Foil and Paper Speakers

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By John Baichtal
Posted 2011/10/04 @ 8:30 pm
Category Electronics

Catarina Mota, Alicia Gibb and Shelby Arnold built a speaker made entirely from copper foil tape on cardstock. They’re testing it with the JelTone edible piano. The speaker’s design comes from the High-Low Tech Research Group at MIT.

The tape is applied to the paper in a coil-shaped pattern. When connected to the output lines of the JelTone with alligator clips, the speaker produces a soft hum. This sound matches the tones that the piano produces when hooked up to a real amplifier, though it’s a lot softer and noisier.

[Via @ericskiff]

BY John Baichtal

My interests include writing, electronics, RPGs, comics, scifi, hackers & hackerspaces, 3D printing, building sets, & toys.

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5 Responses to Foil and Paper Speakers

Dave on October 5th, 2011 at 2:36 pm said:

Interesting. They don’t show the magnet necessary for operation, though.

As an interesting variation on producing the coil, a bit of pencil lead (graphite) drawn on a substrate, and then Copper electroplated, may make for an interesting design approach.

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- Shelby Arnold on October 5th, 2011 at 4:04 pm said:
  
  You are correct – there is a magnet underneath the paper/copper coil. I’ve updated the original post to clarify.
  
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- Shelby Arnold on October 5th, 2011 at 4:04 pm said:
  
  You are correct – there is a magnet underneath the paper/copper coil. I’ve updated the original post to clarify.
  
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  Anonymous on October 6th, 2011 at 3:01 am said:
  
  Or maybe two coils on two pieces of cardstock. One coil is placed on top of the other, and they’re wired in series, but out of phase so that they produce equal but opposite magnetic fields.
  
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stormcopper on February 11th, 2013 at 10:50 am said:

We love it!! Of course…we are a little nuts about copper foil ourselves. Still…thanks for sharing.

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