Beats by Danny and Mike(DIY HEADPHONES)

Feel free to ask any questions in the comment section and I will try my best to get back to you as soon as possible.

Step 1: The Most Important Components to a Speaker

The three most important components of a speaker are the voice coils, diaphragm, And the magnets. The magnet is important because it provides the magnetic field. The voice coil strengthens the magnetic field, provides a path for the electric current to travel through, and it also produces vibration which produces sound. The diaphragm is important because it uses the vibrations from the voice coil and uses it to produce the sound.

Step 2: Gather Materials

The first step will be to gather all your materials in order to create your speaker. These are the following materials you will need
2 neodymium magnets

28 gauge insulated copper wire

1 plastic cup

Electrical tape preferred but any tape will do

1 Aux cord

Glue stick

Post it notes

1 Phone

Sandpaper

2 Alligator clips

(All materials can be found at Home Depot)

Step 3: Wrapping the Glue Stick

The first step is to wrap a post it to a glue stick so that when you wrap the coil it can be easily pulled off. The post it should be on the edge of the glue stick so it can be easier to take off. It will have a better outcome if you tape your glue stick so that you will a more secure surface to wrap.The purpose of the post it is so when you wrap the coil, you can wrap it tight and the coil will be easier to take off from the glue stick. And the purpose of the glue stick is so that the wire can get the same shape as the glue stick.

Step 4: Wrapping the Coil

Get about 35 cm of insulated copper wire and begin to wrap the wire around the post it until you have made 30 coils, but keep a little extra wire hanging down from both sides. The wires do not have to be perfect, so it does not matter if your coil is not the best looking coil. Both ends of the coil you should leave at least 5 inches of wire if it is longer it is fine. This will come in handy when you are going to connect everything together.

Step 5: Remove Copper Wire

You now need to remove the wire from the glue stick. You should still have both ends of the wire sticking out. You should hold the wire in place so that it can keep from unraveling a lot. Then you would have to tape it together with electrical tape.

Step 6: Sanding Down the Wire

The next step is to sand down the edges of the copper wire so that they can be connected to the alligator clips. When sanding down it is best to take your time. It may be time consuming, but it is essential to your speakers success. When sanding you should sand all the color away from your wire. The wire I used was red, so when I sanded it all the red went away. It is very important there is no left over protection to the wire because that will affect the loudness of the music.The red installation of the copper wire prevents current from flowing, so the bare wire helps electrons flow, which will convert into physical vibrations. You can also burn the wires end and it will be faster, but for the best results you should sand your wire with sandpaper.

Step 7: How to Wrap and Sand

Here is an example of how I sanded and wrapped my wire.

Step 8: Place the Coil on the Cup

You now need to place the coil on top of a plastic cup and tape it down so it doesn't move. You should place it at the bottom of your cup with both sanded ends facing up. And make sure to tape it down so it will not be able to move.

Step 9: Place the Magnet

Place the magnet inside of the coil and tape it down so that it doesn't move. The magnet should be placed in the center of the up to provide a magnetic field for the music. The magnetic field will be larger and the music will sound better if there are two magnets one inside the cup and one outside connected, but if you only have one magnet you can tape it down and the music will still play fine.

Step 10: Connect Everything Together

Now you need to connect the sanded wires with a pair of alligator clips and connect the other side of the alligator clips to an Aux cord that is connected to a phone, laptop, etc. When connecting everything together you need to make sure there is a good connection from the alligator clips to the aux cord. The connection from the alligator clips to the copper wire should be on the sanded area of the wire so the music can travel. The aux should have both sides connected, one side should be connected to both alligator clips and the other side should be connected to the music provider, such as a phone etc.

Step 11: Create Another Speaker

Follow steps 2-9 to create another speaker.

Step 12: Connecting the Speakers

Each speaker will get one alligator clip. You will need to combine the sanded ends of the coil together and connect it with the alligator clip. Then you will do that with the other cup and connect both the clips to the aux cord.

Step 13: Test Your Headphones

Connect your phone and enjoy the music. If you can't hear anything you should sand the wires even more. Non proper sanding can and will affect the music, so when in doubt sand harder. If you sanded your wire to the point there is no wire left and you sill do not hear music, you should firmly connect everything and wrap the wires closer together and add more wire.

Step 14: Why Do Voice Coils Vibrate?

You are probably wondering what makes the music and the answer is the voice coils with their vibrations. The voice coil produces a magnetic field which interacts with the permanent magnet, causing it to move and by doing so, compresses or stretches the spring to which it is attached. The drive signal needs to alternate the direction of current (i.e. It's an AC signal) and hence the magnetic field to make the permanent magnet oscillate back and forth with the spring. The moving mass is attached to the magnet, and it is the moving of the mass back and forth that generates the vibration.

"AB-003: Driving Linear Resonance Vibration Actuators." How To Drive A Linear Resonance Vibration Actuator. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Feb. 2016.

Step 15: Why More Coils and Magnets Produce More Sound

My first test run I used 10 coils and since it was my first go at the speaker the sound was not really good and I was not satisfied. My partner and I added more coils and we chose 30 coils. When we got our final product, we were satisfied with 30 coils. We could not add more coils for time and material reasons, but if we had enough time and materials we would have increased the amount of coil to 50.

We started off with 2 magnets with one cup and 30 wires and the sound we heard was the best so far. We then made headphones and that required us to use one magnet for each cup. The sound was still good, but just not as good as with 2 magnets for one cup.

The reasons for these results is that the more coils increases the magnetic field, which causes bigger vibrations of attraction and repulsion And the magnet adds more magnetic field which will increase the vibrations of the coil.