Transforming dead earbuds into POWERFUL wireless speakers

if you've got an old pair of wireless earbuds that no longer work properly don't throw them away because they've got some seriously cool technology on the inside that can be repurposed to make a pair of truly wireless stereo speakers now this is significant because wireless speakers are usually just a single unit and while they do receive a stereo signal it's all coming from a single spot so usually can't really be appreciated and that's why you need a stereo pair now the audio quality advantage of this is huge as you'll hear later in some audio tests but before that let's get building them while this project will work with most pairs of wireless earbuds and you can use pretty much anything you have lying around broken or not the ones i'm going to be using are a set of defective samsung galaxy buds these are nice mid-range headphones with solid audio quality and as they're often bundled with smartphones they're mass-produced to such a degree that some eventually do end up breaking and finding their way into places like ebay for very cheap prices making them a perfect opportunity for recycling the reason why it's usually okay to go with faulty ones is that the problem very often is either bung to diaphragms or dead batteries neither of which matter in the slightest for this project as we just need the electronics on the inside opening them up is fairly straightforward as they can be pried apart to reveal the internal workings i'll be explaining everything in here in detail in just a moment but before that the first thing to do is remove the speaker piece this can be a little tricky to do but pushing it from the other side helps a lot after which it can be desoldered from its ribbon cable leaving us with some solder pads that are the unit's audio output as we'll be using this output to drive our set of speakers we'll need to carefully solder some additional wires to them and poke them through the plastic casing so that the ribbon cable can rest in its original position like so with that done we can put it to one side for now as it's time to focus on the main electronics as you can see they're very compact and our job here is essentially to remove the internal battery that they're wrapped around as we're going to power it externally instead this is for two reasons really the first being that if a unit's battery is faulty it easily takes care of that problem and the second reason is that it allows us to use an external switch to turn them on and off which is essential for bluetooth connectivity as you'll see later you can find full details of this process in the additional project guide that's in the description if you need any help particularly if you use a different brand of earbuds that doesn't match this process exactly with both earbuds done we essentially have a synchronized bluetooth audio receiver set operating in stereo and when you look at it this way you can see the value in repurposing them for this as bluetooth receivers are almost always single units that can't be split for truly wireless stereo setups like we're aiming for so the next step is to start working on the main speakers themselves for which we need some small speaker drivers these are obviously what will produce the sound so it's worth going with some that are high quality though do keep in mind that you can recycle some from an old tv or set of computer speakers if prime audio quality isn't your main goal as you'll perhaps have observed i'm using two speaker drivers for each unit one for the mid-range and treble frequency ranges and the other working as a subwoofer for some really deep bass both of these speaker types have been carefully selected for this project because of their individual characteristics and make an excellent pair the mid and treble driver for example has an ultra wide directivity for a broad-reaching soundscape and the subwoofer can go incredibly low with its accompanying passive radiator for the repeatability of this project i do highly recommend that you use these speakers as well and you can find links to them in the description now for mounting these wood is a great material to use for making the enclosures for them as it's dense which is good acoustically and it's quite friendly to work with i'm using some wall note here for the front and back and to make it a bit more interesting than just a square box we're going to go with a rounded look as it's not really any more difficult to do but it should look quite unique using a compass is a great way of marking the holes for the speaker drivers themselves using a router or a coping saw to carefully cut them out while you can of course do this by hand well enough i have access to a cnc router so i took advantage of it for a really sharp look for this video using it also allows me to indent the speakers slightly which allows them to sit a little bit further forward as the edge around them looks a bit square though it's a perfect opportunity to use a chamfer bit these cool bits allow you to glide over the edge of the wood with a router to shape it and they're available in many different styles this one is a simple curve so with the bearing keeping it in line it cuts the edge wonderfully and softens the aesthetic as it is of course wood it can be improved even further by giving it a few coats of finishing oil very nice so with that done the drivers themselves