The Whirlwind - An iPhone horn speaker and stand that fits in you wallet!

In a deep "fit for infomercial" voice...

 

"Have you ever found yourself in the NEED to share a video
from your cellphone with other people, but the sound...
was..
just to LOW!!

FEAR NOT!!

The revolutionary WALLET SIZED Whirlwind Speaker
and stand will come to the rescue!"

He he, sorry I just couldn't help myself :D

Joke aside, sometimes I have found myself sharing a video with family and friends, and yes, sometimes the volume is just a bit low.
So, I started to think.
Could I come up with some kind of speaker that could fit in my pocket?
Better yet, in my wallet?

Well, it turned out that I could.

How does it work?
The idea is to redirect sound to you (the viewer) which helps with the volume, but the horn itself will increase the overall acoustic efficiency of the iPhone.
Remember, it's a passive component and does not amplify the sound from the driving element as such, but rather improves the coupling efficiency between the speaker and the air.
Horns used to be called "acoustic transformers" because they help match the impedance between the speaker diaphragm and the air. The result is greater acoustic output from the speaker.

And how does it sound?

Well, in "get you wife and kids to listen to it" tests, it makes the sound out of my iPhone seem twice as loud and deeper.

So, If you use it in a noisy place (like a restaurant) you will be able to hear you video, but without getting the next table to complain.

Now, I'm including the "bone white" version of the Whirlwind, so that you can make your own versions (a steampunk version would look wicked)

Note: It's trivial to modify the horn base to fit any cell, not just the iPhone.

Step 1: Cut the parts

What you need:

• The PDF.
• Paper.
• Thin Cardboard.
• Glue.

Before you begin, you have to make a decision. For the horn material, good old white printer paper is fine. But you can try out other materials such as Tyvek or wrapping paper that has some cool design, it's up to you.

As to the base and stand, I used a manila folder, which is just thick enough to give support but thin enough not to create a bulk in my wallet.

And last, the glue. Since you will glue the horn with it, you need a flexible adhesive. I used UHU but any non-brittle glue will work.

Now, to work.
Download the PDF and print it out and cut out the parts.

Look at the pictures for the stand and horn base cuts.

Comments

[darman12]

"I recommend that you start from the smallest polygons, it's easier to fold them first than at the end."

Haha, I read this when I am halfway through the folds already. *facepalm*

[darman12]

It's funny because the whole time I was thinking "hmmm, I wonder if it would be easiest to start here, or maybe here..."

[urant]

yup, know the feeling

[DavidNZ]

you should make a mega sized version just cause you can :) awesome design bro!

[urant]

Thank you!!

[urant]

An iPad version?

[darman12]

Yes! Maybe iPad mini, wink wink :)

[urant]

Well, I just got a mini for my birthday, so i'll try to make some time and build (and post) the bigger version

[darman12]

That would be great! Enjoy you mini, I love mine :) I requested just money for all of my Christmas presents so I could buy one.

[hallo12345]

Please explain where do i glue the two parts from the whirlwind himself

[urant]

You put the smallest part of the horn into the hexagonal hole in the base, and glue the two parts together

[sakuragirl]

Also, I don't know if it is possible, but could you make the lines on your pattern the standard symbol (dashes and dots) - - • • - - • • - - to indicate "mountain fold" and just dashes (- - - - - - - - ) for the "valley fold" ? This could be very helpful in understanding the construction at a glance.

[urant]

Good idea, let me get to work on it and upload the new PDF

[urant]

Done, just uploaded the new PDF

[sakuragirl]

I just looked at the new PDF -- looks perfect. I think this is very helpful.

[urant]

Thank you for pointing out that modifying the template would make the cone easier to fold :D

[tehcookiez]

When i downloaded the pdf, it ended up all weird code and i didn't get the template, so i that what its supposed to be?

[urant]

Hi tehcookiez,

I don't know what happened to you download. I just downloaded it in my cubicles neighbors computes and it opens it perfectly in acrobat reader. Try downloading it again and if it still gives you problems, I can email you the PDF converted into a jpeg.

[tehcookiez]

So do you think you could just make a template or somthing? i could just trace it onto harder paper.

