DIY Bluetooth Speaker Under 5$

Today I'll show you how I made this awesome bluetooth speaker for total cost under 5$. It is easy project that you can make with minimal knowledge of electronics and woodworking.

Just for you to know : this is not very high quality speaker. It's mainly made from scrap and to be as cheap as possible. Therefore I didn't make any design and arithmetic on the box.

The reason for this build is that I have many speakers just lying around and when I found on ebay 3 amplifiers for just one dollar I decided to make one. And I liked it so much that at this moment I have already made three of them.

I mainly use it when I'm at home doing homework, housework etc. I take it to parties too (because it was so cheap I'm not so much worried about it) and I got very possitive feedback, because party without music is no party.

Step 1: What You Need :

- first you need some speakers, I got mine from some old radio. They are both 3 W, 8 Ohms. For this build you need similar because of the amplifier I'm using.

- amplifier - I got 3 of those for 1 dollar : http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p2050601.m570.l1313.TR0.TRC0.H0.X3w+amplifier+3pcs.TRS0&_nkw=3w+amplifier+3pcs&_sacat=0 - It's good to have more of them in case you manage to destroy some :).

- something to power it : there are many options for you : 1) use power brick, 2) use power bank, 3) use 9v batteries, 4) use AA batteries

- to make it work via bluetooth you need 1)bluetooth music receiver or wireless bluetooth music receiver (with battery inside) - to operate it with your phone or 2)bluetooth joystick - to operate your phone with this joystick

- some wood to make the casing

- some tools to woodworking

- soldering iron, solder, pliers, hot glue gun,

Step 2: Wiring

Now when you have all the components you can start soldering. This step is really easy because you have all you need to know written on the amplifier. Solder male usb to the 5v +- (the picture above might help you). Solder male jack to the "R ground L" on the board as you see in the picture. I decided to solder female jack to those OUT pins on the board so I can connect any speaker I want ( but you can solder it directly if you want it permanent - second photo). I even made a little enclosure for amplifier. (don't mind first two pictures it's from another speaker).

Ways of powering are endless. Because you have usb there you can directly connect it to your charger or power bank. Or in order to power different speaker I opened car charger and added 9v battery connector with switch - and it works as well.

Step 3: Enclosure

Now all what's left is to make the box. I used scrap wood to make the shape and screws to hold it together. I first all painted with black paint than I used this nice green spray paint used to make marks on ground. This effect was achieved by lightly spraying it and than shaking the can and let some drops to fall on the box. Because this paint is designed to be removed after some time I finished it with clear varnish. I'm also planning to add some hinges to open the top part. Those speaker covers are as well taken from old radio.

(sorry that I have no photos but I wasn't sure about the outcome so I didn't documented it)

Step 4: Some Numbers

This build took me just a few hours to finish.

It costed me just a few bucks because most of the parts you have just lying around.

The smaller speaker on 9v battery can play around 8 hours.

This bigger speaker with my homemade power bank from old phone batteries (about 2000 mAh in total) can play more than 8 hours on one charge (haven't tested it yet).

Step 5: Conclusion

When I made that speaker I was very pleased, but now I hear that it's now the best playing speaker. On the other hand - friends say that it's not so bad and to use it just to play background music - it's definitely enough.

So if you are looking for some cheap speaker that you can make at home and learn something more about electronics - this is the right project for you!

Hope you liked it and leave some feedback if you want - I like to read all of those nice comments :)