can be mounted in place though i do suggest using some putty here to make a good seal around each one having a speaker enclosure properly sealed is super important for audio quality and it's something we're going to be paying a lot of attention to throughout this build as any shortcuts taken in this regard would result in disappointment to make the rest of the enclosure as the shape is a bit unusual we need to cut out various semi-circles from thick mdf with the intention being to glue them together into stacked layers while you can of course do this by hand i utilized my cnc which allowed me to refine them even further into u-shapes the only advantage of this is that thanks to the centers now being essentially hollow it increases the internal air volume so that the enclosure can be about four centimeters shorter it's not that much of a difference really though so you won't be missing out on much if you do yours manually however you do it these can then be joined together by two flat sheets one of which has a hole in it for the passive radiator as cut mdf needs sealing you might want to coat it with a mix of pva and water or mdf primer as i'm using here it's worth noting though that the external side of this enclosure will never actually be seen directly as we'll be covering it with a different material in just a bit it's a good idea at this point though to add some threaded inserts to the bottom for some feet to be screwed into later and also add the passive radiator being sure to use some putty for a really good seal now as we have two drivers we need to divide the enclosure up into two internal chambers using another bit of mdf we aren't going to glue this in place yet though as it's going to function as a platform for an amplifier this amplifier is necessary to get a high volume output from the earbuds and low-cost ones can be bought pretty easily from places like amazon despite this low cost they sound fantastic and are super efficient so run nice and cool when mounting this in place though it's important to remember to have a few holes on the platform for various wires to be threaded through in just a moment the earbud 2 can be glued in place but instead of soldering it up directly to the amplifier's input we have three very special circuits to make despite what you might think of first glance these are actually super simple and each one functions as a sort of analog equalizer and have been carefully tuned specifically for this project to get the most out of the speakers the first one acts as a low pass filter which means that it will cut out high frequencies meaning that only the bass frequencies can get through this makes it perfect for the subwoofer driver as it will only have to deal with the frequencies that it excels at recreating as the amp is stereo i suggest soldering it to the left channel though think of l as standing for large subwoofer rather than left so you don't get mixed up with your wiring the filters for the mid-range and treble drivers are a little bit more complex although the first one is simply an inversion of the subwoofer's low pass filter instead cutting out base frequencies so that the driver won't waste any energy on them as they're already being handled by the subwoofer the second filter might look a little bit more complex but it's still pretty simple and works to smooth out the frequency response delivered by the mid-range driver it took me literally hours of experimentation to find the right frequency modifications for this but it makes a world of difference to the sound quality so it's highly recommended for when you build yours as well both of these filters can be linked up to the right channel or r for refined mid-range the rest of the soldering is pretty self-explanatory with wires needing to be added to the amplifier's outputs at the bottom and some more for the amplifier's voltage input now this particular amp runs on anything from 8 to 20 volts which means a perfect source of power is a set of lithium-ion batteries these are quite easy to get hold of though it's absolutely essential that they have built-in protection circuitry that cuts the power when they start running too low to make a battery pack out of these i suggest gluing some battery holders together and wiring three of the batteries in series leaving the other to operate in solo this gives us essentially two voltages to work with 12 volts for the amplifier and four volts for the earbud the separated power means that a ground loop is avoided resulting in interference free audio to make them removable you might want to glue them to a bit of wood that can fit onto the rear panel with a double gang switch just below it for turning both voltage points on and off individually when needed so with that done we've basically finished though do remember to double everything up as you're going along for the other speaker in the pair as well so with all these individual components essentially complete now the last thing to do is put them all together to see not just how good they look but also how good they sound but before we get on with that it's time for a quick add from this video's very fitting sponsor audible for as long as i can remember i've always loved listening to audiobooks they're great for listening to whilst working exercising commuting or anything really i've lately been listening to lord of the rings on audible whilst building a very hobbit-like