Is gimicky but was thinking it might be cool for a friend that's a hair stylist.. just not too sure how to approach exactly.. Guess just modulating the current/voltage through a battery-operated clipper should work?
Definitely not thinking anything like this, but is the only thing I found that sorta is the idea so far -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S9K5MIEOyqA
there's a kabillion videos where ppl make floppy drives sing but nobody rigged hair clippers yet? you gotta be kidding me...
well, just wondering if there's any thoughts on this.. I don't have time or hair clippers just this second to play around with.
Replies
easy button:
gut the clippers and use the case for a cbgitty amp kit (like the cigarette box amps), you may need to find a smaller speaker
If they are old enough ( have dbl coils) , make a pickup , it essentially is a pickup . or use an old razor
Find more videos like this on Cigar Box Nation
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http://www.cigarboxnation.com/video/electric-razor-powered-guitar
you may have to clip an earth magnet on it over night . or leave a small one on it .
but easy peasy lemon squeezy.
mmm i shared this video on a facebook page just last week ,sounds great ..
:-D cool Jabes
The opposite of what I am trying to do but then that does sound so sweet..
the floppy drives sing because they use stepper motors. you can control the speed and direction of the motor. the speed controls the pitch of the note.
hair clippers are an AC motor so you wont be able to control its speed except by reducing the ac voltage...
in the clip you linked the magnets affect the windings and therefore the speed/pitch. you couldn't achieve what you want with magnets, but winding a coil of wire around the body and varying the voltage and current to adjust the magnetic field might do something...
personally i would put it in the too hard basket.
what about battery operated clippers? Do they all usually use small AC motors or maybe they switch to DC..
I like the electro-magnet idea with the coil..
might just need to basically build something with a cheap/small DC motor that sounds similar to hair clippers than start with AC hair clippers and tear them down...
hmmmm..
there is a difference between a DC motor and a stepper motor.
a dc motor has 2 wires , polarity on the wires dictates which way it spins and voltage and current how fast it spins.
stepper motors have 4 or more wires and direction of spin is controlled by which wires are powered and then which next ones.. speed is controlled by how fast the steps are switched.
those floppy drives etc are made to make a pitch by driving them with a PWM signal
Pulse Wave Modulation is a bit hard to explain without pics...lol
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YmPziPfaByw
if you want recognisable sound from the clippers then i think the only way would be to use the housing for a small LM386 amp and speaker...
I am familiar with PWM signaling and somewhat with stepper motor control. I'm more familiar with brushless DC motor controllers though, at least the theory.
Pulse Width Modulation is only a method to approximate frequencies in a signal using only ON/OFF pulses - it also has the effect of approximating amplitudes / duty cycles.
My original thinking was -
Using a potentiometer as a throttle control for a DC motor would be the analog way of doing it.. Driving the voltage from a microphone / pickup signal would be related...
Assuming a battery operated clipper operated normally with an internal ~9v or so source, you should be able to use it as a speaker just using a psycho knob or LWM386 as the amplifier..
Trying to drive an AC motor via a mic/pickup signal would be just a bit more electrical engineering than I am familiar with, especially dealing with mains voltage.