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Cheap Speaker RuckSack Thats LOUD!

by superrob on July 18, 2009 Table of Contents License: Attribution Non-commercial Share Alike (by-nc-sa) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Intro: Cheap Speaker RuckSack Thats LOUD! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . step 1: Materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . step 2: Wiring . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . step 3: Construction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . step 4: Finishing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . step 5: Done! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 2 2 3 4 6 7

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http://www.instructables.com/id/Cheap-Speaker-RuckSack-Thats-LOUD/

License: Attribution Non-commercial Share Alike (by-nc-sa) Intro: Cheap Speaker RuckSack Thats LOUD!
I'm too young really to remember old skool 1980's Boomboxes and 1990's field raves, but not too young to admire them :D today's equivalent of the boombox it seems is people walking down the street holding their mobile phones quietly playing some distorted, poor quality and bassless tune. Or little portable I-pod speaker docking stations that are ok but not particularly portable or loud. Wear are the big, loud, anti-social I want you all to hear my music weather your stood next to me or 100 feet away systems! Surely rather than getting quieter and smaller portable music systems should have gotten louder and bigger! After looking around and not finding anything suitable already being produced I decided to make my own, mwhahaha! Right, so here is the spec... LOUD, because you cant have a quiet rave! Portable, and I don't mean portable as in can be moved from one place to another. I mean portable as in can be comfortably carried on a bike, through a field, dropped a few times etc. Durable, for similar reasons above Rechargeable, no one wants to spend a fortune on batteries Easy on the eye. ahahaha. So we have the plan, time to collect some materials!

step 1: Materials
Now I'm a student, so the budget I had for my boombox was close to 0.00. Armed with my electronics GCSE, 2 years of studying design and the tools in my dad's garage, lets get started! Materials I was pretty lucky with the materials I found and the price I got them for. These were collected from car boot sales and my own home and were... A set of 2.1 logic3 soundstation2 speakers. I have a set of these already so knew the sound quality was good, bassy and loud (supposedly 300w? but I'm not sure). They were bought second hand for 2.50 which was a bargain! They were fairly beaten up, infact it looked like someone had burnt a hole through the sub?? (What do you expect for 2.50) however I tested them and they worked great, woo! My old school rucksack. Cost 0.00. It had seen many, many school years and was still in good nick so definitely strong enough for my needs! Wild things rechargeable PSone battery pack. Bought second hand for 2.00 (looked new) and in working order! Wood flooring. Cost 0.00 as it was left over from my living room after we replaced it for carpet. Go recycling! Sofa foam "borrowed" from an old sofa we were throwing out. ...and that's our shopping over!

http://www.instructables.com/id/Cheap-Speaker-RuckSack-Thats-LOUD/

Image Notes 1. Burn mark / hole??? 2. im sure that wasnt supposed to fall off

step 2: Wiring
Ok, the next step was to gut the speakers and battery pack and work out how to put them together, or see if they even worked together. The speakers ran from 15v and the battery pack produced 12v. Lucky just wiring the speaker to the power pack worked great and despite the less voltage produced awesome sound! Now using the wood flooring I will build a case for this mass of wire, speakers and batteries!

http://www.instructables.com/id/Cheap-Speaker-RuckSack-Thats-LOUD/

Image Notes 1. Sub 2. Tweeters 3. Amp circuit 4. 12V Lead acid battery 5. Power / charging / fuse circuit

step 3: Construction
Now this is a portable speaker bag, and as said before by portable I don't just mean movable, I mean TOUGH! I.e. it can be carried on a bike, through fields, occasionally dropped or knocked etc. now that is portable! I always find pictures better than words so I took lots of pictures right the way through the building process to save me writing up too much. Alot of sawing, sanding, wood gluing, glue gun gluing and screw screwing (ahaha) was involved and the result was not too bad if I do say so myself. It feels pretty indestructible. Take alook at the pics and enjoy :)

http://www.instructables.com/id/Cheap-Speaker-RuckSack-Thats-LOUD/

Image Notes 1. 3.5mm headphone jack

http://www.instructables.com/id/Cheap-Speaker-RuckSack-Thats-LOUD/

Image Notes 1. Tweeter Right 2. Tweeter Left 3. Sub 4. Battery 5. Charging / Power / Fuse circuit 6. Sub tube 7. Amp circuit 8. Controlls

step 4: Finishing
Right so the speakers are built, working and sound great! Now to put them in a rucksack! The speakers were measured so do fit in the bag (just!). they were then padded on all sides with the sofa foam and double padded on the side that will be on your back when carrying them, for added comfort :) I painted some wire mesh from an old waste paper bin yellow and cut it / glued it to cover the speakers to protect them when being moved / used. The pocket was removed from the front of the bag as it got in the way and holes were roughly cut for the speakers and controls. These holes were then neatened up with a sewing machine. Once in position in the bag the speakers were glued in place. As a finishing touch I cut some yellow fabric off of an old drinks advertisement banner I had lying around and glued it to the bag bordering the controls and speakers.