house and my goodness if you've only watched the films you're in for a treat as listening to the original novel allows you to fully experience the world and story that tolkien created as it's such a long book i'd never normally have time to read it so it's been great listening to it on audible instead now they don't just have fiction books either they've got thousands of titles waiting for you to discover on many different topics including travel history engineering and biographies to name a few so audible will keep you learning as well as entertained for as long as you like now if you'd like to see just what they have to offer for yourself you can listen to any one of the many books in their library for free by signing up for a 30-day trial at audible.com diy perks which you can also find linked to in the description or by texting diy perks without space to 500 500. as i mentioned earlier a great one to start with is of course lord of the rings which will keep you entertained for literally hours and with the trial it's literally free so what are you waiting for get signed up at audible.com diy perks or by texting diy perks to 500 500 and get listening today so the last thing to do is of course fit everything together and we're going to start with the amplifier blocks the edges of these can simply be covered with glue and pushed into place again a great seal needs to be made here with no air gaps so using clamps while they dry is definitely recommended with this now secure the amp's speaker output wires can be soldered to the speakers themselves being careful to get the correct polarity after which the front can be glued in place too i'm using a glue that expands slightly here in order to fill in some air gaps hence the masking tape though it's pretty easy to scrape off once it's set so we're nearly ready to test this thing out but before screwing on the back panel it's time for some more sealing this time i suggest using some squishy draft excluder all the way around the perimeter of the chamber and across the amplifier platform with that the battery pack and switch can be soldered up too and screwed tightly down on top as you can see when the batteries run low it can simply be removed and the battery is charged with an appropriate charger when screwing this in place though do remember to add some draft excluder around it as well the reason for which i hope i've hammered home by now so with that the last thing to do to finish it off is complete the aesthetic with some fabric you can choose pretty much anything you like for this and it's a great way of achieving different styles though do try and use something that's reasonably acoustically transparent so that it doesn't interfere too much with the passive radiator speaking of the passive radiator by the way you may want to cover it with some mesh to prevent it from ever getting damaged if handled improperly though do ensure that there's at least a four millimeter gap underneath so that it doesn't rattle against the radiator anyway as you can see i'm using some nice gray fabric here and mounting it is pretty easy as the edges can just be folded over and carefully glued with some super glue to keep it in place once it's looped all the way around i suggest spreading a bit of super glue over the areas covering the threaded inserts in order to prevent fraying once the fabric is cut which allows some speaker feet to be screwed in place these feet keep them perfectly upright and i have to admit that the final aesthetic really is quite splendid and you wouldn't at all think that they were homemade the neutral textured fabric contrasts beautifully with the richness of the walnut and the thin tall shape works well with the curved sides to reach a level of elegance that's quite surprising i could easily see these with some kind of premium speaker brand tagged on the front so it's a great example of one of the perks of diy so i think it's safe to say that visually these have turned out looking quite beautiful but having good looking speakers isn't worth much unless they sound great too and i'm happy to report that these are some of the best sounding small-scale speakers i've ever heard take a listen turning them on is as simple as flipping the switch on the back and assuming they've been paired with a smartphone they automatically connect without a force [Music] hold up [Music] you [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] as you could hopefully hear that the rich bass in combination with detailed mid-tones and smooth treble results in a really nice listening experience and the stereo effect gives it a vibrancy that single unit speakers just can't come close to touching not bad at all so that's it for this video i hope you've enjoyed seeing how to make some fantastic sounding truly wireless stereo speakers out of an old pair of bluetooth headphones honestly it's a great way of repurposing things like this so it comes highly recommended now don't forget you can find all sorts of extra tips and tricks in this video's additional guide which you can find linked to in the description but other than that i'm matt you've been watching diy perks and i hope to see you next time goodbye for now you

Channel: DIY Perks

Views: 356,163

Rating: 4.9674206 out of 5

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Id: zNHDbXAmY_0

Length: 18min 7sec (1087 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 30 2021