Hard drive... SPEAKERS?!

[@Afrotechmods]

Interested in learning about wireless power? Subscribers can get up to 80% off my course Wireless Power to the People - Wireless Charging 101 on udemy using the coupon code "KZbin" www.udemy.com/wireless-power-to-the-people-wireless-charging-101/?couponCode=KZbin

[@unmanaged]

so how about doing this with the coils in the bldc motor?

[@Technoguy3]

Slowly turn up the volume, aaaaaannndd...... COPYRIGHT VIOLATION!

[@ivanjacob_]

I would have like if Google had fixed their app.

[@vladstalingrad7407]

Technoguy3 BAHAHAHA!

[@HsMals3n]

+Technoguy3 makes my evening :D

[@fartonaut2291]

It's painful to listen to so it doesn't count

[@msxenix]

I followed your website guide for this back in 2004-2005, when i was in high school. I hooked up the drive to an old audio amplifier and cd player. It was a cool science class demo. Thanks for bringing it back in video format.

[@youtubasoarus]

I used to screw around with stuff like this years ago. You can do this with ANY coil of wire and a magnet. Granted, the coil can get hot so don't go throwing 50 volts at the thing. But an amplified source will work. Coil generates EM field, Magnet repels it... poof... magic. Sounds n' stuff. Great vid!

[@dasgettopikachu7878]

youtubasoarus Is the magnet also mounted on the plectrum formed head? Or is it on the hdd?

[@RimstarOrg]

Cool. What's vibrating? I'm guessing that coil and magnet normally just pivot the arm and head across the disk radius. Is the arm what's vibrating and moving the air to make the sound waves? Now to think about where else there are coils and magnets that can be adapted to make speakers.

[@Afrotechmods]

RimstarOrg Yup that's correct. Check out my other channel Afrotechmods2 for a close up shot of the arm vibrating.

[@UltimatePwnageNL]

Afrotechmods now glue a paper cup or something to the head...

[@shawnmichaelsteven9528]

try old tape drive moter add wire to each side to head set wires bite the shaft with teeth an u can hear what is playing on the radio

[@stonent]

Ahh back to your roots!

[@Afrotechmods]

*fist bump*

[@GameCyborgCh]

this sounds like beats by dre

[@RestoreOldRadios]

I never considered or gave thought of using an old hard drive as a low quality loudspeaker. Thanks for sharing. Best. Don

[@thomashamiltom]

Killer video dude! Thanks for the creative new way to use old hard drives!

[@mjlorton]

Classic!

[@thatonethattalksalot7656]

Looks like a hell of a fun speaker to spin and listen to at the same time, i love spinning things!!

[@ElectronicsEnthusiast]

Thats one expensive way to get crappy speakers :) Stil very cool

[@zl8018]

For me this film has sentimental value: At the beginning of my professional career I dealt with a computer, which used punched tape as data storage. The tape reader had an electromagnet for stopping the fast moving tape precisely at chosen place. We had a program (in form of a punched tape of course:) ) capable of playing melodies using that electromagnet as a "speaker". Two storage devices used as speakers and the whole epoch between them...

[@Gooberslot]

Now all you need is an old 5.25" drive for the bass. :)

[@DeadW4]

Not only bass - they can do some percussion. I remember my 5" when it starts during boot.

[@shawnmichaelsteven9528]

u so rock ty been watching u for years ya taught me alot built many awsome projects in my lab while watching your blogs on my main screen

[@cameraman1234567890]

Great Video Afroman.

[@pcfreak1992]

1:59 Which raises the question: could you use this with a modified HDD firmware to create a hidden microphone?

[@Xenro66]

No where near sensitive enough, and the virbration of the fans and other hdds will throw off the head :/

[@pcfreak1992]

I was more thinking of a parked head inside a laptop maybe, but you are probably right.

[@badpiggies988]

So this is how the floppotron’s performance of “Want You Gone” from Portal 2 was able to make the hard drive sing

[@Theminecraftian772]

I'm just imagining hacking into a large database and making the hard drive room sing. The computer can choose where the voltage goes, so I think that we could probably write a program to turn any hard drive into a speaker without hardware changes. Though I'm not sure how well we'd be able to hear it inside its case.

[@1.2.3.4..5]

Were do you store the program?

[@Theminecraftian772]

Ogere Sherk We would store it on the hard drives of course. It would be read off of the hard drive, put into the CPU's cache or the ram to run it because we might not be able to read off the hard drive while they're singing. and when we want to make it stop or if we need to read off the disk, we can pause the singing so the disk can be read properly if it can't be while it's singing

[@Engineer9736]

Theminecraftian772 The computer only sends a data address to the harddisk and the harddisk returns the value at that address. You would need to flash the harddisk it's firmware, in such a way that the original firmware still works, and gets this added functionality. But this will take lots and lots of research and will only work for one harddrive model at a time.

