HOW TO GET WHAT YOU WANT

Sound Amplifying Circuits

This post covers a few different (very basic) techniques for amplifying various sound sources. On the one hand sound coming from circuits inside toys that make sound (toy piano, singing greeting cards, recording and playback modules…), as well as sound made by generating frequencies using a microcontroller such as the ATtiny or an arduino board. On the other hand, audio coming from your laptop computer or mp3 player.

Various hardware for sound amplification:

Amplified Greeting-Card Sound Circuit

Using a TIP122 transistor >> de.rs-online.com/web/p/transistoren-darlington/3136900/

Circuit diagram:

Circuit on paper:

Circuit on wood:

Videos:

Amplified ATtiny/Arduino Sound Circuit

Circuit diagram:

Hacked Amplified Speaker Module

A cheap and easy way to amplify the sound coming from your laptop computer or mp3 player is to buy a cheap amplified speaker module (make sure it uses batteries and doesn’t just run off the power of the audio supplying device!) and to hack it open and connect it to some fabric speakers for example.

Amplified speaker modules:
- Clas Ohlson >> http://www.clasohlson.com/no/Portabel-h%C3%B8yttaler-Exibel/Pr383986000
- Design Torget >> http://www.designtorget.se/designtorget/se/webbshop/Teknik1.Hogtalare_mini.dcp

To amplify the sound coming from an mp3 player to a fabric speaker:

Fabric speaker:

Hacked amplified speaker module:

Video:

5 Comments so far

Amplifying fabric and paper sound circuits #WearableWednesday « adafruit industries blog on November 28th, 2012

[...] Perner-Wilson writes wrote up an informative post about amplifying sound circuits, including those that exist on fabric and [...]
Plusea on November 29th, 2012

[...] Some simple ways for amplifying various audio signals >> http://www.kobakant.at/DIY/?p=3794 [...]
A Little Ludwig Goes A Long Way » Programmable behavior everywhere, in everything. on November 30th, 2012

[...] going to be embedded everywhere — and not just in the obvious places, but in objects made of fabric or paper or wood, or in plastics. This last one is really fascinating, combining 3d prototyping and electronic [...]
Week 10 Slides: Sound (Updated!) | Computational Craft on April 14th, 2013

[...] Amplifying Sound Circuits Paper Speakers from HPW [...]
nini on June 25th, 2013

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Content by Mika Satomi and Hannah Perner-Wilson

The following institutions have funded our research and supported our work:

From 2013-2014 Mika is a guest professor at the eLab at Kunsthochschule Berlin-Weissensee

From July - December 2013 Hannah was a researcher at the UdK's Design Research Lab

From 2010-2012 Mika was a guest researcher in the Smart Textiles Design Lab at The Swedish School of Textiles

From 2009 - 2011 Hannah was a graduate student in the MIT Media Lab's High-Low Tech research group led by Leah Buechley

In 2009 Hannah and Mika were both research fellows at the Distance Lab

Between 2003 - 2009 Hannah and Mika were both students at Interface Cultures

We support the Open Source Hardware movement. All our own designs published on this website are released under the Free Cultural Works definition

Sound Amplifying Circuits

Amplified Greeting-Card Sound Circuit

Amplified ATtiny/Arduino Sound Circuit

Hacked Amplified Speaker Module

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