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[–] 29 points 8 months ago (8 children)

Usually it's not exactly a speaker, but it does involve a controlled moving diaphragm. In a piezoelectric buzzer, a current applied to the diaphragm causes it to oscillate, and the size and shape of the diaphragm determines the tone AFAIK.

It may be theoretically possible to engineer such a device into a rudimentary speaker. I mean, people have done it with Tesla coils and player pianos, so hey, anything is possible?

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  • [–] 3 points 8 months ago (6 children)

    You can also make hard drive heads play music. Poor quality music, but music.

    Multiple piezoelectric buzzers could probably play a tune if you tune them to individual notes. Not sure how to tune them, but probably cutting them, or putting bluetak on them would alter their note.

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  • [+] [S] 2 points 8 months ago (1 child)
  • [–] 1 point 8 months ago

    A basic speaker is functionally a copper coil next to a permanent magnet. A hard drive head (although I guess more specifically read arm?) is also a copper coil next to a permanent magnet. So if you push an audio signal through the coil, it vibrates and makes sound. It's missing the diaphram/cone part of the speaker, so it'll be very tinny.

    If you want to make one yourself, get a broken hard drive, and an old pair of headphones, and connect the wires to the coil and play some music.

    https://www.instructables.com/Hard-Drive-Speaker-More-Instructive-Version/

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  • [–] 2 points 8 months ago (3 children)
  • [–] 1 point 8 months ago (2 children)

    Never tried floopy drives, good acoustics?

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