Bluetooth speakers are all the rage these days as they are supremely portable and durable. They can live with us both indoors and outdoors and come in a whole rainbow of colors, materials, and sizes. Costs also run the gamut from $10-20 all the way up to a few thousand dollars.
While you could buy any one of the hundreds available, you could also build your own! The caveat is that there are many different ways to do this. So I will work around that by giving you three of my favorite DIY’s to have some fun with.
The basic composition of a Bluetooth speaker is simple, you need a speaker (or two!), a Bluetooth module, power supply and or battery, and usually some type of resistor. The material you choose to use for the casing or body of the speaker is up to you.
The $14 DIY Bluetooth Speaker
This is a speaker on the low-end of the DIY spectrum that won’t break the bank and due to the low cost, won’t be too hard to make.
Your shopping list should include a PVC T-valve, Bluetooth audio module, micro USB charger module, a 3.7V battery, a 100µF capacitor, and two 3W speakers.
There is a complete guide on Instructables for building and testing the speaker including links to all of the places the components were purchased from.
The $35 DIY Bluetooth Speaker
If the smaller drivers of the $14 speaker were a wee bit too tinny sounding then step up to the larger cones on this $35 speaker. Again, this project doesn’t break the bank but it is more than double the cost of the previous project.
This project has a larger footprint and as such, can accommodate a larger set of speakers. The parts needed for this project are similar to the first. You will need some wood working skills for the body of the speaker but making one is relatively simple. You will also need a Bluetooth module, an amplifier, ground loop isolator, 12V power supply, audio taper pot, LED, and a 470 Ohm .5 watt resistor.
All of the steps to make it are on medium.com and the author was kind enough to include the links to where he purchased the parts.
The $87 DIY Bluetooth Speaker
So maybe the $35 project wasn’t crazy enough for you so of course we can double down with a DIY speaker that costs just a shade under $90. With more money comes more speakers and more speakers means more power!
This DIY project could be considered the HUMMER of the DIY Bluetooth speaker world. Its army green, rugged, and exudes power and volume. The RaveBOX as its creator dubbed it, isn’t going to made fun of by your friends anytime soon. This rough and ready boom box is a multi-tasker too as it can play tunes and charge other devices via USB.
To build this beast your shopping list should include a generic Pelican case, two 2×3 amp modules, a Bluetooth/FM/SD/USB module w/remote, and a 3 cell 2.2A Li-Po battery. You have a few choices when it comes to speakers however. A 4” woofer is a must whether it’s 4 ohm or 8 ohm but it will be up to you to decide on the four 2” or four 3.5” speakers. Bigger is better right?
For the full recipe head over to instructables.com and rock out with this DIY RaveBOX!
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