
ftlum

Hi All.
I need to put in a speaker for my full-sized Dr. Who K-9 robot (see my avatar).
He is made of styrene and the speaker (about 3 inches or so in diameter) for his speech would go into the head. I'm also debating about putting in a 2nd speaker in the body for sound effects. The power will be from a 12v lead battery (which actually attaches to a power distirbution board that some of the R2 builders use).
I'd like to keep things as simple as possible with as little soldering as needed.
I have a few questions:
Is an amp needed? If so, how's this one? Are there ones that are any easier to wire-up? Specifically, it looks like I'd have to attach the raw EZ B output (I'll be removing the tiny speaker it comes with) to a plug to get the audio into the amp. It'd be nice to not have to do additional soldering.
http://www.amazon.com/Lepai-LP-2020A-Tripath-Class-T-Amplifier/dp/B0049P6OTI
If I do use 2 speakers, can the same amp power them both?
I won't be using a Sparkfun MP3 trigger now that the EZ B can take care of the sound files. Do I need a ground loop isolator anymore?
thanks in advance,
Frank
But, my reason for posting was to see if you can provide a link to the power distribution board you mentioned. I am building a "Steampunk K9" (actually, the farther I get with planning, the less like K9 it is turning out to be, and the more like just a big robot dog) and was going to build a power distribution system, but if there is something available that meets the needs for reasonable cost, I am always willing to save some labor.
Alan
http://www.ez-robot.com/Community/Forum/Thread?threadId=5681
Also the product you picked I think would be a bad choice. For one it runs on 13 volt 3 amp, that's just way too power hungry for a mobile robot. I'd choice and amp more like the one in the tutorial or the exact same one.
Another option is to use battery powered "pocket speaker" amazon has lots of them.
I don't know if the power distribution boards are still being made, but you can contact Dan. He recently responded to an email question I had. The nice thing about the board is that it does have a USB port which will hook up to my digital picture frame on the side of K-9. Here's the link to the board:
http://danshobbies.webstarts.com/products.html
They never hurt, and often help. If you can easily Leave it in, you might as well. I use on in my car when I hook up an iPod or my Android phone to the stereo and it prevents noise nicely.
Alan
Will I still be able to sync LED lights to sound that's being sent to a bluetooth speaker? I've read a variety of threads on this and it seems like the easiest way is to directly hook the LEDs to where the speaker wires are. Will the built in speaker play at the same time if you're using a bluetooth speaker? I also found a thread by Rich describing use of the sound servo feature as an alternative. It looks like you'd need to hook up the LED a little differently (4 Route MOSFET Button IRF540?). Would that method work if using a bluetooth speaker too?
Thanks again!
Frank
Also if you break out an amp from this board as I did you may need to remove the little speaker as you may experance an echo effect.
If I simply rewire the speaker to an unamplified one that's about 3 in in diameter will that still end up weak sounding? I may go back to my original idea about using a wired portable speaker, but it's a little hard to fit these in.
http://www.amazon.com/iHome-IM60GT-Portable-Speaker-Translucent/dp/B004OA733E
Here's a picture of a basic setup that can give you an idea of size.
And another view. More details can be provided if needed.
Here is a picture of just the Amp without the small header that can be soldered onto the board to provide a way to plug connectors onto the PCB.
Also, will the V4 directly connect to the speaker via Bluetooth? I don't want to use my PC to connect and I understand the iPhone's Bluetooth will not work with the EZB.
thanks again,
Frank
Both your Bluetooth speaker and the ezb are both referred to as (for a lack of a better term) "slave" devices... Insofar they need a "master" device to control them. The ezb is the slave device and the master device is your pc with ARC... Two slaves can't control each other... That's why your ezb4 (even if it had Bluetooth) can't be used with your Bluetooth speaker.
Put your Bluetooth speaker on your robot... Now when you play sounds, mp3 etc out your pc speakers it will instead come out the Bluetooth speaker that is on your robot... Problem solved...