DIY Headphones by Natalia Z and Matthew M

Materials
Copper wire; Can be purchased at Home Depot 2 Magnets (circular and small), Can be ordered online on websites such as Amazon and Ebay or Target.

Cup (Plastic/Paper, Styrofoam) Can be purchased in bulk at grocery stores such as Target, Food 4 Less, etc. Aux Plug, Can be purchased at electronic stores such as Best Buy, Radio Shack, Etc. Sand Paper, Can be purchased at arts and craft stores and stores such as Target, Walmart, etc.

Tape (Electrical/Duct), Can be purchased at Target, Ebay, Walmart, Etc.

Step 1:

Voice Coil:
Why the voice coil is an important needed material for our headphones, the voice coil helps send a pulse of electricity when conductor is connected to the aux plug which is connected to the conductor. The aux cord allows the current that comes from the music to come flow through the copper wire(copper is a good conductor or electricity). The copper wire receives the pattern of music from the source of music into itself and sends those beats into whatever it is connected to. We wrapped the coil around a marker 28 times because we found through observations that the more coils were added that the better the sound quality turns out to be. As we were doing our observations we saw that as we added more wire to the voice coil that the field of music would gain better quality for equal amounts of lyrics sound quality and the bass in the background. The beats send by running a code or system through the wire which is connected to the aux plug and as the current runs through the wire it connects to the temporary magnet which would be the voice coil and causes the permanent magnets to attract and repel against

Step 2: The Diaphragm (Cup)

helps contain the sound that is being produced. Depending on the material may affect the sound quality, thicker and stiffer materials are good at producing clearer sound and pushing it out, also keeps the product together. The dimension of the cup would be 227ml for the volume, 77mm for the diameter, 54 for the bottom diameter, and 92mm for the height. Versus lighter thinner materials like plastics and paper are not so good at conserving/producing sound. Lighter materials are poor to use because it would cause the item to vibrate taking away more of the base from the produced sound and also make the bass difficult to hear. We used a paper cup because out of the plastic cup, paper cup, and styrofoam cup, we found that the paper cup gave us clear and loud quality that we found easy to work with. The diaphragm allows the voice coil to become the temporary magnet through the conductors energy and as the magnets attract and repel against each other sending the sound waves which are made from when the magnets are pushing and pulling against each other and lets that signal flow through the cup.

Step 3: The Magnets

are important because they carry the flow of electricity from the aux plug into the voice coil causing the magnets to attract and repel against each other creating sounds waves from the pulses of electricity coming from the conductor. The magnets help the diaphragm create music by using the voice coil which is a temporary magnet due to the current flowing through and uses the temporary magnets to attract and repel against the diaphragm in a way that pushes sound waves out from the back of the speaker to the end of the cup. We used two small magnets because the small size of the magnets made it easier to take up less space and also gave clear sound quality to the speakers.A temporary magnet only contains its magnetism if it is in a magnetic field. We also found these speakers quite easy to use due their strength, and portability to our speakers. We used two on each cup because when we added more it seemed to add more bass to the music we listened to, but also made it difficult to hear the lyrics.

Step 4: The Aux Plug

is important because it helps connect the final product into the sound source(which can be a cell phone/ipod/etc.) to get the music, the headphone will go into action(coils carrying the sound and magnets will repel). The aux plug takes the code of sound from the main signal which would be a computer or phone and takes that code through the current in the copper wire allowing it to flow into the diaphragm and magnets of the diaphragm which would repel and attract in the sequence of the code making coded soundwaves(bass). The aux plug we used is a 3.5 mm stereo jack that we connected to a 28 AWG wire, and 4 neodymium magnets.

Step 5: Assembly,Sanding, and Coiling With Photo

You must sand the wire so you can allow the current to flow properly from wire to wire. The wire carry the current from the source of sound into each individual wire which carries the signal and allows the speakers to vibrate in the way in which it produces sound with a certain pattern of music and carries the voice of the person speaking through the rest of the song. What is covering the wire is being covered by straw and string to ensure that it won’t lose any of it’s sound quality and to make sure the design looks professional. The sanding that happens to the copper wire makes it easier to allow the raw pulse through the wire giving them easier access to each other and the end components.

Step 6: Magnet Positioning & Diaphragm Assembly With Picture

We put the magnet in the center of the cup because the voice coil carries it’s flow of energy through the loop, as the energy loops through the magnets start to activate with the temporary magnet which is the voice coil itself. The right hand rules shows that as the current runs through the voice coil it straightens out the domain of the surrounding magnetic field and keeps the current running through the wire while the output energy get released through the magnets. The magnets also keep a good sourced sound output as they get the best sound quality through the center due to it providing a better distance of the full diagram. The voice coil also increases the permanent magnets magnetic field strength by adding a full conducting electrical output into the magnets which would cause their domains to also focus onto the area of the cup they’re on.

Step 7: Plug & Play

The music plays because of the fact that the signals that come from the phone/conductor are providing signals that flow through the copper wire and then activates the voice coil(temporary magnet) that is also made into a temporary magnet due to magnetic field of the permanent magnets surrounding it. The temporary magnet also makes the magnetic field of the permanent magnets much stronger to the point in which they attract and repel against each other due to the magnetic field now surrounding the voice coil which sends those sound waves out through the diagram and also creates a bass while doing so. The voice coil creates an alternating current which makes it so the permanent magnet attracts and repels against each other constantly pushing the displaced air out of the speaker. Lyrics focus more on the voice coil due to that being the main area in which the sound of the lyrics is being produced while the bass is caused by the number of magnets on the speaker because of how the bass is caused by when the magnets attract and repel against each other mainly focusing on the diaphragms bottom.

Step 8: Troubleshooting

If you are unable to hear the bass very well then I would suggest adding stronger magnets or better magnets because of the way that the field surrounding the magnets might not be the most secure. Also sometimes the wires closest to the aux plug needs to be adjusted so that one wire is closer the top of the end and one is centered so those two can have distance to send their individual sounds to each other. If you cannot hear the lyrics to the speaker I would try sanding the ends more because sometimes they require more than just half of the wire sanded off, or edit the number of wraps you have on your coil. You do not want a small voice coil to be sending a signal into the speaker, the small voice coil will not be enough support for the new magnetic field to be in full affect.