Build A Stereo From an Old Hard Disk

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Build A Stereo From an Old Hard Disk

Posted by ryuzaki0 on Sunday May 9, 2004 @03:07AM from the because-you-can dept.

An anonymous reader pointed us to an amusing little hack site that demonstrates how you can build a little stereo out of an old hard drive. Of course I don't need a stereo for I am a human beat box.

32 of 167 comments (clear)

Surely by (1337)+God · 2004-05-09 03:08 · Score: 5, Funny

There's gotta be SOME kind of law this violates.

Whenever someone does something cool with music or technology these days, it seems they get SUED by some American company!

C'mon. DMCA maybe? RIAA violation? It's gotta be somethin!

--

Background: 28/M/Bi-Sexual; Owner of a Linux company; MBA Harvard 2003; B.S. Comp Sci MIT 2000
1. Re:Surely by TerminalInsanity · 2004-05-09 15:52 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  They have yet to invent the law this breaks. Just wait till this type of thing gets a spot on techtv or something more mainstream
WTF??? by Black+Parrot · 2004-05-09 03:08 · Score: 5, Funny

> Of course I don't need a stereo for I am a human beat box.

I thought marriage was supposed to fix that!

--
Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
1. Re:WTF??? by Anonymous Coward · 2004-05-09 03:11 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  You have obviously never been married.
Old News by googleaseerch · 2004-05-09 03:10 · Score: 5, Informative

There was a different article like this one over a year ago. The other person made 3.
1. Re:Old News by mpeg4codec · 2004-05-09 03:15 · Score: 5, Informative
  
  That was an Afrotech Ghetto Hardware Mod. Sorry, couldn't find the /. article on it.
Harddrives can be pretty versatile by zaunuz · 2004-05-09 03:10 · Score: 5, Interesting

That's what i've been saying for years. I've used old harddrives for many things. These includes:

1. Weapon (seriously.. excellent self-defence tool. Saved my ass once)
2. Ash-tray (screw it open)
3. Toy (Am i the only one who find those rotating plates amusing?)
4. Paperweight

--
this is probably the most boring sig in the world
1. Re:Harddrives can be pretty versatile by zaunuz · 2004-05-09 03:19 · Score: 3, Funny
  
  Actually, no. I threw a regular 13gb IDE harddrive into the chest of someone who wanted to beat the shit out of me after stealing his booze. I think i hit him with a corner or something, because he sounded like it hurt like hell.
  
  --
  this is probably the most boring sig in the world
2. Re:Harddrives can be pretty versatile by kzinti · 2004-05-09 03:21 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  5. Magnets
  
  If you keep nothing else, at least keep the magnets out of your hard drive. They're amazingly powerful for their size... wonderful toys!
3. Re:Harddrives can be pretty versatile by zaunuz · 2004-05-09 03:27 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  SCSI may be better than IDE, but no hardware can match the danger of a man weilding an ATX powersuply.
  
  --
  this is probably the most boring sig in the world
4. Re:Harddrives can be pretty versatile by zaunuz · 2004-05-09 03:37 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  When i think of it... iMac would be the most dangerous hardware-weapon. You could get a good swing at it, because of the good grip you get on the handle, and it weights alot more than the human skull can take at the apropriate hurling-speed.
  
  --
  this is probably the most boring sig in the world
Anyone know where I can get... by rokzy · 2004-05-09 03:10 · Score: 3, Funny

an .mp3 to see what it sounds like?
1. Re:Anyone know where I can get... by Spy+Hunter · 2004-05-09 03:22 · Score: 3, Informative
  
  Will an AVI do?
  Here.
  
