Add a Speaker to Your Bluetooth Speaker.

Hi everyone,

Today I will be showing you how to add an external speaker to your bluetooth speaker. Then if you like, you will be able to turn off your bluetooth speaker while still using your auxilary speaker or speakers. You may ask; why would you do this? The reason is, you can connect, say your surround sound speakers or your big boom box to it and by doing that you can eliminate the cord going from your ipod/phone to your speakers. So all of your speakers will be able to be controlled by bluetooth. You may also ask: Why would you do that when you can connect a bluetooth module to your speakers and then your speakers are always bluetooth. And you eliminate this bulky "bluetoothifier". There are advantages in each way, but this way is MUCH cheaper (it didn't cost me a penny) and more simple. Besides it does not ruin anything. You can still use both sets of speakers just as you did before, if you want to.

All you will need for this instructable is:

A bluetooth speaker

Female headphone jack

Little switch

Sodering iron and soder

Some wire

So lets get started! First take your bluetooth speaker apart and find the wires that go from the circuit board to the loud speaker. Now figure out where you want to have your female headphone jack. Soder whatever length of wire that you need to circuit board where the speaker wire joins the circuit board. My jack was mounted beneath the board so I sodered them to the bottom of the circuit board. If your jack will be above the board then soder them to the top of the board right with the speaker wires are. Drill a hole the same size as your jack, through the side of the speaker and fasten your jack in that hole. Then connect the wires that you added, to the headphone jack.

Step 1: The Switch

This step is opptional but is allows you to turn off the loud speaker on the bluetooth speaker, while the unit remains on. This allows you to control your auxilary speakers with no sound comeing out of the bluetooth speaker.

Cut one of the two wires going from the circuit board to the loud speaker and add a switch to it. If necessary, lengthen those wires so that the switch is able to reach the side of the speaker. Make sure that all your soder joints are very well done. Now make a hole in the side, large enough to accomadate your switch. This is rather difficult so take your time and try your best not to mar the speaker's finish. Now put your speaker together and you have completed your project! Now you have a port that can be used as a line out to your extra speakers. If your extra speakers do not have a male headphone jack on them, then soder one on.

Thanks a lot for takeing an interest in my Instructable! Please vote.

Comments

[Wicked415]

This won't work. If the amp module is separate from Bluetooth module in ur BT speaker, it would be more convenient to splice the output from the Bluetooth mod. to say .. the aux. or external component input of you're stereo reciever.

[Etienne'sA]

Hello Sir, your article is great. I have just bought a Marshall Woburn and I am quite disappointed with the sound . I can hardly hear the percussion drums. (My Logitec X
230 PC speakers under my desk sound better) I am thinking of opening up the new Woburn and connect some good pre-amplified speakers. Do you think it will work well? thanks regards

[WillyC6]

HI

I am selling my gear check out if you need it

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/182868558968

[sdcharle]

Simple but cheap and clever. Ignore the haters, man!

[Gordon Pienaar]

All of the negative comments are so unnecessary. The author's build makes perfect sense. Having a Bluetooth enabled device with a line out is very useful. You can plug the line out to a stereo system and stream your phone's music. Stop the critisism and start building!

[saiplectrum]

Well said bro....You are right.....

[RichyPhoenix]

Alright gentlemen, how do I add two RS/20's old school speakers, same size of an open hand with fingers spread out to a bluetooth Cube !home.

[1_64phiGUY]

Pretty cool... aaron:-) but wish u added hiw to add power or whatevers needed to increase loudness. Amps are rated.... but i can just add 2 ibles & make a 3rd... wootwoot... my bose soundlink broke... but i think speakets are ok.

So options: -
1-ebay bluetooth mother board 12$....
2- jerry rig my own set up for free...

We love free.... & creativity ROCKS!
SHOOT... DECISSIONS DECISSIONS

PLEASE REPLY WHAT I SHOULD DO. OR HOW TO FIX A BOSE COLOUR SOUNDLINK ..... ERGH

[Aaron98]

So your saying that you think that the speakers are still good but the circuit board is blown? I'm not very knowledgeable about some things but I can try to help. You could take it apart and simply add a male jack to the wires coming from the speakers, but your not going to get much volume from them unless you add an amp between your phone etc. and your speakers. Depending what is went bad on your speakers the bluetooth module from ebay probably wouldn't fix it. But if it's just the bluetooth part of the circuit board then it probably would. I hope this make at least a little bit of sense:)

[osterac]

I'm not sure I fully understand- is the female jack out going to be amplified (like more than a headphone pre-amp)? Would you hook that directly up to a speaker with a custom made cable? What if I hook it up to the line in on a stereo receiver, is there any chance of the receiver being fried?

[Aaron98]

For anyone who has been mislead by the title: I Have Changed It.

[Aaron98]

That is correct. The extra speaker is using the amplifier of the bluetooth speaker. But your extra speaker can have it's own amplifier, it will simple increase the amount of sound that your speaker can put out. Just be careful that you don't blow up your extra speaker by trying to put out more sound than it can handle.

[HowToEngineer]

One thing you will learn in early college electrical engineering classes is that amplifiers have a maximum power transfer to a particular load. So if there is an internal 4ohm speaker, and the amplifier is designed around the 4ohm speaker, you will get the clearest, loudest sound out of a single 4ohm load.

In other words, adding more in series or parallel will not make it "louder".

What you can do to make the speaker louder involves other parts of the speaker. One method is to take the speaker from it's current home and install it in a custom box with better acoustic performance. The other is to buy a speaker of higher quality (and the same resistance) and replace the original one with the new one.

FYI: the title is misleading

[Aaron98]

What I was trying to point out was that the impulses from the female jack will be much stronger than from an ipod. So if you connect them to a set of speakers that already have their own amplifyer you should be able to get more volume from them.

[e5frog]

You need an amplifier if you want to hook it to a larger speaker, the bluetooth module can possibly drive more than what it was hooked to but probably not. So the header is a bit misleading. "Add a speaker to your bluetooth speaker" would be a better header.

[Aaron98]

Thanks for the info. It has been made clear that I need to change my title so I will.

[enewbold]

No mention of a "male" jack. I presume this male jack would be soldered to the additional speakers, and then be plugged into the female jack on the bluetooth speaker?

[Aaron98]

Correct

[AndrzejR]

Read this twice, and still makes little sense. I thought this was instructions for turning a regular old school speaker into a bluetooth speaker, but what I'm getting here is how to extend an existing bluetooth speaker setup by adding additional speakers to it? That or the instructions just don't make any sense to me.

[strumbot]

I agree. I was under the impression that this would be an 'ible for modifying a standard "wired" speaker to become a wireless bluetooth speaker.

I plan to do just that for my bathrooms.

Nice instructions but improperly titled I would say.