I've wanted to make some sharp looking business cards for my side gig for awhile now, and I've also had a concept for a low profile speaker design I've wanted to try out.
The controller and programming portion of this project is nothing novel. In fact the code is simply running one of the ESP-IDF examples from Espressif. The uniqueness in this project is the speaker coils. Awhile back I made some coil PCBs for another project, and I had the thought - I wonder if I can make an audio speaker from two separated FPC coils and no permanent magnet. This is my attempt to do just that!
This business card utilizes:
-ESP32-WROOM-32 module
-MAX98357a I2S Audio Amplifier
-Some LEDs for some lighting effects
-USB plug built in to the board
-FPC coil speakers
I received the boards and reflowed all of the components in place. Next step is to flash the device and see if there's any sound 🤞
Instructions and details to follow once I have some success.
Functional Overview
I thought it would be worthwhile to give a high level blurb about the intended speaker function. Basically I have two, double-sided FPC coils wired in parallel with opposite polarity. The coils are soldered apart from each other on opposite sides of the main PCB and cover the round cavity. The thought is that the opposite polarity with the sound signal will cause the two coils to either repel or attract each other as would occur with a traditional speaker with a coil and permanent magnet. I haven't been able to find similar designs online and maybe they exist or maybe there's a fundamental issue that will result in these not working, but even garbage audio would be a fantastic result for this concept!
I love where this project could possibly go and I will be keeping my eye close to this one. In my line of business; Licensed Insurance Specialist, you need to optimize every aspect of your brand and your personality. By being able to provide something like this along, people will more than likely share it within their family for two reasons. First, If I do my job as I always do, they will want to send referrals (plus I always reward referrals), and secondly if you have a business card in your hand of that caliber…who are you not going to show how cool it is; right???
My only thought on this type of card, after looking through your picture gallery, is how great it would be to figure out a way to put a logo, call to action or a ridiculous picture of my face over the speaker covering. It just felt like too much negative space sitting there in the open. I don’t know what material you are using or thinking of using, so I don’t know if something like that would work…but I would definitely buy as many as I could depending on price point. You have a really cool thing going here. I can speak to my future client before we ever meet!
I love where this project could possibly go and I will be keeping my eye close to this one. In my line of business; Licensed Insurance Specialist, you need to optimize every aspect of your brand and your personality. By being able to provide something like this along, people will more than likely share it within their family for two reasons. First, If I do my job as I always do, they will want to send referrals (plus I always reward referrals), and secondly if you have a business card in your hand of that caliber…who are you not going to show how cool it is; right???
My only thought on this type of card, after looking through your picture gallery, is how great it would be to figure out a way to put a logo, call to action or a ridiculous picture of my face over the speaker covering. It just felt like too much negative space sitting there in the open. I don’t know what material you are using or thinking of using, so I don’t know if something like that would work…but I would definitely buy as many as I could depending on price point. You have a really cool thing going here. I can speak to my future client before we ever meet!