Ipod speaker

this is a simple just about free way to make an easy ipod speaker i spent just about no money on this considering everything i used was household so enjoy my first instructable

Step 1: Tools and Supplies

tools
-basic electronic XP
-Soldering iron (optional)
-solder (again, optional)
-electrical tape (depends, if you dont have soldering stuff you'll need this)
-pliers
-wire strippers (important)
-wire cutters (again, important)

Supplies
-speaker (i took mine from an old amp)
-wires (most speakers come with this)
-a two way male jack wire (needs to fit in Mp3)if you dont have one they cost about $5

Comments

[jhei]

jsut buy an 8amp amplifier,,, and put in w/ 9v battery,,, search other instructables....

[Zaphod Beeblebrox]

whos jed and y do you hate him?

[LkArio]

If you make an amp it'll be much louder. it can be quite easy if you have some soldering experience. There should be some instructables 'bout it here

[Tv1996]

I just stripped dowon an old pair of headphones until it was down to just the plug, no wires at all. Then i taped the speaker wire from my 100 watt 6 ohm panasonic speaker to the headphone plug and my music was pretty loud. It just goes off of the ipod battery. What i will in the future is build a mighty minty boost
http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-make-a-solar-iPodiPhone-charger-aka-Might/
this is a solar powered USB charger . So i will then hook up an amp to an old phono jack and attach an amp. I will then hook up the amp to the lithium polymer battery on the minty boost. Finally, i will wire up four or so speakers to the phono jack and plug a 3.5 mm plug RCA cable to the phono jack and play my music amplified and running on the sun!

[ReCreate]

wont it be quiet? ipods and mp3 players are meant for tiny speakers(headphones)

[master]

Yeah. There are amps at http://www.partsexpress.com/

And speakers and all you need.

[ReCreate]

Well any amp should work, Even the ones within a chip

[master]

Also, the amp might not be powerfull enough to power it.

[ReCreate]

well for a single speaker pretty much any amp should be able to power it

[master]

ReCreate, you are talking to a person with over 12 years of audio engineering experience. I have made amps before. That is not true. The ipods amp cant, and there are very small amps. Its just not true. There are amps that only push out 0.5 watts.

[ReCreate]

over 12 years of audio engineering experience
I kind of doubt that, With a guy that has so many pictures, and just way too much proof that it is true ;)
But whatever, Your right anyways.

[master]

Actually, from my long experience with audio engineering, that statement is not correct. Here is why: 1. There are different kinds of amps: >Subwoofer >Tweeter >Midrange >Full range The people must make sure they get the correct amp, or else there music will sound muffled and bassy, high and quiet, or very loud and trebley. They must make sure they get a normal, full range amp. 2. Ever speaker has an impeadence. It is how hard the amp has to push to drive it. Not wattage wise. Strength wise. Most amps have a 6-8 ohm load. If you connect a 2 ohm speaker, what will happen is it is so easy for the amp to push the power to that subwoofer, the amp will overload itself with power. If it is too much, it will work too hard to push the speaker and short out. This is not wattage wise as I said. Basically, even if the amp pushes out 10 watts, and the speaker is 10 watts, but the amp is 6-8 ohms and the speaker is 2 ohms, then the amp will find it easy to push the speaker, and will overload with power. They must make sure the amp is correct. 3. Before I said 200 watts is much too much. That speaker is probably 5-10 watts. Why would you get a 200 watt amp?! Say something hit into the volume, and turned it up. There is a coil inside the speaker. A copper wire wrapped around a pole, attached to the cone in the center, where that "hump" aka "dust cap" is. If too much power goes into it, it will fry. This is very dangerous, becuase not all speakers are RoHS compliant, so they could light on fire. They should get an amp that is a little over the max power, at least for this project. Also, what do you mean by "within a chip?"

[ReCreate]

light on fire with 0.2-2V?

[master]

Do you mean will the amp light on fire?

[ReCreate]

no, the speaker

[kacper00100]

Yup thats true.
For this to work you also need an amp, something like this:
http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=46467

[master]

Ok, this is a horibble idea. This will riun your ipod. Here is why:

1. This speaker is way over the ipods amps power. The amp in the ipod pushes out about .15 watts, and this speaker is probably around 5 watts. You will have to turn the ipod all the way up. The amp is gonna try and push this huge speaker, and it will ruin the amp.

2. The ohmage the amp pushes out is way different then this, probably 6-8 ohm speaker. This will damage your ipods amp in the long run, and the amp is not replaceable. U will have to pay about 80 bucks for a new amp, when u could have spent that money on a safe docking station.

3. Its not gonna sound nice. Here is a tip to make this better:
Go to http://www.partsexpress.com and order a SMALL around 5-10 watt mini amp.

4. You are just twisting the wires together. Not smart at all. If the bare wires touch, the amp goes "bye bye". It will. It wont "might" go out, it will.

goto http://www.madisound.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=45_241_284&products_id=84 and get that little speaker. Its small but LOUD and great sounding.
Make your own box for the speaker.

[georgexsu316]

The device is probably enough, though you have to put the volume way up, and it wastes quite a bit battery. But hey, it's a household speaker.

[F430gx]

If you have the jack complete, you don't need to cut it in two. Just conect a positive and negative wires of the speaker in the corresponding part of the jack. It is divided in 3 parts: The end of the jackis the ground, then in the middle is the negative pole(black) and finally the positive(red).

[bnery]

yeah i agree how will this be powered?

[ElectricPainKiller567]

thats a pretty good idea but does go loud? because without an amp the mp3 player alone might not be able to put out enough juice

[MarietteNL]

Nice tutorial, but it is also possible to use an old pair of ear phones, as long as the have the jack on it, and the are often cheaper and easier to get..