A 360° View Of A Classic Drive-In Speaker

December 18, 2023 by Kristina Panos 22 Comments

Readers of a certain vintage no doubt have pleasant memories of drive-in theaters, and we are chuffed to see that a few hundred of these cinematic institutions endure today. While most theaters broadcast the audio on an FM station these days, the choice is still yours to use the chunky, often crackly speaker that attaches to the car window.

Seeking to relive the drive-in audio experience at home, [codemakesitgo] picked up a drive-in theater speaker on eBay and turned it into a Bluetooth device that sounds much better than it did in its weather-beaten days outside.

There isn’t a whole lot to this build — it’s essentially a new speaker cone, a Bluetooth receiver, an amp, and a battery. The real story is in the way that [codemakesitgo] uses Fusion360 to bring it all together.

After 3D scanning the case, [codemakesitgo] made sure each piece would fit, using a custom-built model of the new speaker and a 3D model of a custom PCB. Good thing, too, because there is barely enough clearance for the speaker. Be sure to check out the brief demo video after the break.

Continue reading “A 360° View Of A Classic Drive-In Speaker” →

Generate Fully Parametric, 3D-Printable Speaker Enclosures

November 28, 2021 by Donald Papp 9 Comments

Having the right speaker enclosure can make a big difference to sound quality, so it’s no surprise that customizable ones are a common project for those who treat sound seriously. In that vein, [zx82net]’s Universal Speaker Box aims to give one everything they need to craft the perfect enclosure.

The parts can be 3D-printed, but the design ensures that the front and back panels are flat, so one can use wood or some other material for those depending on preference and appearance. The assembly is screwed together using six M3 bolts per side with optional heat-set inserts, but it’s entirely possible to simply glue the unit together if preferred.

One thing that makes this design a bit more broadly useful is that [zx82net] not only provides the parametric design file for Fusion360, but also includes STEP format CAD files, and a small number of pre-configured assemblies for a few commonly available speaker drivers: the Dayton Audio DMA70-4, ND91-4, and the TCP115-4. Not enough for you? Check out [zx82net]’s collection of ready-to-rock enclosures in a variety of designs and configurations; there’s bound to be something to appeal to just about anyone.

[via Reddit]

Design And Construction With Copper Pipe

March 11, 2020 by Lewin Day 21 Comments

Copper is a material with many applications; typically, it’s used for electrical wiring or in applications where good heat conductivity is a requirement. However, it can also make for an attractive material in furnishings, which [Andrei Erdei] decided to explore.

A render of the coffee table design, exported from OpenSCAD into Fusion360.

[Andrei]’s work began in OpenSCAD, where he wrote scripts to enable the quick and easy assembly of various designs. The modular nature of commercially-available copper pipe and fittings allows complex structures to be assembled, particularly if you’re a fan of 90-degree bends. The final renders of some of these designs are impressive, with the coffee table design a particular highlight. Staying conceptual wasn’t enough, however, so [Andrei] set out to build one of his designs. Constructing a table lamp shroud out of copper parts was successful, though the real components have flanges and other features that aren’t represented in the rendering.

It’s a project that shows the value of tools such as OpenSCAD to aid the design process before committing to cutting real-world materials. While the designs on screen aren’t perfect representations of what’s possible in reality, it still proves to be a useful guide.

We’re a fan of the aesthetic, and would love to see more done with copper pipe as a construction kit. Global ore prices may limit experimentation, however. Alternatively, you can always harvest the metal from scrap!

Hackaday Links: March 24, 2019

March 24, 2019 by Brian Benchoff 31 Comments

It has come to my attention that a few of you don’t know about Crystalfontz, an online store where you can find displays of all types, from USB LCD displays to I2C OLEDs, to ePaper displays. Thanks to [arthurptj] for that tip. Yes, Crystalfontz is cool, but have you ever heard of Panelook? Oh boy are there some displays at Panelook. Here’s a 1024 by 768 resolution display that’s less than half an inch across.

The comments section of Hackaday has been pretty tame as of late, so here’s why Apple is the king of design. It’s a question of fillets. There are a few ways to add a fillet to the corner of an icon or a MacBook. The first is to draw two perpendicular lines, then add a fixed radius corner. The Apple way is to make everything a squircle. The ‘squircle’ way of design is that there are no sudden jumps in curvature, and yes, you can do this in Fusion360 or any other design tool. This is also one of those things you can’t unsee once you know about it, like the arrow in the FedEx logo.

The ESP8266 simply appeared one day, and it changed everything. The ESP32, likewise, also just arrived on the Internet one day, and right now it’s the best solution for a microcontroller, with WiFi, that also does things really fast. Someone over at Espressif is dropping hints of a new microcontroller, with a possible release on April 1st (the same date that Apple released their competitor to the Raspberry Pi). Is it RISC-V? Is it 5V tolerant? Who knows! (Editor’s note: it’s not RISC-V. Though they’re saying that’s in the pipeline.)

The Verge got their hands on an original iPhone engineering validation unit. It’s a breakout board for an iPhone.

