Wireless Bone Conduction Headset (headphones)

by Danni FR

18K13543

Intro: Wireless Bone Conduction Headset (headphones)

In this Instructable we are going to make a solar wireless headphones that use bone conduction speakers to play music. This headphones are capable of control the multimedia player basic functions and also have a built in microphone to allow take calls.
The solar panel will provide an extra power boost, is not too much but is enough to give 15 extra minutes of music and recharge the battery while the headphones are off. The lipo battery itself can power the headphones for around 50 minutes. And also you can provide external power via de mini usb connector, when you do this you can continue using the headphones while the battery is recharging. The battery status indicator only will be on while the battery is recharging over USB, in solar recharge mode the led remains off all the time to save energy. The bone conduction allow to listen your music while you still hearing your surroundings, so this headphones are nice when you are outside and you want to continue paying attention to the external world.

This is a work in progress so there is a lot of improvements that can be done!

Lets get started, shall we?

STEP 1: Materials

To make this fantastic build you will need this components:

  • Flexible 5v solar panel, small enough to fit in the headband.( my solar panel only generate 4.8V@22 ma)
  • Plastic headband. (the ones girls uses for the hair)
  • Aluminum tape.
  • Double side tape.
  • A sheet of thin craft foam.
  • Hot glue and of course hot glue gun.
  • Some flat wire.
  • Electret microphone.
  • Small 3.7v lithium polymer battery. Mine is 450maH.
  • 2 Bone conduction transducer (got myne from Adafruit, they are the 8 ohm small type)
  • A bluetooth audio module ( I used XS3868, but if you can buy a better one like the RN52 do it!)
  • Two small audio transformers (I used DA101MC)
  • Two 33 ohm resistors.
  • The rest of the electronic components can be seen on the Eagle designs that I include with the PCB and schematic. Most of them are SMD.

Keep in mind that this proyect uses SMD components, so be ready to solder this tiny things!

STEP 2: Making the Boards

For this step you need to download the eagle designs from the previous step. And you need to make and assemble this boards. I am assuming that you know how to interpret the designs and get things done. So i will be short in this step.


Note: I used a JST connector for the lipo battery. The 3.6v regulator is not necessary, I included it for powering the bluetooth module but it give me a lot of brown out power problems.

STEP 3: Getting Done the Tranducers

The first thing you get in mind when you receive the bone conduction transducers is that the wires are fragile. So I wrap the wires around the body of the transducer and used some hot glue for secure it.
Then I used a cross shape piece of foam to cover the transducer and protect it. Then I used some aluminum tape to keep in place the foami. Then I put a piece on double side tape in the other side of the transducer and braid the wires. Now you can solder the transducer to the amplifier board. Repeat this process two times, you will need to of this.

STEP 4: Placing the Modules in the Headband

Now is time for remove the backing of the double side tape and start placing the boards. I make A little slot in the headband for the tranductor wires.
Place all the boards, but consider to save space between the boards for the soldering job. You need to be patient, this take a bit of time and effort. When you are sure of the placing stick it using double side tape. Don't glue the solar panel in this step, just save the space for later. This way you can pass the wires under the solar panel.

STEP 5: Make the Connections

Ok. This part is probably the most challenging, you need to solder all the wires in place. Follow the schematic of the picture and use flat wire to get this done. Be careful!

STEP 6: Finished!!! :)

And thats all! Congratulations, you build your own solar wireless bone conduction headset or SWBCHG for short ;)

Optionally you can use some ribbon or fabric to make a nice cover for the electronics.

Is time for some bone rocking, power it on and connect to your phone or computer.

See you the next time! I hope you enjoy it, if you have any question don't be shy and ask me ;)

Best regards,

Daniel Fernandez R.

37 Comments

isaacacheampong 1 year ago

Hi, Thanks for the post. Is it possible to customise for your own sounds when the headphones are connecting or disconnecting? How is this done please? Thank you.

jonapohit19 3 years ago

Did you have the amplifier design?

MGG4 5 years ago

Can you provide the specification of the electret microphone used here?

harini_mohan 6 years ago

This is an extremely intriguing project. My team and I are trying to build this too as a school project. It will be very helpful if you could share with us the working of the 5 circuits here as soon as possible since our evaluation is due in a couple of days. I'm interested to learn it all in detail. Please help us out since the chips used here are not well known and I couldn't simulate it either on any software since the ICs aren't inbuilt in the simulation software and hence I couldn't learn the working of these chips. Hope to hear from you soon.

Thank You. :D

harini_mohan 6 years ago

This is an extremely intriguing project. My team and I are trying to build this too as a school project. It will be very helpful if you could share with us the working of the 5 circuits here as soon as possible since our evaluation is due in a couple of days. I'm interested to learn it all in detail. Please help us out since the chips used here are not well known and I couldn't simulate it either on any software since the ICs aren't inbuilt in the simulation software and hence I couldn't learn the working of these chips. Hope to hear from you soon.

Thank You. :D

CarrieBBBB 6 years ago

Hey, I am a bioengineering student at UMD and am currently trying to build a bone conduction hearing aid and was wondering if you could give my group some pointers or discuss with us how this circuit works. Please and Thank you

ArmanK007 6 years ago

Can you give me the link from where i can buy the solar panel ! thank you

samrox22 6 years ago

Hey what if i use piezo electric disc or pancake motors will that work too?

syurkriah 6 years ago

hi..sir i want ask you something about this project

MattiR 8 years ago

Hey, how bad is the sound leakage on these adafruit transducers? Likes can you hear it if someone next to you is listening to music with these? I know cheap bone conducting headphones have really bad leak, so if your in the same room, u sure gonna hear them. But expensive ones have likes none at all, you can listen to hellish volumes, ans no one will hear it if they dont touch you.

Danni FR 8 years ago

Hi.

You definitely can hear if someone next you is listening music. At low volumes is imperceptible, but at high volumes you can hear what others are listening (maybe 3 meters away if you are in a quiet place)

Yes, the sound leak is high but for the price of these I think is just fine.

chilli-tech 9 years ago

Loving it...we have our own Brand of Bone Conduction Headphones BUT these rock!! Loving the Solar part the most :)

LazyH 9 years ago

Hey, have you done any programming with the xs3868 bluetooth module? I use that same one but can't get a serial connection to work between it and my computer.

Danni FR 9 years ago

Not yet, I know that you need to use SPP profile on the computer but I dont have idea how to do that. Maybe you can use device manager to see is there is a serial port on your computer when the xs3868 is plugged.

Also you should try to send some AT commands and see what happens.

LazyH 9 years ago

ok, I tried connecting using the RX and tx pins of my arduino board but with no success in sending any commands, my computer recognized the board itself (ftdi chip at least) but not the Bluetooth module so I'm guessing I may need something with rs232 capabilities. I'll let you know how that goes once I get the parts.

Danni FR 9 years ago

Thanks for the feedback, I am going to check the links :)

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