http://www.instructables.com/id/Cheap-Speaker-RuckSack-Thats-LOUD/

step 5: Done!
And that's it! Here are some pictures of the final product and a there will be a high-quality video of it doing its job once i have edited it. This is my first instructable and I feel it has gone very well. Its meets every spec I had and works great. Just the other day I was sitting in a field with my mates on a hot summer's day blaring out the tunes! The videos do not do the sound quality this thing produces any justice. I have been thinking of how I can show this but until then you will just have to believe me ahaha. So yes, hope you enjoyed my story and thankyou for you time. Any comments, suggestions, questions are very welcome? superrob. UPDATE Here is a video of the final Speaker RuckSack. It is slightly better quality than my other videos but again the microphone of the camera lets the RuckSack down. Enjoy...

http://www.instructables.com/id/Cheap-Speaker-RuckSack-Thats-LOUD/

O and if you like my instructable VOTE FOR ME!

http://www.instructables.com/id/Cheap-Speaker-RuckSack-Thats-LOUD/

Image Notes 1. Wear the 12v charging adaptor attaches. 2. 3.5mm Headphone Jack 3. ...Possible Space For Glow Sticks? ahaha

Image Notes 1. Power and Volume 2. BASS! 3. Power LED 4. Charging LED

http://www.instructables.com/id/Cheap-Speaker-RuckSack-Thats-LOUD/

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Comments
22 comments Add Comment

Alex370 says:

Sep 16, 2010. 12:15 PM REPLY Wow, thats fantastic! The sound is good too, Id like to try the same but id replace the tweeters with midranges. good job mate

lomn says:
How do you charge the battery? with the regular power input to the speakers or what

Aug 3, 2010. 9:06 PM REPLY

redeyedninja says:

Jul 9, 2010. 3:08 PM REPLY I'm thinking of making a rucksack sound system soon. Will make the enclosure design sealed to keep it simple, as reflex enclosures are harder to design, especially when you don't know the full TS parameters of the speaker. The shell will be made of 15mm birch plywood with pine bracing in the corners to save weight. As stuff like mdf is heavy. Speakers will be: 2x Electrovision 5.25 inch dual cone fullrange rated 45w rms, 63hz-20khz, sensitivity at 1w/1m is 92db. 2x 5.25 metal speaker grilles with clamps. Amp: new version of Tripath Class T Amp TA2020 in a case with screw terminals instead of spring clips that the wires could easy disconnect from and short. Amp takes DC 12V~14V 5A. Batteries/battery: I might use a deep cycle lead acid battery. So I'll probably go for vented lithium-ion batteries and a suited safe charger. So I'm pretty certain I'll just need a 5A fuse on the battery. As the amp is 5A. Probably will need a safety circuit too to prevent overcharging the batteries. Could the OP and jamesjamesjames give me more information on how to connect up either a sealed lead acid battery and charge it safely,please. Or vented lithium-ion cells. Thanks Jul 5, 2010. 12:38 PM REPLY

jamesjamesjames says:
Made one a while back with a 12v battery from one of them kids electric cars. a bit rougher, doesn't look as nice as yours =)

thumpstarkid says:

Mar 10, 2010. 12:46 PM REPLY hi i am going to make one of these i have the sofa fluff the laminate flooring and the sounsstation but the ps1 charger i don not have could you tell me if it will run on one of these 12v lead acid battery that you have in the pic because they are 12v and you said that the speakers are 15v " The speakers ran from 15v and the battery pack produced 12v. Lucky just wiring the speaker to the power pack worked great and despite the less voltage produced awesome sound!" also you say "12v. Lucky just wiring the speaker to the power pack worked great" does this mean you did not use the amp just the speakers(tweeters) sorry im new to this

superrob says:

