Make your own Gakupo headphones that light up according to the volume of your voice.

Things you'll need:

-soldering gun

-solder

-color coded solid core wire

-access to a 3-D printer

-cat 5 cable

-RGB LED 60 Black x 1m

-Gemma micro controller

-headphones with microphone

-Mic Amp MAX 4466

-wire cutters/stripper

-battery pack

-3 AAA rechargeable batteries

-PLA 1.75mm Ruby Red Translucent 1Kg spool

Step 1: Designing

Step one was drawing out the design and creating it on an online site. This takes sometime so here is a link to the site at tinkercad: https://www.tinkercad.com/dashboard/?

If the link doesn’t work create your own account and look up “wishingforalife”. You’ll be able to find it then. Once you have completed that, download the file for a 3-D printer and print out the headphones. I would create smaller ones first to test the temperature. The recommended temperature for the Ruby Red was actually too low for what we printed it at.

Step 2: Coding

Once printed go to this website:

https://codebender.cc

and look up “Gakupo’s headphones.” This will give you the code you need for the gema. It’s a strange code and I modified it from a code I got at adafruit. Theoretically it should make the lights light up according to the volume of your voice. However I could never get it to quite work the way I wanted and when I did get it to work it only lasted for a short while before going back to what it did before. It will still react to your voice, but in the opposite way I wanted it to. To look at the original code please go to this website:

https://learn.adafruit.com/trinket-sound-reactive-led-color-organ/code

Step 3: Lay It Out

Once you have your headphone covers and code ready lay out how you want it to sit in the covers so you can get an idea how it should be before soldering. Take your RGB LED and cut off six strips with five lights on each. Make sure you cut in the middle of the metal bits you see as you will need them in order for the current to flow through the wires and connect them to each other.

Step 4: Connecting Your Lights to Each Other

Take your wires and cut three different ones of three different colors. One for the positive, your ground, and data. Measure the wires according to the length you need. The first wires you will need will be the ones you use to connect the lights to each other. Take three of the strips of lights you cut and connect them in a zig zag formation using the soldering iron and the wires you cut. Before connecting the wires make sure you strip some of the tips off so you can connect the wires to the lights without obstructing the current.

Step 5: Drills and the Otherside

Cut a hole in the headphone cases you printed for the wire to travel through along the back of the headphones to the otherside. It doesn’t matter if you’ve started from the right or left side, but I started from the left and worked my way right. Repeat step four for the otherside reversing the zig zag formation you did so the wires can run out the back of the wings of the case. I didn't originally and it caused some grief later on.

Step 6: Gema Board Connection

Now that you have the two sides connected connect the gema board and insert it into the right side and solder the wires. You can connect multiple wires into a single hole of the gema as long as the exposed wires do not touch each other.

Step 7: Battery Pack

Next step connect the positive and ground wires to your battery pack. To do this, I measured a length of wire that reach from my headphones to my hip where I could put the battery pack into my pocket. Measure this length and a little longer (just in case) and solder the connection. I made it a little longer than this so I could bend easily and not tug on the wire.

Step 8: The Mic!

Making sure the mic of your headphones is on the right-side measure three lengths of wire, once more, long enough to reach the mic. Before soldering notice that the data, ground, and positive connections are arranged differently from the lights and make sure that you do not connect the wires incorrectly, i.e. connecting the ground to the data.

Step 9: Finishing

Now that you have all the wiring connected it is time to attach it to your headphones. I simply used hot glue from a glue gun. I first glued the lights to the bottom of the case and then sealed the casing with hot glue making sure that the lights would shine through the ribbings in the wing of the case. I attached the wires on that loop around the back to the inside of the headphones preventing visibility. After that I sealed the headcovers shut, wrapped the mic wire around the microphone voilà! Gakupo headphones