Introduction: Cardboard Boombox (made for an Mp3 Player or Ipod)
Supplies:
THE RIGHT SIZED CARDBOARD BOX
EXACTO KNIFE
SCISSORS
RULER
SPEAKERS
OLD PAIR OF HEADPHONES
HOT GLUE GUN AND DUH THE GLUE STICKS
A LITTLE EXTRA CARDBOARD
SOLDER (SO U CAN CONNECT THE WIRES)
My First Post (BE KIND PLEASE!)
Alright so i had a monday off no school, yay! i had a lot of extra time and i had just taken apart a boombox u know to see how it all works.. anyway after i was finished trashing that i had two perfectly good speakers (the boom box was a sony like from the 80s)...so i thought to myself .... why not make a speaker box that i can plug my old mp3 player into... (gettin out ear buds gets quite annoying)....
I Know Finding A Box That is the right size is going to be harder than this actual project so if you are among the lucky few that do let us continue...
First i cut 2 holes in the top of that cardboard box.... after taht i applyed electrical tape to the edges for looks and so it dosn't apear to be cheap but who are we trying to fool here ............. its made out of cardboard
The next step i suggest is to get your old pair of head phones and take out the speakers (removing as much plastic as possible) you can then connect your music player to the head phones and leave the music playing..... apply the leads to the speakers u want to go on your box, to the two wires that lead to the one headphone speaker... to test it and see that your speakers actually work.... it may take a while to get it just right. you can connect both sterio speakers as i did to the one head phone speaker, look at the photos and u may understand. (hope so)... now that u've got the speakers working (assuming that you did) you can solder teh wires together (you might need to recrute a friend to hold the wires in possition as you solder them together, its very difficult to do by yourself) keep the music playing the whole time because if teh speakers arn't connected properly it will only come out of the one head phone speaker...
AFTER you have accomplished that you should glued the speakers on to your box were u see fit..... i put the speakers facing out so it would project the sound out of the box hehe what a novel idea........
OK THE HOME STRETCH ......the last thing i did was i hide the wires under a piece of cardboard so i didn't have to fight them and get everything tangled up ..........
IF YOU MADE IT HERE CONGRATS!!! hey and send me a message i want to know how helpful my instructions were and how many people did it.
i'm sure the pictures will help more than anything .. i hope i got enough detailed ones.......... sorry i didnt take any during the building process;(
Step 1: 1
Supplies:
THE RIGHT SIZED CARDBOARD BOX
EXACTO KNIFE
SCISSORS
RULER
SPEAKERS
OLD PAIR OF HEADPHONES
HOT GLUE GUN AND DUH THE GLUE STICKS
A LITTLE EXTRA CARDBOARD
SOLDER (SO U CAN CONNECT THE WIRES)
My First Post (BE KIND PLEASE!)
Alright so i had a monday off no school, yay! i had a lot of extra time and i had just taken apart a boombox u know to see how it all works.. anyway after i was finished trashing that i had two perfectly good speakers (the boom box was a sony like from the 80s)...so i thought to myself .... why not make a speaker box that i can plug my old mp3 player into... (gettin out ear buds gets quite annoying)....
I Know Finding A Box That is the right size is going to be harder than this actual project so if you are among the lucky few that do let us continue...
First i cut 2 holes in the top of that cardboard box.... after taht i applyed electrical tape to the edges for looks and so it dosn't apear to be cheap but who are we trying to fool here ............. its made out of cardboard
Step 2: 2
The next step i suggest is to get your old pair of head phones and take out the speakers (removing as much plastic as possible) you can then connect your music player to the head phones and leave the music playing..... apply the leads to the speakers u want to go on your box, to the two wires that lead to the one headphone speaker... to test it and see that your speakers actually work.... it may take a while to get it just right. you can connect both sterio speakers as i did to the one head phone speaker, look at the photos and u may understand. (hope so)... now that u've got the speakers working (assuming that you did) you can solder teh wires together (you might need to recrute a friend to hold the wires in possition as you solder them together, its very difficult to do by yourself) keep the music playing the whole time because if teh speakers arn't connected properly it will only come out of the one head phone speaker...
