Introduction: Homemade Bluetooth Speaker With Dayton Audio Amplifier
Making a home made speaker is a fun and interesting project that isn't too hard, so it's easy for those new to the DIY scene. A lot of the parts are simple to use and plug and play.
BTW: This build was completed in 2016, but we only thought to put here now. That is why images for this build are scarce. Please email me with any questions you may have.
Please go through the entire instructable once, before you actually start building.
Supplies
What I used for this build:
- wood (the amount is based on what size you choose)
- an amplifier with built in bluetooth (I used to the Dayton Audio KAB-250)
https://www.parts-express.com/dayton-audio-kab-25... <- link
- the peripherals (3 status LEDs, volume nob, reset button, on/off switch, aux plug, battery pack)
- 3 batteries to fit in the battery pack
- a power cable and female power plug
- 2 tweeters
- 2 woofers
- 2 crossovers
- a handle
- wire
- solder and soldering iron
Step 1: Plan Your Dimensions!
Before you actually start building your speaker, you're going to need to plan its dimensions. Make it as big as you need it, given the size of your speakers and the amount of electronics going inside. Make sure to add some extra room to add towels/padding to avoid echoes, that will affect your sounds quality. Our dimensions were 16 inches wide, by 11 inches long, by 14 inches high. Make sure to account for the thickness of the wood when planning the size of your speaker!
Step 2: Cut Out Your Pieces
We don't quite have a good photo of this, but essentially, you're going to take the plans you made in step 1, and make two of each piece. So, you should end up with;
- two pieces for the bottom and top,
- two for the front and back,
- two for the left and right side.
- one for a divider in the middle, same size as the side pieces
Step 3: Cut Out Holes
So, now that you have your pieces, you'll need to cut out holes for things to go in, like the speakers, the status LEDs, the aux, and the power plug, as well as the handle at the top.
If you intend to use the same Dayton Audio stuff as we did, here's a checklist for you:
1. 4 Holes for the speakers - front
2. 3 Holes for the status LEDs - front
3. 1 Hole for on/off switch, bluetooth reset, and volume nob - top
4. 2 Holes for the handle - top
5. 1 Hole for the aux and power plug - back
6. two holes for the audio sink tubes - back
7. 1 hole or cut for wires to go through - middle divider
Step 4: Assemble Your Box!
Now that all the holes are drilled and cut out, you're going to want to assemble your box, leaving the back open for now. We suggest putting nails into the pieces, and then using gorilla glue to hold it together. Set your pieces in place and weigh them down while the glue sets.
Step 5: Stain and Varnish
Now that your box is assembled, you're going to want to stain and varnish it.
Depending on what color you'd like, add coats of stain to your box, allowing it to dry in between coats.
Once you are satisfied with the color, add two coats of varnish, allowing it to dry in between coats.
Step 6: Insert Your Speakers, Buttons, LEDS, Etc
Insert your speakers, LEDS, buttons, etc into the box.
Since we couldn't accurately drill holes for the switch, button, aux, etc. we 3d printed panels with custom holes for these, and drilled rectangular gaps for the panels to be glued over. The panels looked ugly on the front, however, so the LEDs were put directly into the wood. make sure to properly fix everything into the wood, apply glue or screw things in where needed.
The speakers themselves will most likely need to be screwed in, as well as the handle, everything else will probably need glue.
Step 7: Add Electronics!
Now that you have everything inserted into the speaker box, you'll need to add some electronics to control everything!
Screw one crossover on each side of the divider, where you choose to screw it in doesn't really matter, we chose to do it into the bottom piece of wood. After that, screw your amplifier into the bottom as well, on one side. Screw the battery pack on the other side. Make sure that the you put them close enough, that they will plug into each other properly with the wire provided. That wire isn't too long so be careful here.
Next, you'll want to solder the crossovers to their respective speakers. The crossovers should have two holes labeled input, two holes labeled tweeter, and two labeled woofer. 3 of these holes should be labeled + and the other 3 -. Solder the input wire provided by the amp, to the input, making sure that you correctly solder positive to positive and negative to negative. Now solder the tweeter holes to the tweeter and the woofer ones to the woofer, making sure that positive goes to positive and negative goes to negative.
If your speaker doesnt have + ad - labeled, a trick you can do is to put nine volts across the speaker and watch to see how the speaker reacts. If it pushes out then the whatever wire you've put the positive of the 9 volts to, is positive, else its the other way around.
Step 8: Finish Wiring
Now that you've soldered your crossovers. the rest is simple! Just follow the instructions provided by Dayton Audio on how to plug your peripherals into the amp. This includes:
- the 4 wires going to the crossovers
- the 6 wire plug for the battery
- the 3 LEDs
- the Aux cable
- the power plug
- the volume control nob
- the reset button
- the on/off switch
- also put batteries in the battery module at this point
Step 9: Add Absorbing Material
Add material to absorb the echoes and improve sound quality.
Things that you can use to achieve this include:
- towels
- sponges
- old clothing
- old rags
Step 10: Test Your Speaker
At this point you're just about done. The only thing left is to test it before you close it up. Here's a list of things to check:
- does it charge? (green status LED)
- does it work without being plugged in? (red status LED means on)
- can you connect to it? (should be called DAKAB by default)
- does it sound good? (close up the back, but don't glue or screw it shut and play music)
When you are satisfied with your speaker, close it up and screw the back in. We used screws instead of nails and glue so that we can open it up to upgrade or fix anything that breaks.
Enjoy your new bluetooth speaker!
