[IanMeyer123] should be working on his senior design project. Instead, he’s created a sound-reactive Bluetooth speaker that may not earn him an A grade but will at least keep the team entertained.
[Ian] started with the amp and power. The amp is a 15 watt, 12 volt model based on the popular TDA7297 chip. Power comes from a portable laptop battery rated at 185 Wh. [Ian] himself said that is absolute overkill for this project. While [Ian] hasn’t run any longevity tests on his setup, we’re guesstimating it would be rated in days.
Every Bluetooth speaker needs a sweet light show, right? [Ian] wrapped his 2″ full range speakers in Neopixel rings from Adafriut. The WS2812’s are driven by an Arduino. When music is playing, MSGEQ7 allows the Arduino to play a light show in time to the beat. When the stereo is off, a DS3231 real-time clock module allows the Arduino to display the time on the two rings. If you’re curious about the code for this project, [Ian] posted it on his Reddit thread. Reddit isn’t exactly a great code repository, so please, [Ian] setup a GitHub account, and/or drop your project on Hackaday.io!
[Ian] didn’t realize how many wires would be flying around inside the speaker. That may be why the wiring looks a bit scary. All the chaos is hidden away, underneath a well-built wooden case.
If you want to see another take on a Bluetooth speaker with a Neopixel display, check [Peter’s] project here. Interested in more portable power units? This one’s for you!
it could be just me, but the speaker sounded really shitty…
That’s Bluetooth for ya! IPhone users love the sound!
WTF VVS
It’s a bit of a shame to squeeze all those watts into tiny little speakers. I know modern speakers can get more sound from a small package, but I can’t imagine 2 inches being anything but annoyingly tinny and quiet.
Still, no reason he couldn’t use bigger speakers, and swap the “neopixel” rings for a strip of the WS2812 LEDs, or individual ones mounted how he likes, maybe on a custom PCB. Apart from the small speakers it looks great.
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It’s not the Bluetooth, I have some Bluetooth headphones that sound as good as wired, unless you get too far away and then it just cuts out. It’s digital.
Cool wood case, too bad the wood screws show on the front and top.
The standard Bluetooth music profile uses lossy compression over the link, so it might sound a bit crap to some people. It’s a well-known criticism. I think the newer versions have a full uncompressed PCM audio mode, or they’re going to add it soon or something.
I think a few of the big players in this market use aptX in some form. I’m sure I saw the logo on a set of Sony headphones at work the other day. They may use the ‘aptX Lossless’ but that itself still isn’t actually lossless.
It couldn’t be the tiny single speakers making this video sound like dung, no it’s the lossy compression, Well with the new Bluetooth standards like 4.0 we can deliver perfect signals to these 2″ speakers so they sound great!
Sound loss in most Bluetooth units sound bad to me, There’s only been a couple that’ve not 1 was a 4.1 cheap chinese BT receiver on a stereo which works considerably well.
There are dozens(if not more) of similar projects on Instructables……
Lol, “2″ full range speakers”.
I wonder why they don’t just use 2″ speakers at concerts if they’re “full range”.
Nice box though.
It’s *Adafruit, not Adafriut :D