Step 3: 3
AFTER you have accomplished that you should glued the speakers on to your box were u see fit..... i put the speakers facing out so it would project the sound out of the box hehe what a novel idea........
OK THE HOME STRETCH ......the last thing i did was i hide the wires under a piece of cardboard so i didn't have to fight them and get everything tangled up ..........
IF YOU MADE IT HERE CONGRATS!!! hey and send me a message i want to know how helpful my instructions were and how many people did it.
i'm sure the pictures will help more than anything .. i hope i got enough detailed ones.......... sorry i didnt take any during the building process;(
Step 4: 4 (the Final Product)
umm yeah u got a pretty sweet looking peice of hardware that is very functional (thumbs up)
56 Comments
11 years ago on Introduction
Hi, I just wanna ask if whats the function of that two circle things glued between the two speakers,,
13 years ago on Step 3
ok what your doing makes no sense the way u have it the speakers would not be very loud and y do u need the headphone y dont u just chop the wire on the headphone jack and connect that to the big speakers
13 years ago on Introduction
can anyone pls draw me up a quick schematic of the speakers, with a battery and the jack?
13 years ago on Step 4
this is a great first post, but the all capps got a little old.
13 years ago on Introduction
is it portable?
13 years ago on Introduction
nice i have a crybaby too expensive but an amazing pedal
13 years ago on Introduction
where can i get 2, 3 or 4 inch speakers like this?
any links to amazon plz?
Reply 13 years ago on Introduction
disassemble old stuff from salvation army and goodwill.. there are always clock radio's and what not that you can get for meer cents
Reply 13 years ago on Introduction
and do they have them at RadioShack?
Reply 13 years ago on Introduction
do you think i could get them from a cheap clock radio thing at the dollar store?
13 years ago on Introduction
"for mp3 player OR ipod". Really, really. ipods are overrated. but nice ible anyways
15 years ago on Introduction
hi i still don't get how u connected the headphone wire to the two speakers. can u check this image and let me know if it is right or not. if it is not can u draw somekind of a diagram so that i can see it or post it with the instructables that you have Thanks
Reply 15 years ago on Introduction
you may be over complicating it not sure
Reply 13 years ago on Introduction
nah its actually simpler to do it just sounds more complicated i would make a diagram but im going to be now - maybe tomorrow if i remember
Reply 13 years ago on Introduction
*be/bed lol
why can't you edit comments on here?
Reply 14 years ago on Introduction
Wiring it like that will mean it will be mono and both speakers will be driven off the same channel so it will be quieter. There should be two sets of wires (one for left one for right) so just connect one speaker to each one and it will be louder and stereo
Reply 15 years ago on Introduction
that way is wrong... well, to be more specific, what you have there is two speakers wired in series (and if i'm right... phase inverted) the headphone cable should have 3 wires... red, white, and unshielded. Red is the right channel positive, white is left channel positive, and the unshielded is negative for both channels... or ground. So, connect red to the '+' on the right... left to the '+" on the left (if the speakers aren't marked i think it's usually the bigger of the two terminals on the speaker itself) and then jumper the two '-' terminals.. and connect the unshielded wire to the jumper. unless you want mono sound (which is close to what you have described)
16 years ago on Introduction
I am seriously stressed out due to the fact that I can not build a REALLY REALLY simple Guitar amplifier amp... I did have the idea that if you do the following connections, SWITCH>JACK>JACK>SPEAKER>SPEAKER>+9V>-9V-SWITCH Current gets amplified and powered by the 9V battery. Hmmm...
Reply 14 years ago on Introduction
Will not work, if you want an amp you will need to use some circuitry. There will be some instructables on here that tell you how to make a simple amp, but what your saying is too simple (I understand where your coming from but trust me it wont work (and yes i did try that when i was much younger and just getting into electronics))
16 years ago
Hey one thing I wouldnt keep my mp3 player that close to the speakers the magnets can erase the hard drive. :P