  --
  main(c,r){for(r=32;r;) printf(++c>31?c=!r--,"\n":c<r?" ":~c&r?" `":" #");}
Commodore 64 music? by isny · 2004-05-09 03:13 · Score: 5, Interesting

Does anybody else out there remember a program for the Commodore 64 that use the 1541 floppy disk drive to make music? By moving the drive head at different speeds, it played "Jingle Bells" or something else like that. The drive still ran OK after that one. Can't say too much on this project, though.
1. Re:Commodore 64 music? by The+Clockwork+Troll · 2004-05-09 03:29 · Score: 5, Funny
  Yes, although your memory is a little off.
  I have a copy of "CATALOG: The Commodore 1541's Greatest Hits" sitting here. Tracks include:
  
  Drive - The Cars
  
  Step By Step - New Kids On The Block
  
  You Spin Me Round - Dead Or Alive
  
  Crash - Dave Matthews Band
  
  I can't make out much of the label after that, can anyone help me here?
  --
  
  There are no karma whores, only moderation johns
2. Re:Commodore 64 music? by Awptimus+Prime · 2004-05-09 05:38 · Score: 3, Interesting
  
  I was wondering about the alignment issue.
  
  I ran a BBS on an old TRS80 with 4 floppies and was sending drives off over alignment issues every few months and that was from normal read/write accesses. Luckily, my local Radio Shack was cool and looking for support from the BBS community and ate the cost.
  
  Us TRS80 users had the tape motor relay as our audio toy. It was a simple coil relay that would make a very audible click when engaged or released. Though there was code to control the speed of access in BASIC, there were no limitations on what you could do with it in ASM. Apparently, the limitation was put in place to keep from destroying tape drives and the relay.
  
  I remember producing some really disturbing sounds, but ended up rigging the tape relay up to the power cable to my modem. With a small bit of code, a few wires, and raped cassette drive cable, it was relatively easy to turn the old RS 300 baud modems into auto-answer. Basically, splice the power cable to the modem, cut the cassette cable's drive motor and connect the two. Then splice the phone cable and connect the two live wires to the audio-in cable, then make a loop in ASM or BASIC that watches for a particular memory address value to jump from 7-10 to 250-255 for a few moments, then issue a MOTOR ON command and close the loop to power the modem who's switch is already flipped to ANS mode. Of course, this had limitations. I had to spend a lot of time tooling code for the BBS that would reduce the chances of a hung, dead connection (if the user hung up without logging out) as there was no actual carrier detection. My final solution was a TSR that would MOTOR OFF and reload the answer script if there was no activity for 2 minutes.
  
  That's another example as to why I always considered Commodites to be similar to what script kiddies of the mid-80's would have been, compared to the more traditional TRS80 hackers. The Commodites downloaded someone else's crap and ran it while us TRS80 ppl got out the soldering iron on a regular basis or learned ASM so all 64k of resources would be usable. :-)
Um... by Athas · 2004-05-09 03:13 · Score: 4, Funny

Yeah, yeah, it's possible to build a stereo from a hard isk...

I'm sorry, but I don't think very many people enjoy the screeching sound of a needle penetrating a harddisk-platter.

--
Gnusay -- for all your talking gnu needs.
Translation please... by hemp · 2004-05-09 03:16 · Score: 3, Funny

"Take the hard disk and open it, may be you will need a little torx screwdriver if you don't have it, take the hard tools: the drill and eat them with it."

Can anyone translate this for me?

--
Skip ------ See the latest from http://www.anArchyFortWorth.com
1. Re:Translation please... by wideBlueSkies · 2004-05-09 03:27 · Score: 4, Informative
  
  If you don't have the proper screwdriver handy, try drilling through the screws.
  
  Be careful when using a drill bit that's small enough to wear away a screw of the type used to secure hard drives. Because of their size, they have a tendancy to snap when caught on jagged metal. It's not nice having little pieces of drill bit bouncing into your face.
  
  I've been there.
  
  wbs.
  
  --
  Huh?
2. Re:Translation please... by Anonymous Coward · 2004-05-09 03:50 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  Be careful when using a drill bit...
  Check. I'll add that to: never solder in your underwear.
3. Re:Translation please... by unitron · 2004-05-09 15:41 · Score: 3, Funny
  
  "Furthermore: do not use breasts as a vise"
  Except, of course, for that one particular exception. :-)
  
  --
  I see even classic Slashdot is now pretty much unusable on dial up anymore.
YATTA by TexasDex · 2004-05-09 03:18 · Score: 3, Informative

Another person did this, and has the videos to prove it at Afrotech Mods
The song "YATTA" will get into your brain and it won't leave. Except that in the hard disk video you can't quite hear it all that well.

