Dewalt Portable Bluetooth 2.1 Speaker Build with AM/FM Tuner

[Altoid]

My wife and i often go to our local Drive-in Theater. I thought, why not make a portable bluetooth speaker. So I found this old Dewalt drill case at my local Goodwill store. Picked it up along with 4 BMR 12 speakers and 1 HiVi B4N midwoofer. I ended up using a 6000mah battery to power the Lepai 168-ha amp and the Quentacy FM tuner. It can also use a 12v 3amp power supply when portability is not needed.


Here are a few links to some videos I made. The first is a sound test:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gyjp...AgtiyKM4RQk2iH

And here is an overview of it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HoMk...Qk2iH&index=11

[chrisn]

Nice!

[Altoid]

Thanks! I really like it! I'll have to put a parts list later, so others can build it if they want.

[Altoid]

Here's a Parts list of what was used. Obviously some of these could be interchanged.

1 310-308 Lepai 2.1 2x40W Amplifier + 1x68W Sub Output

1 090-5012 2.1mm Panel Mount DC Jack

1 297-429 HiVi B4N 4" Aluminum Midbass Round Frame

4 299-208 HiWave BMR12 Compact 2" Full-Range Square Speaker

1 027-354 50uF 100V Non-Polarized Capacitor

1 269-2268 12mH 20 Gauge Laminated Bar Core Inductor

2 027-348 22uF 100V Non-Polarized Capacitor

1 Metra AX-AGL610 Axxess Ground Loop Isolator (Amazon)

1 Talentcell Rechargeable 6000mAh Li-Ion Battery Pack (Amazon)

1 Quentacy Bluetooth MP3 Decoding Board Module (Amazon)

1 FM Antenna (Salvage one or buy from Amazon) 1 Dewalt Drill Case (I got mine from Goodwill for $2)

[dynamo]

That's pretty slick! I like it!

[dynamo]

Just got a chance to watch the videos, really nice job on the build.

[Altoid]

Thanks! I really appreciate the encouragement. I enjoy taking old items and re-purposing. I must say though, a few of my friends saw the pictures and then saw the finished project. They felt it was more impressive in person than the pictures. I didn't ask them why, but I guess I should I'll have to take some screen-shots of the build some time and post them. I did mainly videos instead of pictures.

[DanP]

I saw your avatar in another post and had to look this project up! I had somehow missed it when you first posted it. I have 2 unused DeWalt tool cases like this in the garage attic. Everytime I go up there, I think to myself "why am I keeping those, I'll never use them". They are both large too, as one is a case for a router/plunge base, and the other is a case for a 4 piece combo kit. Now I know why I was keeping them - what a great idea! I have a couple questions for you:

- How much does the thin plastic cabinet affect the sound quality?
- Are there any overtly offensive rattles?
- Did you add a seal around the mating edges?
- How do you think this arrangement would hold up with a long throw 6.5" subwoofer like the Tang Band W6-1139?

Dan

[Altoid]

Dan, I am excited to see that you are inspired by this build. I was actually at a Goodwill looking for something cool to make a speaker out of, when I ran across this case. I did run into a few issues when I built this as far as the plastic flexing. I did not have to seal around the plastic, mine was really sealed well. However, I first used the drill case as the woofer enclosure (B4N). This didn't go well, so I quickly assembled a small internal box made out of 1/4 inch MDF which fixed all the flexing issues I experienced. I would assume something similar (maybe 1/2 mdf) would be all you need to fix that issue with a 5.5" long throw subwoofer. Although, you could simply try to create another seal on the inside. I all honesty, I never thought about that. But there are no rattles of any kind and i think you would have similar results.

As far as the plastic cabinet affecting sound quality, it didn't. Of course, once again all internal speakers are in 1/4" mdf boxes. Honestly the small BMR speaker probably didn't need this, but I made them anyway. And they weight they added was very minimal.

Here's a video of the completed project. round 2:29 I opend it up, if you'd like to see the inside. I actually did a whole video series on the build. You are welcome to check it out and ask me any other questions you may have.

and here is the video playlist of all the videos

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?lis...AgtiyKM4RQk2iH