Propel-a-Buds
When you think of things that seemingly dance to music you probably think of people on a dance floor. However would you believe a simple RC Quad-copter motor would dance too?! Well they are fully capable of rotating, vibrating, and producing a little sound of their own by soldering them to connections you would typically plug most speakers into.
Read this instructable to see how we turned a boring broken pair of earbuds into the first pair of working Propel-a-Buds!
Materials/ Tools
Materials
- Replacement/ extra mini RC Quadcopter motors (x2)
- Mini Quadcopter propellers (x2)
- Solder
- Super glue/ Hot glue
- Broken or old pair of earbuds you want to upgrade
- Stereo Auxiliary (male) input to RCA (male) input
Tools
- Soldering Iron
- Drill w/ bits
OPTIONAL:
- Pliers
- Alligator clips
- Wire Strippers
Disassemble Earbud
Begin by disassembling the earbud until you have the speaker and the casing separated, and if your earbud is like this one here you will have an outer sleeve and a squishy ear insert. Remove those as well.
Altering Earbud Casing
Most earbuds will not have a hole in the back of the casing, this one did however it was too small to fit the motor inside. This is where you take your drill and create a hole big enough to just barely slide the motor in.
Next you will most likely need to increase the size of the hole the cord will slip through to accommodate for the thicker wire. Try to use the same hole the old cord fit into (just widen it) but if the motor is in the way just drill a new hole
Prepare for Solder
Cut the RCA inputs off, strip the wire, and separate positive and negative. Do this for both sides. Slide the motor and newly cut cord into the casing and do a quick twist of the positive and negative wires on the motor to the corresponding positive and negative wires of the cord.
Solder
With the wires still protruding out the front of the casing, make sure to identify the correct leads on the speaker and match them up to the twisted leads you made earlier, then solder the connections carefully
Gluing It All Together
Apply the super glue or whatever bonding agent you prefer to secure the motor in the back, the cord along the bottom, and the seal around the speaker to the casing. You may want to hold it together with alligator clips.
Finalize
Apply the outer sleeve (make adjustments where necessary) and secure with glue. Add the ear insert and propeller to finish it off
​Propel Your Music Listening Experience to the Next Level!
**Note** The quality of sound will be decreased slightly due to the splitting of power to the speaker and the motor. But hey, you'll look great wearing them! :)