Green Smart Speaker - Solution to e-waste?

[FrenchAudiophile]

Hey,

We are a group of students who came together to think about potential solutions towards electronic waste.  We basically researched for a whole year and came up with the idea to build a device that could transform any speaker into a smart speaker and also evolve with the user to transform into a game console or a computer once they don’t need the speaker anymore. We are not selling anything yet but if you want to help out or learn more you can subscribe to our newsletter (http://eepurl.com/g4I-1f) or even check out our website (https://hubox9.webnode.com). For info we are using a raspberry Pi with a custom-built DAC, you can reply if you want more info :)

[The Flying Sloth]

Those single board class D bluetooth 50W amps have been a thing forever so I suppose it really is just the next step to add 'smart' functionality. Not sure how you'd transform that into a console or PC but this sounds like an interesting project.

[FrenchAudiophile]

1 hour ago, The Flying Sloth said:

Those single board class D bluetooth 50W amps have been a thing forever so I suppose it really is just the next step to add 'smart' functionality. Not sure how you'd transform that into a console or PC but this sounds like an interesting project.

Yeah  the only difference is that we don't use bluetooth so you can have Spotify connect, airplay and other connectivity services. The devices runs on Raspbian so it is not too difficult to transform it into computer as it already has a 4 core ARM Cortex-A53, 1.2GHz CPU and 1 GB of ram. For the game console we are utilizing the Broadcom VideoCore IV GPU and it smoothly runs MINECRAFT: PI EDITION (https://www.minecraft.net/en-us/edition/pi/) although we will focus it on retro gaming.

[kokakolia]

Bruh! I wanna see a Bluetooth exciter speaker module come to market (again). I have seen one many years ago, but it never caught on I guess. 

 

It's basically a moving magnet you can stick on a flat surface. The surface becomes the speaker. 

 

Exciter speakers are criminally underrated. They only cost a few dollars. They sound amazing when glued onto the right type of material, like really thin and light plywood you can buy for a few bucks at the hardware store, or literally just cardboard. 

 

The issue with exciter drivers is that they don't end up being that affordable if you factor in the cost of the amplifier and miscellaneous stuff involved with the DIY side of things. It's quite frankly daunting to fabricate a stand for the board. Further, you have to round the edges off the board for better results. It's basic DIY stuff but most people would rather buy a Bluetooth speaker and skip the hassle. 

[rice guru]

Most people kinda already do this with their echo dots hook it up to a better speakee  But if you guys a have a USB out since it's raspberry pie a USB out would cool for those that wanna use their own dac solution.

[rice guru]

If you wanna attract the hardest core of audiophiles if you can seamlessly I tegrate their personal collection of music through foobar I know some guys with literal servers of flacs and dsd files . But I'm pretty sure that product already exists.

[FrenchAudiophile]

23 minutes ago, rice guru said:

Most people kinda already do this with their echo dots hook it up to a better speakee  But if you guys a have a USB out since it's raspberry pie a USB out would cool for those that wanna use their own dac solution.

Yes it includes a USB type A that natively supports custom sac's as well as the possibility to access the GPIO if wanted in order to allow for even more customization.

[FrenchAudiophile]

21 minutes ago, rice guru said:

If you wanna attract the hardest core of audiophiles if you can seamlessly I tegrate their personal collection of music through foobar I know some guys with literal servers of flacs and dsd files . But I'm pretty sure that product already exists.

I don't think I got it... Our device does feature the ability to import your collection of audio files (MP3/OGG/FLAC/AAC) through an SD card, USB or even networked storage like a NAS and enables you to seamlessly play the tracks from the web app on your phone. I don't however understand what you men by integrating "through footer" as I only know the app to be a music player?

[rice guru]

1 hour ago, FrenchAudiophile said:

I don't think I got it... Our device does feature the ability to import your collection of audio files (MP3/OGG/FLAC/AAC) through an SD card, USB or even networked storage like a NAS and enables you to seamlessly play the tracks from the web app on your phone. I don't however understand what you men by integrating "through footer" as I only know the app to be a music player?

I think the NAS integration would be enough.

[The Flying Sloth]

6 hours ago, kokakolia said:

Snip

Just get one of those single board Bluetooth amps and an exciter from parts express, EZPZ, will cost you like 20 bucks.