posted
Hi all, this may sound like a strange and broad question, but I was wondering if anyone in the advanced topics forum has ever thought about trying to engineer a new type of motor structure for speakers? I am thinking of subwoofer applications, but I guess it could work for all types of drivers. I have a few (what I think are) good ideas, and would love to talk them over with some interested, educated people. Anyone interested, ESPECIALLY any mechanical or materials engineers, let me know! Thanks in advance. Ash
-------------------- Now, LEAVE ME ALONE... "Bigfoot, a figment of someone's imagination, or a mythical creature that is only seen in Ohio" has spoken!
my real email addy is shocker_mike@yahoo.com but wayne don't allow yahoo accounts so my account is working off of a dead email! Posts: 1758 | From: sherwood | Registered: Jul 1999
| IP: Logged |
also, philester is in the process of designing a sub, and i believe a motor structure has already been designed, BUT may be you can convince him of something different. that and he loves to talk about that stuff. i do to, but im sure you'd go over my head =)
posted
Hey guys thanks a lot for the replies. You'll have mail soon, I'm busy starting up a new semester so its a bit busy here. Shocker, if you go to www.phoenixgold.com they have a really good FAQ which covers the cyclone. If you want even more info jsut go on their forum and make a post...I am sure at least a few of the guys on there have had experience with the cyclone. Ash
-------------------- ****************************** ****************************** Posts: 1130 | From: Los Angeles, CA | Registered: Aug 2001
| IP: Logged |
posted
i saw a pair of cyclones from about .05" away as i about licked them.. awwwwwwe what a sub.. i can't believe those things actually work.
they got a stpuid little flap inside them that wobbles and pushes air.. bad thing about them is that if you get more than 2 in one vehicle(box mainly) they will fight each other bad..
posted
Well, the thing about the cyclone is that it is intended strictly as an SQ woofer...it really is incapable of making decent SPL. They are actually intended for use WITH small subs, like 10's or 8's. The cyclone is mostly intended to reproduce sound in the very low subbass region.
posted
have you heard of the bob carver sunfire woofer? Its not really a woofer, its piston driven. It has like 6 inches of excursion each way i think. I was told a six inch diameter sunfire could outdo a pair of Hafler 18s with massive power.
Posts: 134 | From: my house | Registered: Jun 2001
| IP: Logged |
posted
Are you talking about the small cube home sub Carver has? I think it's called the sunbfire. It has a built in "2700" watt amp along with whats basically a GZ Nuke 10" and a passize radiator. It is a hell of a sub though. Have you ever heard of Servodrive bass cabs? The one I saw was 2 15" and 2 18" in a single enclosure. The 15's were driven by a rotary motor attached to a rotary/linear converter. The 18's were just passive radiators. That box was loud as all hell, and had appreciable response wayyyy down past 20Hz. Whats really cool is that it did it all off a tiny amount of power, about 300watts. Ash
-------------------- ****************************** ****************************** Posts: 1130 | From: Los Angeles, CA | Registered: Aug 2001
| IP: Logged |
posted
There are some unconventional transducer designs being tested at Phy6, Inc. The key lies in making the transducer and the enclosure parametric, so that an optimal design can be chosen for whatever room (vehicle cabin) it is in. In many ways the transducer and enclosure become on in the same. It's been three years in development. Stay Tuned for 2002!
-------------------- Audio|Programming|DSP|Motorsport|Physics dBDrag@phy6.net www.Phy6.net -------------------- Posts: 192 | From: Fort Washington MD 20744 | Registered: Jun 2000
| IP: Logged |
posted
I have a Cyclone I am playing with now... It isn't going to displace my 10W6's anytime soon, but I really haven't done enough playing yet to say I have a 100% grasp on exactly what this thing can do.
Also, Bob Carver's sunfire "true subwoofer" is a normal subwoofer, although a little more akin to a car audio SPL sub than a typical home sub -
I have a few pictures of the Cyclone, and pictures of my Cyclone experimentation so far on a web page I built...
Also, someone mentioned the ServoDrive subs - they are like a Cyclone taken to extreme levels... They use the same servo motor technology, but rather than wagging two panels back and forth, they use a rotary-to-linear motion converter to push and pull on a pair of 15" cones, to REALLY move some air... Here is a link to a website of a rogue ServoDrive engineer... the ContraBass corner Lots of do-it-yourself type info if you are interested in building a servo-motor subwoofer yourself (even the big boy ContraBass style servo sub), including where to buy the servo motors themselves! -Chris E
posted
Sorry to threepeat here, but I did want to point out that the solutions mentioned so far were really not in line with the question... Engineering a NEW subwoofer motor... Something that we had a great discussion on one of my threads at CAF a long time ago.
Some suggestions were:
1) Do a little reading on what a "rail gun" is... I thought it might be intriguing to set up a pair of small rail-gun type motors, each set up to be connected to a cone in the middle, to literally "shoot" the cone back and forth at each other... Each rail-gun type motor would get 1/2 of the signal from the amp (I use the term "amp" loosely - something interesting would probably have to be built), one gun gets the positive signal, one gun gets the negative signal...
2) Since rail-gun type approach seemed like overkill, I thought that a more efficient (magnet VC motors are REALLY inefficient) motor might be able to be used... Again, two motors on one cone I thought would be a good approach, IF "more efficient" motors meant motors that were not two-way capable like VC or servo motors are... Again, each motor handles 1/2 of the signal, one gets the positive (the motor located behind the cone), one gets the negative (the motor located in front of the cone). This way, when the rear motor pushes the cone out, it is also resetting the front motor - and vice versa when the front motor gets it's turn...
posted
I have a couple ideas, but I am not sure if I am ready to share them or not. I could be a millionaire someday. Just don't have the money and knowledge right now for research. The big problem is that it would require all new electronics, from the alternator to the source, to the amps, and then the driver. Could provide driver efficiencies into the low 100s of dB/w/m tho.
Isn't bob carver's box an ELF design? Good for sound quality, not so much for SPL. A lot of that 2700 watts is wasted in favor of a lower response. www.sound.au.com has an article on the linkwitz transform circuit. as does linkwitzlab.com
btw, i just graduated from GT in may. BSEE with RF and Audio Specialties, I think its called EDA now. It is too bad its earned me squat as far as a job goes :/
Go Jackets!
jt
Posts: 56 | From: atlanta | Registered: Nov 2000
| IP: Logged |
-------------------- -Chris E Better Audio VP/R&D Visit Car Audio Forum and Car Audio Talk for a new spin... Posts: 71 | From: Buffalo, NY | Registered: Sep 2001
| IP: Logged |
posted
Hey sorry I've been scarce lately, this is midterms and I'm sweating through it, lol. Hey Jteef, I am actually going into EDA myself at Tech. Hopefully I'm going to get a special topics class with Prof. Leach and make an amp(and get credit for it, lol). I am 99.9% sure I'm going to grad school when I get my BS this time next year...going to probably do fiber optics or semiconductors then. Anyway, hey man share a few of those ideas with the rest of us. I know I am interested in hearing them... Ash
-------------------- ****************************** ****************************** Posts: 1130 | From: Los Angeles, CA | Registered: Aug 2001
| IP: Logged |
Printer-friendly view of this topic