[@unlokia]

Theminecraftian772 You can't "hack" analogue waveforms. That's the issue with the online world - everyone thinks software and "hacks" can do ANYTHING, well they can't.

[@travis4798]

I took mine a few steps further a while back. Removed the annoying platters, added the bottom portion of a paper cup to the arm, added rubber grommets to the stops so it wouldn't hit, then used hot glue to create feet for the bottom. Actually sounded good. :P

[@skyem5250]

I find Skrillex to be especially appropriate for this application.

[@SetMyLife]

I'm surprised this video didn't get taken down by youtube's music bot. It always seems to be an ever improving as*hole. Anyway, nice explanation :)

[@stonent]

+Jaroslav Malec I once recorded a fireworks display and tried uploading it to youtube, and it got flagged immediately because there was muffled music in the background that it detected between the booms.

[@wb5rue]

A cool addition would be to have the platters rotate slowly.

[@plzleave6302]

someone should try using this as an actual tweeter in a bookshelf speaker

[@mrinalthakur3459]

sire can you make a video about audio modulated flyback or plasma speaker

[@dfsafadsDW]

Afro u are awesome keep post dude!

[@Deckardsvr]

I'm curious, did KZbin warned you about these two popular songs ?

[@josipzlk8019]

do tutorial on diac,triac,thiristor and that stuff

[@Yezpahr]

I remember this one from the old website 10+ years ago xD

[@judgenap]

Fantastic. Thanks. Please do a tutorial to get the platters moving

[@Renegade30]

How did you even think of doing this?

[@HossinNBossin]

Just found this gem of a channel

[@FunScientifix]

lol the last song cracked me 😂😂😂😂 bangarang

[@SapphFire]

Is it possible to move the head of the drive and play music at the same time?

[@zezeA380]

Could you make a tutorial of a transistor amplifier circuit step by step tutorial? Seems complicated for me to comrehend.

[@SheepUndefined]

I just heard Bangarang come out of a metal disk. My life is complete.

[@veskotrichkov9579]

Can you show how to make equalizer ang guitar effects and how to incorporate that into a power amplifier?

[@davidliddelow5704]

Actually the head moves because of the right hand rule. If the coil was an electromagnet the head would move up and down instead of side to side.

[@ciprianwinerElectronicManiac]

Awesome video. I made something similar to this, I took a optical drive asembly from a cd player and underneath the lens there are usually 2 or 4 coils with 2 or 4 magnets next to them. I managed to hook the coils to an amplifier and voilla. I made a headphone out of it and yes you can put it next to your ear and has bass lol. Cheers :)

[@rya3190]

...i wish you had this up before, i took an old hard drive apart and kept the magnets...

[@codycarter7146]

what is the most watts of audio can be used with the hard drive speaker?

[@OutDoorsMan1342]

What is the likely outcome of just using a jack and or the use of ann mp3 player? And that was kool in an unusual way

[@Afrotechmods]

The likely outcome is that it will be fine, but mp3 players etc expect a headphone impedance of about 32 ohms or more. If you connect a lower impedance like 12 ohms there's the risk of burning out the amplifier on the player. It all depends on how they designed it so just to be safe I'm telling people to not do it.

[@rlrsk8r1]

Afrotechmods Perhaps a balun would be in order?

[@nosuchthing4789]

Same thing can be made with flash drives. Digital synth sound will be out, of course... Good old hdd sound :(

[@Imagopher]

LOL

[@victorhonore9156]

Afro where can buy resources to build tech things

[@wotsac]

Any tricks you could bring to bear to improve the sound? Obviously it will never be good, but my intuition is that there ought to be something. Also- would this work with the platter spinning? I'm guessing that a large part of the effect is from rubbing on the platter, so probably not.

[@MyersBrandish]

Hook up the drive's motor to a MIDI interface and you'll get a ghetto turntable.

[@jeronimomurruni]

OMG The sound quality is much better than a Marshal valve amplifier.

[@kerolox7929]

What do you recommend for voltage/current of the input signal? I have a few old HDDs lying around that I haven't gotten around to destroying yet, and I'd much rather do this with one of them haha

[@johnegbert4786]

Ugh, that low end speaker is to poor for me, the sound of that is nothing compared to MY portable valve amplifier connected to my $20.000 custom made headphones that I use to hear high quality music at the bus. I can't believe that peasants actually listen to garbage sound like MP3s (ew). My ears would bleed if something that isn't FLAC is near me. I cringed when the sound of that non SSD came out. Now, if you will excuse me, I need to get my hands on the new premium sound audio SD cards from SONY and my pure gold digital audio cable covered in authentic Egyptian papyrus.

[@Afrotechmods]

John Egbert Don't forget your 99.9999999999% oxygen free copper power cable!

[@johnegbert4786]

***** There's a translate button just below the comment, it says "WARM tube sound YOU GO TO HELL!" and whats up with posting comments in Russian, every one is doing that. Its getting old

[@EuanTodd]

John the Sony high quality sound sd card is a sham go watch eevblogs video about it

[@AlexanderPrussak]

John Egbert nice

[@Sipnol]

wow the amount of people who dont understand sarcasm is terrifying

[@bikutoso]

Wounder if it could be possible to contain everything inside the HDD, and replace the HDD on a friends computer to make a funny prank.

