[Mike Clifford] of [Modustrial Maker] had not one, not two, but five friends call him to announce that their first children were on the way, and he was inspired to build them a Bluetooth speaker with a unique LED matrix display as a fitting gift. Meant to not only entertain guests, but to audio-visually stimulate each of their children to promote neurological development.
Picking up and planing down rough maple planks, [Clifford] built a mitered box to house the components before applying wood finish. The brain inside the box is an Arduino Mega — or a suitable clone — controlling a Dayton Bluetooth audio and 2x15W amp board. In addition to the 19.7V power supply, there’s a step down converter for the Mega, and a mic to make the LED matrix sound-reactive. The LED matrix is on a moveable baffle to adjust the distance between it and a semi-transparent acrylic light diffuser. This shifts the light between sharp points or a softer, blended look — perfect for the scrolling Matrix text and fireplace effects! Check it out!
[Clifford]’s Arduino code is up on GitHub for anyone else out there with friends who are expecting. You never know when your own childhood Fisher-Price cassette players from back in the day might come in handy.
MTBF of those chinese switching regulators is measured in hours if you’re unlucky or hundreds of hours if you’re lucky.
Do you know what the M stands for?
Nice one :)
Can you suggest (link to) a better option? I’ll definitely swap it out before gifting if there is something more reliable.
I think if I were going for reliability, I would use two separate power supplies. Reliable pre-packaged switching regulators of that type are hard to come by.
does anyone know if bluetooth has any drm in it’s standards where like hdmi they can ban devices that provide analog out?
i am on my 3rd http://www.sportsmanswarehouse.com/sportsmans/Premier-Bluetooth-3.5-mm-Wireless-Audio-Receiver/productDetail/Electronics-Accessories/prod99999045973/cat129220 i bought at local auto zone
that seem to pair ok with my amazon fire stick initially but then lose their connection and wont reconnect wont even be detected by the amazon anymore.
i am wondering is it the cheapness of the device or does the bluetooth standards include an hdmi like blacklist where they can ban devices that provide a means to get drm free audio?
I haven’t looked but I don’t think there is any blacklist, and there’s plenty of Bluetooth analogue audio convertors, probably hundreds of models. If you’ve bought the same model each time, that might be a justification for not buying a fourth one.
It’s almost certainly the cheapness. QC in no-name Chinese brands is non-existent.
I can’t tell you the reason, but I can say I’m very impressed with how the Dayton audio boards connect — almost instantaneous. Much faster than any other Bluetooth device I have used.
I feel sorrow for anyone who listens thru blurtooth. Get your hearing back and let it develop. Young children having their hearing handicapped, but then that’s not as bad as TV. Please do not use this stuff not even to make calls.
Hot whip with a janky jammer.
The cheapest crap from China is where it’s at, including blurtooth.
IOB: Internet of babies
Damn it’s huge! Until I saw the hand I thought it was 1/3rd of the size.