[Valentin] bought a small battery-powered cube speaker with a built-in amp some time ago, but didn’t have much patience for replacing or recharging the batteries. It sat on the shelf for awhile until he decided to revive an old MP3 player he had sitting around.
He gutted a pair of solar garden lamps, retaining the solar panels, the built-in charging circuits, as well as the included rechargeable batteries. The MP3 player was disassembled, and its components were built into the speaker enclosure. The player’s buttons were relocated to the outer shell of the speaker box with a few pieces of wire, allowing him to easily control his music without having to build in a method for opening the case. Both the speaker and the MP3 player are powered by the batteries salvaged from the solar lamps, which is why he opted to mount both of the solar panels on the the side of the speaker enclosure rather than just one.
We like it even though the speaker looks a bit rough at the moment, especially where the MP3 player’s buttons were transplanted. After a few minutes of touch-up work however, it’ll look great.
If you’re interested in some more solar hacks, check out this solar-powered junkbot, these solar toys for kids, and this solar-powered WiFi repeater we featured in the past.
I think I would have put one solar panel on each side, on a hinge that could be propped up so the solar panel would be catching light from above. I can’t imagine much light is going to hit the side of that thing.
Unless he intends to leave it laying on it’s side, which would seem a bit daft.
Cool though. I wonder how well it really works. I’d imagine the mp3 player and speaker will eat up substantially more power than the LED garden light.
A wonderful thing about portable things is that they’re portable.
Yes David. The sky is also blue btw.
I have a portable TV. Whether using it inside or in the garden, I wouldn’t want it on it’s side, I’d want it in the regular vertical position for easy use of buttons and easy viewing ;)
A static charge will zap this thru the naked buttons when touched. That’s OK because it will silence an extremely bad source of sound. A cube is the worst shape for a speaker box. Mpee’s are defective corrupt files, delete them. Solar panels need to be able to pivot to any angle to suit the sun at time of use.
I have had the need to turn my monitor on it’s side many times to watch YouTube phone posted videos. Some people don’t know that video takes vs stills auto rotate. They hold the phone sideways, shoot and then push send.
i have one of these, although it’s larger, sounds better, and utilizes a car battery, amp, big solar panel.. great for the beach