[@tacosattack282]

Haha I like your thinking. Could hope they mistake it for an unused harddrive. Heck, they might even think it was a virus and reinstall Windows.

[@emilseihmanis]

***** how is it pointless if that's a prank?

[@bikutoso]

Emīls Eihmanis I would say that it is pointless, but all pranks are kinda pointless anyway.

[@emilcarr7190]

If it's an old hard drive with an exposed PCB, you could figure out which pins on the PCB correspond to the right pins on the flex circuit. That way the hard drive wouldn't break, but at the same time you could play audio on it (I think).

[@tacosattack282]

Emil Carr Moving the hard drive's head using an audio signal would certainly interfere with the drive being able to read/write data.

[@michakuczynski2987]

Good music choice :D

[@QuinWade-e1r]

i tried it. it works. this is amazing

[@casaverdero]

Please make a video about winding transformers

[@javadj184]

That was brilliant.

[@peted4937]

That is the best sounding speaker ever.

[@dasgettopikachu7878]

y u didnt show the magnet head moving

[@SangiTariq]

Nice Video.

[@djwubzee]

But how do i get the songs to play?

[@electronicinvestigations1253]

So going to try this..

[@tomasbarra2002]

new camera!! great :)

[@gerardpayton9765]

what is that song playing near the end??

[@Afrotechmods]

+Gerard Payton Skrillex - Bangarang.

[@gerardpayton9765]

+Afrotechmods Thanks!

[@security1guy]

Is it mono

[@987inuyasha]

How can you make the speaker sound clearer?

[@Imagopher]

by using actual speakers instead of a hard drive

[@lnwolf41]

An interesting mod. Good if you need a speaker but it's all you have., and you have an amp handy too.

[@c.screator9666]

how to connect wire from hardrive please confirm me completely detail

[@TheAmerind]

The star wars theam did it for me, thumbs up

[@itex2099]

What is the music not the star wars one but the second one

[@Afrotechmods]

IT EX Skrillex - Bangarang

[@itex2099]

Thanks

[@Arhentir]

The Floppotron..... is that you?

[@ilovecomputers]

What's the name of that last song?

[@Marko7357]

Skrillex - Bangarang

[@Hugo-pj4bm]

Markus not darude sandstorm?

[@Marko7357]

***** I was tempted but felt like being a nice guy today haha

[@cameraman1234567890]

Im just going to copy this random file over to another folder and listen to my favorite song while doing it lol.

[@LifeOfPabs]

this is pretty awesome haha

[@romeodelossantos3825]

how to use this without amplifier ?

[@KanttusOP]

What if I don't use an amplifier?

[@giomjava]

Ha ha :) Nice video! Thanks I wonder if there's a way to make it sound better?

[@ngocbannguyen]

u should make the disks spin like you're reading data from it

[@chrisrosenkreuz23]

2:15 that's not how speaker magnets are polarized, here is how dc.edu.au/wp-content/uploads/loudspeaker-figure.png

[@Candyman97]

Nice!

[@anasarkawi4331]

İt's awesome project

[@Big_Chungus935]

You can tell your friends its magic hahahaxhah

[@101AOK]

I think one could get a fuller sound if 2 paper cups and a string were used. That was not what I expected .You can turn just about anything into a speaker. That was really weak for the amount of work.

[@MatSmithLondon]

And for my next trick, I am going to turn this mouse into a polyphonic synthesiser. #haptictastic

[@DreamRJ]

amazing :D

[@JonathanRadityaValerian]

WOW!

[@RhetteLawe]

Interesting...

[@NanoBurger]

OMG....hipster headphones! I must have a half dozen hard drives I could do this to...

[@athena9656]

yeah...you can play music with motor

[@unlokia]

ARRRRRGGGHH MY EARS!!!!

[@VincentThaDJvip]

I love Star Wars, i reconised the theme inmidiatly (Sorry for bad English)

[@Randy_McShandy]

But... why?

[@don.timeless4993]

Maybe useful for zombie apocalypse :p

[@Man101than]

Bc's we can...

[@zombiepancakes21]

Until you showed the coil there I really thought you were just fucking with us

[@TheBestChannel]

not bad :)

[@sortsvane]

$5 speakers ?

[@popcat19]

Sounds like a earphone ngl

[@pistonsjem]

take them magnets... throw away HDD

[@Miguel_Adames]

Waaao man!!

[@vladstalingrad7407]

SNUGGLY PUPPY

[@FreshCraft242]

nice hack!

[@Bylga]

TechnoTechModz

[@w1p30ut3r]

Almost a hifi speaker! *sarcasm*

[@qefyr]

Seagate - best manufacturer of phonographs, but not HDD!