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Can DIY planars be done?

post #1 of 11
8/20/11 at 8:24pm
Thread Starter 

I've taken a look at a few diagrams on the internet, and it looks like a DIY planar magnetic headphone might be do able with some mylar, bar magnets, and carefully cut aluminum foil. My understanding is that the current passes from one end of a "ribbon" to another and creates an electric field which is repelled by one magnet and pushed by the other, right? So could I just take a piece of mylar, stretch it out over a circular "frame" of sorts, and then cut a circle of aluminum foil so that there is a "path" for the current to flow along, then glue one of these to either side of the mylar? then just attach the ground and hot wire to either end as usual, place between two magnet arrays with strong repelling fields, and let the music flow? This sounds much easier to me than doing an electrostatic amplifier...

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post #2 of 11
8/20/11 at 8:34pm

I don't know if you can do this or not but this is way too interesting popcorn.gif

 

I'm not engineer or anything but I'm going guess that its possible, but if you the wrong materials it might just break. 

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post #3 of 11
8/20/11 at 8:39pm
Thread Starter 

Okay, ceramic bar magnets can probably be had for less than ten dollars, mylar will be five, and foil is practically free. Now I just need to gun down someone with the exact dimensions I need magnet wise, i can hook it all up, and if it works, then ill do the cables and housing. Anyone want to save me 10 bucks and tell me if the ceramic magnets won't be strong enough? Otherwise I'm doing it.

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post #4 of 11
8/20/11 at 8:48pm

Theres a contest for this.  Just thought I'd mention in this thread.  

 

http://www.innerfidelity.com/content/diy-orthodynamic-headphone-measurements-and-contest

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post #5 of 11
8/20/11 at 8:52pm
Thread Starter 

Hm, I saw that and I thought they were modifying t50rps, not building from scratch.

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post #6 of 11
8/20/11 at 8:54pm

If you are going to make a ribbon, make sure your amplifier can drive a dead short - read up on appogee etc and their current requirements. OR build a transformer box to both drive the membrane and create an easier load for the amp. The "easier" way is to etch the voice coil onto the mylar foil and make a planar magnetic driver.  OR just buy a modern fostex T50RP , take its drivers with the neodynium magnets and experiment away ..dB

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post #7 of 11
8/20/11 at 9:02pm
Thread Starter 

How would I etch a voice coil onto the mylar?

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post #8 of 11
8/22/11 at 8:27am

Try using conductive paint and draw some lines onto the Mylar.  I think it's a lot easier to do it this way than gluing the aluminum.

 

Wachara C.

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post #9 of 11
8/22/11 at 10:31am
Quote:
Originally Posted by ffdpmaggot View Post

How would I etch a voice coil onto the mylar?



http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/planars-exotics/154536-diy-planar-using-aluminized-mylar.html

 

there are a few online methods ..dB

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post #10 of 11
8/22/11 at 5:00pm

What about circuit pens with silver ink such as "circuit writer" trace pens.

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post #11 of 11
8/22/11 at 7:24pm
Thread Starter 

Conductive paint sounds like a good idea. What requirements are there to drive a dead short?

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