I have heard of people using the piezos out of toys for pickups. Has anyone ever tried using the piezo looking thing out of a smoke detector? If so does it work? I replaced the dated one in the house but stripped it of anything that may be useful before throwing it away.
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Got it, thanks! I'll put the speaker back in my wife's new car!...
soundssogood said:
People have used spekers as mics in Resonators before , the thing is with a audio speaker you need lots of air pressure against the cone to make it move and theres all sorts of feedback problems that can occur there not reliable - at the end of the day all a Microphone is a miniture speaker with a very thin membrain cone and very fine wire windings but instead of applying current like a speaker you create the current by moving the Cone /membrain with the pressure of your voice
no a speaker without a cone is no use at all - whats going to move the voice coil (wire windings ) ?
juju.
Paul Doug said:
So are you saying if a person wired a speaker from a headphone or say a car speaker would work in a guitar just like a piezo? On a car speaker could you cut it down just to the coil (take the black paper cone off) and wire it in would it work?
soundssogood said:
A regular audio speaker does the same thing if you speak into it it can be used as a Microphone , because a speaker has a wound wire coil which moves up and down the magnet it produces a electrical current = Volume - a easy way to test this for yourself it to plug a set of headphones into a mic input socket and speak into the headphones ! as you know speakers are made for producing sound and to do this a electrical current is sent from a Amp down and around the coil of wire which is fastend to the speaker cone which moves freely up and down the Magnet the current and magnet counter act on each other which moves the speaker cone = volume - a piezo is a device that works on vibration , when it vibrates a electrical current is made or when you apply a current the piezo vibrates = volume
hope this explaines it a little better for ya juju.
Jim138 said: I still do not really understand piezo pickups. Why something that makes a sound in one thing can actually work as a sort of contact mic is beyond me haha.
Jim138 said:
I still do not really understand piezo pickups. Why something that makes a sound in one thing can actually work as a sort of contact mic is beyond me haha.
People have used spekers as mics in Resonators before , the thing is with a audio speaker you need lots of air pressure against the cone to make it move and theres all sorts of feedback problems that can occur there not reliable - at the end of the day all a Microphone is a miniture speaker with a very thin membrain cone and very fine wire windings but instead of applying current like a speaker you create the current by moving the Cone /membrain with the pressure of your voice
no a speaker without a cone is no use at all - whats going to move the voice coil (wire windings ) ?
juju.
Paul Doug said:
So are you saying if a person wired a speaker from a headphone or say a car speaker would work in a guitar just like a piezo? On a car speaker could you cut it down just to the coil (take the black paper cone off) and wire it in would it work?
soundssogood said:
A regular audio speaker does the same thing if you speak into it it can be used as a Microphone , because a speaker has a wound wire coil which moves up and down the magnet it produces a electrical current = Volume - a easy way to test this for yourself it to plug a set of headphones into a mic input socket and speak into the headphones ! as you know speakers are made for producing sound and to do this a electrical current is sent from a Amp down and around the coil of wire which is fastend to the speaker cone which moves freely up and down the Magnet the current and magnet counter act on each other which moves the speaker cone = volume - a piezo is a device that works on vibration , when it vibrates a electrical current is made or when you apply a current the piezo vibrates = volume
hope this explaines it a little better for ya juju.
Jim138 said: I still do not really understand piezo pickups. Why something that makes a sound in one thing can actually work as a sort of contact mic is beyond me haha.
Jim138 said:
I still do not really understand piezo pickups. Why something that makes a sound in one thing can actually work as a sort of contact mic is beyond me haha.
So are you saying if a person wired a speaker from a headphone or say a car speaker would work in a guitar just like a piezo? On a car speaker could you cut it down just to the coil (take the black paper cone off) and wire it in would it work?
soundssogood said:
A regular audio speaker does the same thing if you speak into it it can be used as a Microphone , because a speaker has a wound wire coil which moves up and down the magnet it produces a electrical current = Volume - a easy way to test this for yourself it to plug a set of headphones into a mic input socket and speak into the headphones ! as you know speakers are made for producing sound and to do this a electrical current is sent from a Amp down and around the coil of wire which is fastend to the speaker cone which moves freely up and down the Magnet the current and magnet counter act on each other which moves the speaker cone = volume - a piezo is a device that works on vibration , when it vibrates a electrical current is made or when you apply a current the piezo vibrates = volume
hope this explaines it a little better for ya juju.
Jim138 said: I still do not really understand piezo pickups. Why something that makes a sound in one thing can actually work as a sort of contact mic is beyond me haha.
Jim138 said:
I still do not really understand piezo pickups. Why something that makes a sound in one thing can actually work as a sort of contact mic is beyond me haha.
A regular audio speaker does the same thing if you speak into it it can be used as a Microphone , because a speaker has a wound wire coil which moves up and down the magnet it produces a electrical current = Volume - a easy way to test this for yourself it to plug a set of headphones into a mic input socket and speak into the headphones !
as you know speakers are made for producing sound and to do this a electrical current is sent from a Amp down and around the coil of wire which is fastend to the speaker cone which moves freely up and down the Magnet the current and magnet counter act on each other which moves the speaker cone = volume - a piezo is a device that works on vibration , when it vibrates a electrical current is made or when you apply a current the piezo vibrates = volume
hope this explaines it a little better for ya
juju.
Jim138 said:
I still do not really understand piezo pickups. Why something that makes a sound in one thing can actually work as a sort of contact mic is beyond me haha.
Jim138 said:
I still do not really understand piezo pickups. Why something that makes a sound in one thing can actually work as a sort of contact mic is beyond me haha.
So where do I solder the wires to. The piezo from the smoke detector does not have any wires attached to it. Can I use the red and black wires that I took from the 9v battery connector, they look similar to the wires attached to the radio shack one that I bought.
I go to the thrift stores and get old digital alarm clocks, bring them home, set the alarm to see if it works, and if it does, I take it apart and rip out the transducer. The alarm clocks range from 99cents to around 4 bucks, way cheaper then are local radio shack. Side note, if you pick up a old alarm clock that has a battery back up, a 9volt battery back up, then rip out the 9volt battery connector and throw it in the parts bin...also, cut off the cord too, I keep those around also. Part them out, you never know what you might need from one.
I still do not really understand piezo pickups. Why something that makes a sound in one thing can actually work as a sort of contact mic is beyond me haha.
Replies
juju.
Paul Doug said:Got it, thanks! I'll put the speaker back in my wife's new car
soundssogood said:
no a speaker without a cone is no use at all - whats going to move the voice coil (wire windings ) ?
juju.
Paul Doug said:
soundssogood said:
as you know speakers are made for producing sound and to do this a electrical current is sent from a Amp down and around the coil of wire which is fastend to the speaker cone which moves freely up and down the Magnet the current and magnet counter act on each other which moves the speaker cone = volume - a piezo is a device that works on vibration , when it vibrates a electrical current is made or when you apply a current the piezo vibrates = volume
hope this explaines it a little better for ya
juju.
Jim138 said:
I still do not really understand piezo pickups. Why something that makes a sound in one thing can actually work as a sort of contact mic is beyond me haha.
Jim138 said:
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