Louder beeper for Gotway

[Tanabe]

Hello everyone!

This is my first post. I want to share my mod to make the speaker louder on my Gotway MSX. I’m a college student in California State University LA, and I use this to commute from my apartment to school. I ride it 12 miles a day through a residential type street, but the road close to the university has so many hills and is narrow which requires me to go above 25mph just to not hold up traffic and get away from kids on their phones while driving. As were all aware, the beep may not be heard when the wind noise is up and were inside our full-face helmets.

Here's my MSX on its "controller-board" side showing the holes on the panel.

Here is the simple contraption I made placed on the speaker.

Here are the small holes I drilled on the side panel, made sure to center it on top of the speaker location.

I hot glued a piece of insect screen on the holes I drilled.

I made the speaker shroud using the cap on a $1 shaving cream. Reduced the depth to 2.5 cm, and made a hole snug to the speaker. I cut a piece of sponge to reduce dust introduced into the control board cavity. These things are not dust proof at all out of the factory anyway.

This shows how the cap is snug fit around the speaker.

This picture shows how the sponge side interfaces with the drilled side panel.

You can try how this set-up works by playing a music on your phone and placing it inside an empty drinking glass. You'll notice how the sound becomes louder.

I've been running this set-up for a week now and is working very well. I can hear it loud and clear even above 30mph with my full-face helmet.
The problems I can see with this is that it becomes less water resistant (maybe?). Also it has become so loud it makes me embarrassed in public turning it on and off without covering the speaker holes with my palm. I might add a toggle switch to it to control the speaker, but that becomes a safety issue if I ever forget to turn it on when riding high speeds.

Let me know what you guys think!

Edited September 21, 2018 by Tanabe
title change

[Marty Backe]

Fantastic idea and implementation 

I think I'd add a switch too. Every once in awhile when returning from a long ride and almost out of battery, that incessant beeping is very annoying.

[Rehab1]

8 minutes ago, Marty Backe said:

Fantastic idea and implementation 

I think I'd add a switch too. Every once in awhile when returning from a long ride and almost out of battery, that incessant beeping is very annoying.

How’s the vibrator coming along (no comments @Hunka Hunka Burning Love). 

[stephen]

you could of just bought a pebble watch so you could feel the vibrations ?.. nice mod though ?

Edited September 22, 2018 by stephen

[Marty Backe]

41 minutes ago, Rehab1 said:

How’s the vibrator coming along (no comments @Hunka Hunka Burning Love). 

I have it in hand (no comment @Hunka Hunka Burning Love), but haven't gotten to the workshop yet. Pretty strong vibrations when hooking it up to a AAA battery. It might explode at 5-volts 

[Marty Backe]

4 minutes ago, stephen said:

you could of just bought a pebble watch do you could feel the vibrations ?.. nice mod though ?

The Pebble watch will not trigger at the 80-percent alarm (which varies based on the battery level). It only supports fixed speed alarms.

[Hunka Hunka Burning Love]

  Hey!  Why is it any time a vibrator is mentioned my username pops up?     Just remember to avoid rolling by any women when that low battery beeping/vibing goes off constantly.