--
The Cheese Stands Alone.
Stereo? by blkros · 2004-05-09 03:22 · Score: 3, Funny

Ok--it's a speaker )which is really neat).
Butt it's 1 speaker, so it makes it mono, and that's it.
I thought it was going to be something to play/store music on. Unless there's more, we've been jipped.

--
Damnit, Jim, I'm an anarchist, not a F@#$!^& doctor!
Not quite stereo by GarbanzoBean · 2004-05-09 03:23 · Score: 4, Funny

I think you need TWO speakers for that. Yes, a RAID streo system is in order.

My "stereo system", computer with two harddrives is the best source of white noise around. Unfortunately, my power supply is louder.
The Most powerful magnet... by big+daddy+kane · 2004-05-09 03:23 · Score: 3, Insightful

the most powerful magnet on a computer is in the hard disk.

what about on the speakers?
1. Re:The Most powerful magnet... by boffy_b · 2004-05-09 03:55 · Score: 3, Informative
  
  No, HD magnets are WAY stonger than those puny things, just don't get two stuck to-gether, or put them on your mum's fridge.
  
  --
  Windows is only $500 if your time is worthless.
Re:This was the post from awhile back- by thewldisntenuff · 2004-05-09 03:40 · Score: 3, Informative

Oops....Broken link

Ok, give this a try. This should be it.

Sorry bout that :)

--
My MythTV HowTo
Does reverse engineering in this case by TobiasSodergren · 2004-05-09 03:40 · Score: 5, Funny

... mean that you can get a harddrive from an old speaker?
Don't try this at home... by tiger99 · 2004-05-09 03:55 · Score: 5, Informative

... or you will destroy your amplifier. Note that he says that you need to join the left and right channels together to get mono, if you are only making one speaker. Two low-impedance sources carrying different voltages......
In any case it would work far better if the coil was kept within its original magnet, and the edge glued to a diaphragm. It is designed to work that way! If you were only wanting a woofer, you could simply attach the diphragm to the existing head arm, but don'y expect any response above a few 100 Hz.
I honestly wonder why anyone bothers with something so stupid anyway.
Retro music! by grahamlee · 2004-05-09 04:01 · Score: 3, Interesting

Does anyone else remember making music using the Sinclair microdrives? I don't know what was up with quality assurance at Sinclair (except that Clive couldn't afford any), but the drives all ran at different speeds. So get yourself a dozen QLs (or ZX microdrives, or ICL One-Per-Desks), work out which notes they correspond to (relatively, no need for concert pitch here!) and then get programming! Starting and stopping the motors on the various machines will pump out da choons.
I've tried this by bigberk · 2004-05-09 07:33 · Score: 3, Interesting

When I first learned about this (on slashdot actually) I tried building a couple hard drive speakers for our university lounge. They actually worked pretty well, the only hard part being soldering to the thin, insulated wires (need to sandpaper down to reveal wire).

We hooked it up to extra speaker outputs on the back of an ancient radio amp in our lounge so you can switch from regular speakers to hard drive speakers. The hard drives are actually wedged into corners of a wooden cabinet, and the real nice effect is because they cause the wood to resonate. Overall, the output is pretty loud!
Re:Not just that... by Tackhead · 2004-05-10 02:31 · Score: 3, Funny

> But also if your using electronics solder, with the flux built it, the spatters will burn the top of your thighs pretty good. Not that i do boardwork in my boxers often...
OK, I read all the advice on this thread and I took my underwear off when I did some soldering last weekend. I don't care what you say, next time, the underwear stays on.
P.S. You're all bastards. I hate you all. Someone hand me another bag of frozen corn?