The Smell of Molten Projects in the Morning

Ed Nisley's Blog: Shop notes, electronics, firmware, machinery, 3D printing, laser cuttery, and curiosities. Contents: 100% human thinking, 0% AI slop.

Day: May 16, 2012

  • Kindle Fire Speaker Covers

    My Kindle Fire is a typically featureless black slab with one button, two small speakers, and no fasteners. After a few days in my pocket, the upper-left corner began collecting dust on the inside face of the cover glass:

    Kindle Fire - internal dust
    Kindle Fire – internal dust

    That’s not terrible, but it does look ugly and lowers the contrast a bit in that corner. As nearly as I can tell, the speaker grilles provide the only way for that dust to get in, although this was a refurb unit and perhaps the seal around the rim is broken.

    In any event, the speaker grilles look like this:

    Kindle Fire speaker
    Kindle Fire speaker

    I slapped a strip of 3M Micropore tape over the openings as a stop-gap fix:

    Kindle Fire speaker - taped
    Kindle Fire speaker – taped

    After a few days, the dust wasn’t getting any worse, so I ran a scalpel blade around the speaker opening and sank the tape atop the grille:

    Kindle Fire speaker - trimmed tape
    Kindle Fire speaker – trimmed tape

    The advantage of Micropore tape is that it won’t completely block the already feeble sound from the speakers.