WOODEN WIFI SPEAKER

This is an "easy to use" music player with a reasonable sound quality. The main objective at the start of the project was that the box had to have only one cable, the mains. The way to achieve this was putting a chromecast audio inside the box. The rest of the electronics are just a low budget ebay class D amplifier and the power supply.

Step 1: Bill of Materials

Wood

2x 800x600x10[mm] playwood, €14.5.

2x 2400x33x9[mm] samba wood strip, €5.9.

2x 2400x98x9[mm] samba wood strip, €11.9.

Speakers, €26,90. https://www.amazon.es/Kenwood-KFC-E1365-Altavoces-...

Chromecast Audio, €39.

Amplifier, $9.96. http://www.ebay.com/itm/2-100W-TPA3116-D2-Dual-Cha...

Rotary Switch for volume, 2 pole 6 shorting (make before break), $9. http://www.ebay.com/itm/High-quality-Rotary-swtich...

Power Switch, €4. Local store.

Grill Fabric, €4. Ikea.

Transformer, €0. From an old halogen ceiling lamp: toroidal, 230:12,200VA.

Power supply parts, aprox. €10. From scrap and e bay.http://www.ebay.com/itm/401046113133

TOTAL: €140.

Step 2: Enclosure Design

The loudspeaker enclosure type I have chosen is sealed instead of ported so, the only parameter to dimmension is the volume of the box.

Step 3: Playwood Frame Building

The frame is joined with nails and glue.

Step 4: Covering With Samba Strips

The strips are fastened from inside the box with screws.

Step 5: Building the Speaker Holders

Step 6: Building and Attaching the Feet

Feet are made using a plug cutter and remaining samba wood.

Step 7: Building the Front Panel

Step 8: Fuse Holder, Mains Cable Hole and Transformer Holder

Step 9: Varnishing

Step 10: Foaming the Speakers

Step 11: Building the Grill

Step 12: Wiring and Assembling Electronics

The volume potentiometer has been substituited by a 6 positions 2 circuits switch that also has been wired to allow easy assembly in the front panel.

Comments

[onegoner]

You really have a real polished look with your devices that you make. As a novice and I'm pretty unsure of what anything is on these boards, can you do a tutorial on any of the other boards from arylic? Also, are you available to do tutorial requests?

[JamesB897]

What a beautiful looking speaker. I have never used a chromecast so I am wondering if you are just using the google home app to connect your music streaming device(phone) to the chromecast? I noticed you also said it works for video too, so how do you connect your tv to this chromecast speaker?

[danielrp]

Thanks! You can cast all the sound "played" by your phone to the chromeast or to the TV if it has "miracast" the tv perse can´t be connected to the speaker.

[JohnC956]

Stunning !

[danielrp]

Thank you very much JohnC956.

[PaulS69]

Absolutely love this, I'm planning on making something similar but with switching inputs to connect a record player to it. It'll be a simple input switch to start with but eventually I want to use an esp8266 to switch using MQTT.

[danielrp]

Thanks PaulS69 !! It would be great if you did the project and share the WIFI input switch.

[valveman]

I see you are using the Chromecast Audio. Can you only play music from streaming sites with it or can you play music from memory such as a harddrive? BTW: Nice job on the Speaker

[DylanD581]

I have the Google Chromecast (this has video functionality as well) and I love it! You can stream audio (either unit will work) from media sites and device memory. I've also set it up to work with music stored on an old computer running as a server. It basically lets anyone access the music on the computer over WiFi. Hope that helps!

[valveman]

Thank you for the Information.

[danielrp]

Hello! If you are using Spotify (with a premium account), Google Play Music or similar you can select the device where to play directly from the application. If you want to play files, you can cast the sound from your computer/phone: in Android, from version 4.4.2, you just have to select the speaker in Options/Cast, in Windows/Mac OS you have to instal a sofware as described here http://lifehacker.com/how-to-send-your-computers-audio-to-a-chromecast-1750297581.

[hunt2sp]

Nice cool projects. I had almost all the stuff, now motivated to find time assembling them. Kudos for a great project :)

[danielrp]

Thank you! Luck with yours.

[LP9]

Just curious, but why did you run the speaker wires through the front of the enclosure and not the inside where the guts are? Great box though. I envy all the"ibles" building these.. i will one day. ;)

[danielrp]

Hello, just for making the wiring easier. The front panel and the speaker form a piece, theoretically interchangeable.

[DylanD581]

Good looking speaker! It would be cool to add one of these to each room in the house, for a multi-room HiFi system!

[danielrp]

You can create groups of devices, so what you said is possible! https://support.google.com/chromecast/answer/6328691?hl=en

[BengaminJ]

Love the retro design! 10/10

[danielrp]

Thank you BengaminJ

[brian32768]

Looks great, I love the idea of using a Chromecast instead of just bluetooth. Better audio and currently when I walk between my laptop and bluetooth audio adapter I get dropouts!

"Samba strips" must mean thin hardwood boards. Since you are covering it up anyway, I'd be inclined to use MDF (medium density fiberboard) instead of plywood. I'd also fill the boxes with glass fiber instead of just lining with foam.

Interesting where you found that transformer.