Week 1 in Maker-spacetime
It has been just over a semester since I first laid my eyes on the Makerspace in Indiana University. I walked past it every week to get to my Foundations of HCI lectures. The Informatics building at the crossing of East 10th Street and North Woodlawn Ave is quite unassuming in comparison to the intimidating Kelly School of Business or the Hogwarts-esque Memorial Union building. Having had its start as a Sorority house, I’m afraid it was doomed from the start. The Makerspace, however, is an immodest room, with walnut-stained panels and liberally decorated with the expensive 3D printers which line the shelves. I imagine it must have been a lounge of some sort in its previous life, with lounge chairs which embrace rather than support, a coffee table in the middle that serves more to please the eye than to serve any meaningful purpose and a fireplace, now obscured by the 80-watt laser cutting machine.
And now, I was finally in the club. Our professor, Christian McKay introduced himself and what we would be doing in this class while I let my visions of grandeur overcome me — walking out of the workshop everyday Mad-Max-style, covered in sawdust, calloused hands with spots of solder burns, and maybe, eventually, one day, my contraptions taking over the campus.
One small step at a time, Dinesh. Do not bring attention to yourself.
The first day was mostly safety instructions. Not quite the excitement I had imagined, but necessary nonetheless. Handtools, powertools, what-to-do’s, what-not-to-do’s, what-to-do’s-when-someone-does-what-they-shouldn’t-have-with-fiery-consequences. Most of these instructions were punctuated, for good measure, with tales of people losing parts of their bodies ranging from the mildly-useful (fingertips) to the not-so-useful (scalps).
There are two things that can be made by use of a plastic cup, a piece of wire, and some magnets. The first is a limited-use time machine. The second is a primitive speaker device. We focussed on the latter.
Step 1: Flip the cup upside down
If you have done this right, it should look something like the picture below. If your inverted plastic cup does not match what is depicted in the photograph, try inverting it again.
Step 2: A coil of wire and glue gun
Wrap a length of wire around a pipe or any cylindrical object you can find to make a tight coil. Four or five loops should do. Probably. Now, you’re going to want to glue the coil to the bottom of the cup. Yes, it could probably have been tidier than what I have done here, but in my defense, it was the first time I had ever held a glue gun. Oh, and you are going to want to leave the two ends sticking out of the base of the cup as seen below. The two ends have had their enamel sandpapered off.
Step 3: Place magnets
Place a few neodymium magnets, like so. Keep in mind, that at this point, most of us are just following orders. I don’t really understand speakers yet. They are magic for all intents and purposes.
Step 4: Blow the roof
With this rig, you are ready to connect what looks like a miniature jumper cable with an audio jack at one end. Connect the audio jack to your phone and get ready for some serious tunes. I for one, played Lisztomania by the Phoenix. Once you put you ear to the mouth-side of the cup, you start to hear something other than the sound of your own blood pumping through your veins and the voices in your head. You start to hear the actual song. “Song” might be too generous a word here. Lisztomania’s cheerful chorus was reduced to “muhmuhmehmehemeh…”. I was told this was because we didn’t have an amplifier.
To conclude, it looks like we are going to be reading up on how speakers actually work and how to make a better one some time soon. For the time being, I am going to stick to my cheap Sennheiser ear phones.
