HDD Speaker (Hard Drive Speaker)

Before you start making the Speaker, make sure you have the following things :-

1) A dead Hard Drive (you can get it from a dead pc)

2) A proper Screw Driver (to open it)

3) Some wires

4) Wire Cutter or any other cutting tool

5) A audio amp (or a DVD with speaker outputs will work too)

6) Soldering Skills

That's it !!!

Step 1: Opening the HDD

Get your HDD (hard drive), & a proper Screw Driver for opening it.

*Please note that your Hard Drive may differ from mine. So pay attention to the parts in it, as they are almost similar.

Check out for the Screws in the image and open it carefully.

Don't forget to open it from both the sides.

Step 2: Opening It More !!

The Most important thing for the HDD Speaker is the Read/Write Arm.

We need to remove it for turning the hard drive into a speaker.

Remove the Remaining Screws as shown in the image.

In-order to remove the Actuator magnet after removing its Screw, make the use of a forceps or a flat pointed tool.

Use that tool to push the plate outwards and separate both the plates from each other.

Step 3: Removing the Arm

1) Remove the Screw of the Arm movement Limiter and remove it.

2) Push the arm away from the platter to take it out of the HDD. And Remove it by pulling outwards.

Step 4: Working on the Arm

This Step needs carefulness and patience.

1)The Arm taken out has a connector with it. But we don't need that Connector, so cut it out. The Arm is now free.

2)Flip it to get its two Solder points below the arm.

3)Also Cut the tip of Arm, as it will create Friction between the platter disk and the arm.

4)Now Get some thin and flat wires (we need two) and solder them carefully to these two solder points on the Arm. Don't let these wires Short. Be Careful.

Step 5: Repacking It Again

1) Place the Arm with wires, back into the HDD as you removed it.

2) Place all the Parts that we removed earlier (Arm Movement Limiter, Magnet Plate) back into thier place. Don't forget to tighten their screws.

3) Tighten the remaining screws as shown in the images.

4) Tie a knot of the wires to the Magnet plates so as to fix the wires (you can use hot glue too) .

5) Take them out of the Connector hole.

That's it !!! Your HDDspeaker is ready...!!!

Step 6: Testing It !!!

In order to test your speaker you will need a audio amplifier of minimum 2 watts Rms to hear it working.
Also you can connect it to your music system.

Here, in this instructable I had used a old Dvd.

1) Connect the wires of your HDD speaker to your music system properly.
2) And Let the Music Play...!!!




Watch "HDD Speaker" in action in the video........

Comments

[Vortetty]

What amount of amplication do I need, also, what type of am do I need, dad is paranoid about I'd being the right one

[FernandoG183]

El problema a solucionar es la impedancia de la bobina , el amplificador se puede quemar la etapa de salida mucho cuidado con eso , idea poco útil pero a mí no se me ocurrió jaja .

[Ev]

Remove the platters, attach a stiff piece of plastic (cut from a plastic bottle or cup) to the arm to move air and create more sound waves.

[TexomaEV]

Now if you can find an old CART monitor, you can make a visual display of your music, by applying the sound leads to the two coils on the yoke of the tube. Keep the High Voltage part of the monitor alive, and it will show a circle of sounds, as the left channel is applied to one coil, and the right channel to the other coil. I used to make these and sell them to friends.

[SerhiiB1]

I Made it!

[makervinod]

That's a simply great build ....!!! Good job !

[Jaapv5]

i am looking for something that can record and or play music with something like the arm or a turntable. I suppose if you can have a turning disc right under th part now vibrating, it could "write" the music to be listened maybe with a normal turntable, can it work? What do you guys think

[Bronsta]

Trying this with a WD disc. Can't seem to find the 2nd contact. Is it under that glue dab?

Thoughts?

[makervinod]

it's above the bearing, a small point is visible. If there's glue present on it, get it removed.

[makervinod]

send the picture of the glue dab...

[Noximus]

May I plug it directly to a cellphone?

[makervinod]

yes you can plug it directly to your cell phone....but it won't be that loud to give you a good sound....give it a try....

[tariq sadiq]

what a lovely

[AT]

I won't be able to get to this for a while but I am going to try it. I have the needed parts. :-)

[jimvandamme]

Um, OK.

There must be something useful we can do with these. I just can't think of one now. But if you put a DC level into the winding, you have a pretty good positioner. Of course, that's what they were used for, but you can attach something else to them besides a magnetic write head. Hmmm, a mirror to deflect a laser.

[san_t]

Hello, author! Well done! And +1 to the jimvandamme's idea about mirror with laser.

If I am not mistaken flexible mounting of small mirror on the head arm will give something like Lissajous figures projected to the wall :)

[makervinod]

I tried out ....But with a single mirror , I jst got a straight line as it jst rotated left and right. You can think of displacement of a point on the X- axis, back and forth again. If you have another mirror, moving it up and down infront of the first mirror, it gave me a sine wave pattern......try it out...

[jimvandamme]

That's how an oscilloscope works, except it uses electrostatic fields to deflect an electron beam.

[jimvandamme]

The angular change would be rather small, but if you had two hard drives, you could deflect it in another plane too. Then modulate the laser... get some really interesting effects.

[Aaaecm]

Would it make any difference if I removed the discs? It seems like they would just get in the way. Perhaps I should experiment. Please advise, especially if I'm missing something really obvious.