San Dimas High School Football Rules

There’s a screwdriver in your toolbox that has a cast clear handle, a blue ferrule surrounding the shaft, and red and white lettering on the side. Go check, it’s there. It’s a Craftsman screwdriver. It’s an iconic piece of design that’s so ubiquitous that it’s unnoticeable. It’s just what a screwdriver is. It’s a prototypical screwdriver. Thanks to the rise of resin and turning craftsmanship, there’s now a gigantic version of this screwdriver.

[The 8-Bit Guy] posted the following message on his Facebook on March 19th: “Just FYI – somebody hacked and totally erased my website. So, it’s going to be down for a while.” At the time of this writing, everything looks okay, which brings up the larger question of why Facebook is still a thing. We’re on a gradient of coolness here, and the sooner you delete your Facebook, the cooler you are. I, for example, deleted my Facebook during the Bush administration, and we all know how cool I am. I’ll never get to the singularity of coolness of kids who never had a Facebook in the first place, but the point remains: delete your Facebook old man.

[SirEdmar] wants to bring Fusion 360 to Linux users. Autodesk wants the same, and they tried a web-based version of Fusion 360, but… it’s a web version of Fusion 360. Right now the best solution is Wine, and thanks to [SirEdamr] 360 works in Wine.

Bing translate does Klingon! How well does it work? Not bad, it could use some work, mostly with non-standard vocabulary:

Generative Design Algorithms Prepare For Space

November 17, 2018 by Roger Cheng 14 Comments

NASA is famously risk-averse, taking cautious approaches because billions of taxpayer dollars are at stake and each failure receives far more political attention than their many successes. So while moving the final frontier outward requires adopting new ideas, those ideas must first prove themselves through a lengthy process of risk-reduction. Autodesk’s research into generative design algorithms has just taken a significant step on this long journey with a planetary lander concept.

It was built jointly with a research division of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the birthplace of many successful interplanetary space probes. This project got a foot in the door by promising 30% weight savings over conventional design techniques. Large reduction in launch mass is always a good way to get a space engineer’s attention! Mimicking mother nature’s evolutionary process, these algorithms output very organic looking shapes. This is a relatively new approach to design optimization under exploration by multiple engineering software vendors. Not just Autodesk’s “Generative Design” but also “Topology Optimization” in SolidWorks, plus others. Though these shapes appear ideally suited to 3D printing, Autodesk also had to prove their algorithm could work with more traditional fabrication techniques like 5-axis CNC mills.

This is leading-edge research technology though some less specialized, customer-ready versions are starting to trickle out of research labs. Starting with an exclusive circle: People with right tiers of SolidWorks license, the paid (not free) tier of Autodesk Fusion 360, etc. We’ve looked at another recent project with nontraditional organic shapes, and we’ve looked at generative designs used for their form as well as their function. This category of CAD tools hold a lot of promise, and we’re optimistic they’ll soon become widely accessible so we can all put them to good use in our earthbound projects.

Possibly even before they fly to another planet.

[via Engadget]

A Custom Keyboard At Maximum Effort

July 31, 2018 by Brian McEvoy 16 Comments

No one loves hacked keyboards more than Hackaday. We spend most of our workday pressing different combinations of the same 104 buttons. Investing time in that tool is time well spent. [Max] feels the same and wants some personality in his input device.

In the first of three videos, he steps us through the design and materials, starting with a layer to hold the keys. FR4 is the layer of fiberglass substrate used for most circuit boards. Protoboards with no copper are just bare FR4 with holes. Homemade CNC machines can glide through FR4, achieving clean lines, and the material comes in different mask colors so customizing an already custom piece is simple. We see a couple of useful online tools for making a homemade keyboard throughout the videos. The first is a keypad layout tool which allows you to start with popular configurations and tweak them to suit your weirdest desires. Missing finger? Forget one key column. Extra digit? Add a new key column. Huge hands? More spaces between the keys. [Max] copied the Iris keyboard design but named his Arke, after the fraternal sister to Iris which is fitting since his wrist rests are removable. Continue reading “A Custom Keyboard At Maximum Effort” →

Motorized Turntable Created From TV Stand

August 3, 2017 by John Baichtal 2 Comments

[Robin Reiter] had a powered TV stand that only rotates around 20°, because who really needs their TV to rotate fully? He wanted to turn it into a motorized turntable for shooting videos, but first he had to hack it.

After opening it up [Robin] discovered that there was a surprising amount of electronics in the base. In addition to a DC motor, there was a potentiometer attached to a gear to give feedback, but it was set up for partial rotation so it had to be yanked out.

There was also a plastic gear with teeth around just part of the interior. [Robin] took a picture of the gear and dropped it into Fusion360, using the photo as a reference image while he re-created the gear. The new piece had teeth all around the periphery. After printing it out he glued it into the old gearbox, and now he had turned his TV stand into a motorized turntable.

If you’re looking for more along these lines, check out our posts on making parametric models in Fusion360 and turning a turntable into a waveform generator. Continue reading “Motorized Turntable Created From TV Stand” →