Apr 20, 2010. 6:09 AM REPLY Hi thumpstarkid, although the speakers do run on 15v the 12v lead acid battery works fine, it might not go as loud but the sound level is still pretty impressive. Also i did use the amp the circuit is abit like battery - amp - speakers hope this helps.

http://www.instructables.com/id/Cheap-Speaker-RuckSack-Thats-LOUD/

MichaelWhyte says:

Apr 6, 2010. 10:16 AM REPLY HAHAHA Thats uncanny, couple o years ago also needed a portable soundsystem for..ahem...gatherings, used the same logitech soundsystem i had for my ps2, and the same wire mesh stuff but mines was gold, i was a bit too rough though cus i had to rebuild mine about 10 times due to kicking spilling etc when under the influence hahahahah, good news though still got it and it still works, although the only original parts now are the power/bass switch and the sub Nov 20, 2009. 2:49 PM REPLY hi superrob can you do me a favor can you email me a copy of your own instructions please it would be greatful along with your videos if it is not to much to ask m8 because i love your idea and i think it would be nice to make or get 1 for my brother for xmas dont you think thanks if you could do it a.s.a.p many regards ben ben_bolton123@hotmail.com

ben1994 says:

Yerboogieman says:
Sweet bag man. I probably won't do this, every time i wire something for my bike, i blow an amp.

Oct 12, 2009. 6:07 PM REPLY

Finnl says:
place an on/off switch on the straps.. but its very nice;)

Aug 22, 2009. 2:44 AM REPLY

tuxedo1994 says:

Jul 25, 2009. 7:07 PM REPLY great Instructable! but could you be a bit clearer HOW to wire the things to geather. like what the battery is attached to, what type of out put the speakers have and how this works with an ipod. all I'm saying is can you put in a couple of more steps on assembly. but other wise GREAT job! :)

superrob says:

Jul 30, 2009. 7:02 AM REPLY Hi tuxedo1994, Its true I have not been very clear on the actual wiring so i will explain. This was actually very, very simple. I cut the end off the wire that would go from the battery pack to the PSone and just soldiered it to wear the speakers power adaptor would fit to the speakers. That was it! almost too easy :S Thanks, superrob.

tuxedo1994 says:

Aug 17, 2009. 8:09 AM REPLY OH! that makes sense i had a computer speaker and i was having trouble on figuring out where the power would come from. so ultimally get a battrey equal to that of witch the speaker intakes and just attatch the positive wires of the power cable to the battreys positive out put. and same with negitive. thanks so much! tuxedo1994

Phoghat says:

Jul 23, 2009. 3:28 PM REPLY Very nice work and I think I'll build something similar. Why did you have the sub facing forward and the tweets firing off to the sides? Methinks it would be better the other way round.

superrob says:

Jul 30, 2009. 6:57 AM REPLY Hi Phoghat, Sound wise it probably would be better the way you suggested however the width of the Sub compared to the width of the Rucksack meant it either had to face the back or the front. Thanks, superrob.

sardines454 says:
I've always wanted to do this and it looks like you've done a great job. What is the battery life is at a fairly decent volume?

Jul 23, 2009. 9:01 AM REPLY

superrob says:

Jul 30, 2009. 6:54 AM REPLY Hi sardines454, I have had it running at pretty much full volume for at least 3 hours with no loss of quality but have yet to use it till it completely runs flat. Thanks, superrob.

porcupinemamma says:
mwhahaha!...love it ;0)

Jul 27, 2009. 9:17 AM REPLY

JuxtaposedIToldYouSo says:

Jul 27, 2009. 7:04 AM REPLY I am going on a backpacking trip to Colorado in a few weeks; I'm definitely going to have to mod my backpack like this. Great Idea!!

LoganSix says:

Jul 24, 2009. 6:39 AM REPLY Nice job. A few companies still sell boomboxes, but they are limited. I have one that I want to add MP3 capability to at some point. So many ideas, so little time to do hobbies.

http://www.instructables.com/id/Cheap-Speaker-RuckSack-Thats-LOUD/

Oroka says:

Jul 23, 2009. 5:53 PM REPLY This is good if you are taking it somewhere to use, but I HATE HATE HATE HATE HATE people who walk around with little speakers blaring rap or any music for that matter. I dont want to hear your music! USE HEADPHONES!

corey_caffeine says:
nice speakers

Jul 23, 2009. 12:01 PM REPLY

http://www.instructables.com/id/Cheap-Speaker-RuckSack-Thats-LOUD/