on amazon reviews and price (~$25-30) and am really happy with them.

Tools required:

• Screw drivers (Kinivio requires tri-wing)
• Soldering iron
• Wire
• Exacto knife
• Wire snips
• Drill
• Heat-shrink tubing (optional)
• Hot glue or plastic welder

Charge and pair the headphones with your phone before start; it will make it much easier to test that things are still working along the way.

Step 1: Disassemble everything

First things first: pull the foam out of the hearing protection.  That was easy!

Next, disassemble the headphones. Mine had small phillips screws holding the band together, and tri-wing screws holding the phones together. Why did this company think that it was important to keep people from opening the headphones they bought, I don't know. A security-head screwdriver bit set like this one or this one is a useful thing to have on hand anyway. (If you don't have a set and are itching to open your headphones, you could just use a rotary tool to grind through the three screw posts.)

Make a note (or photo) of which wires go to what.

Finally, use an exacto knife to cut through the glue that's holding the speakers to the grill, and use a small flat-head screwdriver to pry the speakers off. Go slow!

Comments

[alvin_lee]

Nice one! Hearing protection and ear phone are just born to be together in my opinion.

[jobigoud]

Awesome project !

[WakeUpWolfgang]

I was going to do this but I did not want to solder buttons and knobs and drill holes for each one. I did not think of drilling one hole for the speakers and then have the main board on the outside. Genius! I am going to do this now.

[kchapman8]

Dude, too cool. Similar to what I did. Looks like you even used the ikross headphones like I did. Great instructable.

[kchapman8]

Sorry for all the replies. One more picture to give a better idea. These were Sony mdr-v600 corded headphones, but I rarely used them. Now, I use these all the time. Bass is great, and it's nice to finally be using them. Those buttons on the side are ps2 controller buttons, with a ps3 pairing button for, well, pairing the headphones, plus play /pause.

[kchapman8]

Oops, I see you used kinivio headphones. Very similar looking to the ikross