Charging Dock/stand With Built-in Speakers for the Nintendo Switch

Hi !

I love my Switch but to me, the embedded speakers are really poor, thus most of the time I play it with my headphones, which is not convenient for multiplayer gamingand in that case your console may be set on a table so you can't charge it while you play.

For those reasons, I wanted to make a charging dock/stand with speakers for better audio quality when my Switch was not used on TV.

I must admit it turned to be easier than I planned as I found a charging dock, cheaper than the USB-C plugs couple (male & female) on the internet.

Step 1: Supplies & Tools

Here are the parts I got :

• A charging dock (as I said, I bought a dock for the project but you're very welcome in making your stant yourself, you will need 2 plugs : USB-C male to power the console, and any type of USB you want to connect a power source)
• Speakers : I already had a couple of Ø23mm speakers (8ohm, 2W) in my drawer and they fitted well in the charging dock
• Audio Amp : I also had a 3W stereo amp with gain control, that needs a 5V supply and that is perfect for this project
• A knob to put on the gain potentiometer
• An old earphone cable, with stereo 3,5mm jack

And the tools I used :

• Screwdriver
• Drill
• Soldering Iron
• superglue
• epoxy-like glue

Step 2: Disassembling the Stand

Remove all the screws to access the inside of the stand. If it doesn't open easily, look for hidden screws (under rubber pads for example)

Now we can see there not much in here, just the two USB plugs connected by a ribbon cable.

Step 3: Drilling the Holes for the Equipment

Once you have decided of the place of your components, put on marks and start to drill the holes for the speakers, the gain potentiometer and the audio input cable.

Step 4: Setting the Speakers

As a speaker vibrates, it has to be firmly fastenned. I chose to glue it.

My tip for pasting on plastics is to scratch the surfaces to glue, to increase adherence.

Before pasting the speakers, I used little drops of cyanoacrylate glue to hold it in place, for it not to move when the epoxy glue will get dry.

You may notice I've been quiet generous on the epoxy, but at least I'm sure the speakers are strongly pasted and sealed.

Step 5: Wiring the Amp

I soldered the wires on the amp first (don't forget to pass the audio input cable through its hole before soldering it to the amp), then set the amp in the stand and finally soldered the wires to the speakers, and to both GND & 5V of the USB-C female plug.

Now your amp is set, you may add the knob to the potentiometer.

PS : I added a small foam pad between the USB-C plug and the amp to prevent short-circuits.

Step 6: Try It !

So everything should work fine, let's try it before closing it back.

Put your Switch on it, use a 5V power source, plug the 3,5mm jack to the headphone jack of the console.

If it works well, you may close the stand back !

To conclude, I would say the audio quality is better than with the embedded speakers, but not that much. It is no surprise that Ø23mm speakers won't give a lot of low frequencies, so maybe I should add a small pipe like in bass-reflex enclosures, or a passive radiator I wouldn't even know where to put, or maybe I'll make my own enclosure and use larger speakers..

Hope you liked it, and hope you have succeeded if you made one !