[tehcookiez]

Here is one page of what i got, and i got like hundreds of pages so i could never print it w/o running out of paper



%PDF-1.3
%Äåòåë§ó ÐÄÆ
4 0 obj
<< /Length 5 0 R /Filter /FlateDecode >>
stream
x +T T(T04Ò3… ¦æ
†æ
E©
á
y
ú ©EÉ© %¥‰9
E™@• y ´00Ó3³4±„j5×33525áJÎUÐ÷Ì5TpÉš k 3
endstream
endobj
5 0 obj
85
endobj
2 0 obj
<< /Type /Page /Parent 3 0 R /Resources 6 0 R /Contents 4 0 R /MediaBox [0 0 595 842]
>>
endobj
6 0 obj
<< /ProcSet [ /PDF /ImageB /ImageC /ImageI ] /XObject << /Im1 7 0 R >> >>
endobj
7 0 obj
<< /Length 8 0 R /Type /XObject /Subtype /Image /Width 826 /Height 1169 /Interpolate
true /ColorSpace 9 0 R /Intent /Perceptual /BitsPerComponent 8 /Filter /DCTDecode
>>
stream
ÿØÿà JFIF ÿâ ÄICC_PROFILE ´appl mntrRGB XYZ Ü
" acspAPPL öÖ Ó-appl desc P bdscm ´ ¸cprt l $wtpt  rXYZ ¤ gXYZ ¸ bXYZ Ì rTRC à

[sakuragirl]

Thank you for this elegant origami. I constructed it and found that I did not like to cut the base on the lines where you cut it. Because this is an origami, I decided instead to fold it. I feel this is more in harmony with the origami spirit. Other than that, I love this design. It's beautiful.

[urant]

I'm very curios on how you did it. Could you share a pic?

[sakuragirl]

I tried to attach a photo with my comment but failed to upload. Sorry. Here is a photo.

[urant]

Ahh, really nice solution :D

[sakuragirl]

Haha. No compliments necessary. Your design is a magnum opus. My friends are so impressed with its elegance. Thank you again for sharing this design.

[FrozenIce]

Errmm well i made this, and it was quite a long process, and the finished product looked amazing!! was even considering printing out a much larger version and using it as a lamp shade! But the real reason for posting this is because it didn't really work... i put it on and everything, but i didn't feel the sound was amplified, only redirected.. Is that the actual purpose? however, if there is one thing i can thank you very much for is not needing to cup my hand to be able to hear the sound better. Maybe that is its purpose?

[urant]

Hi FrozenIce!

First, if you do make the lampshade, could you post the pic? Or better yet, make an Instructable of you lampshade :D

Now, part of the idea is to redirect sound to you (the viewer) which helps with the volume, but the horn itself will increase the overall acoustic efficiency of the iPhone.
Remember, it's a passive component and does not amplify the sound from the driving element as such, but rather improves the coupling efficiency between the speaker and the air.
They used to be called "acoustic transformers" because they help match the impedance between the speaker diaphragm and the air. The result is greater acoustic output from the speaker.

So, If you use it in a noisy place (like a restaurant) you will be able to hear you video, but without getting the next table to complain.

[desbrisay]

In the pictures it looks like the cone is centered over the iPhone's round button. The speakers are on the bottom of the phone of course.
Is the cone in these photos actually centered over the round button?
If so, does it sound louder if the cone is placed over the end of the phone?

[urant]

Hi desbrisay!

No, the horn is not centered over the button, you can still use the home button while the horn is on the phone. It's just touches the bottom of the iPhone, so that all the sound coming out of both speakers travels up to horn and toward the viewer.

[megamax12199]

Can you make one of these then send it to me I will pay up to one dollar, my computer is down and I don't know how to print form my iPad or iPod. Soooo I will pay! Thx

[urant]

You can stop by you local Kinkos/officemax/office depot and pull it from the web and print it there. It's probably cheaper :D

[urant]

and no the say a lot faster

[megamax12199]

What's a lot faster?

[urant]

Sorry, I replyed on my iPhone and the spelling check did it's thing. It's faster to go to office max and get the PDF downloaded there and printed

[megamax12199]

Or Mabel send me the prints if possible lol thx

[pecamuzicar]

It looks practical, but you found low sound because of few reasons.

First this horn have many triangle parted wall, which make inappropriate reflections of sound for first of all higher frequencies.

Second, propagation constant of this horn is small, what exactly is appropriate for lower frequencies.

Also paper absorb something higher freq.

[darman12]

Wow, this is an awesome idea! I love the cone shape. Also, nice explanations; they are easy to understand and follow! Your pictures are amazingly clear and focused...how did you take them so well?

[urant]

I have a micro 3/4 camera (an Olympus PM1)

I used both my hands to set the zoom to the correct focal length. Then I held the camera with one hand and I used the auto focus to focus on my other hands finger, not the cone. And since they are on the same plane, everything was focused.

I also took the pic in a room with a lot of natural light and no flash.

[darman12]

Nice... I love those cameras where you zoom by turning the lens...they're really nice.

[rimar2000]

That foldable horn is awesome!