Dodecahedron speaker

2013-07-05 | Permalink

This project has been finished (well, finished-ish, as always) for quite a while now, but I just realized I never got around to writing it up. In fact, I already extended it, but that’s something for a different post.

Way, way before I even had a printer I saw this Instructable. And immediately fell in love with it. It had never left my mind as a want-to-build-at-some point thing, and some time ago I finally got around to doing it.

But of course mine is completely different ;)

For starters, I did not want ‘just’ a speaker, I wanted one that had an integrated amplifier, much like those computer speakers you see everywhere. I wanted it to have a standard jackplug so it could play from most devices, and I wanted it to have physical power and volume buttons.

After doing some (well, hours of) online browsing for parts, I settled on a parts list, with which I shall not bore you, and got to designing the shell parts. As my parts would have different dimensions and properties than the ones used in the Instructable, I had to design everything myself. Which of course is 90% of the fun. Even with the countless failed attempts.

(Okay I lie, only some initial designs were made at this point, somewhere along the line I changed them completely but I don’t have screenshots of the earlier attempts. Also the button came after everything was done and built. But hey, what’s a little temporal randomization among friends.)

The parts arrived and it was time to do some serious soldering, first the speaker parts.

And once that was done, I could test the amplifier and all components.

(this actually has music coming out of it but that’s a bit hard to capture in an image)

Satisfied that it was working, I could assemble the main dodecahedron part:

And then it was time to make the big print, solder everything else together and shout and curse it all into one big shiny package:

It is awesome, if I say so myself, even though I did make a number of mistakes:

• I ‘forgot’ to ground it (so depending on what is connected, it can have background static)
• I only included simple speaker parts and forgot to add ones that are suitable for low sound waves, so it’s not really suitable for loud music with a lot of bass (but yes, it can be VERY loud).
• I did not include a shiny “i’m on” led.
• The dial has no numbers, so it does not go to 11.

But hey damnit, I have built my own dodecaspeaker!