Remember that old laptop you used to love so much but had to replace because it just stopped working? Well, if you happen to have kept it, you’re in luck because with it, you can craft your very own DIY Bluetooth speaker.
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7 Easy Steps to Make Your Very Own DIY Bluetooth Speaker
Step 1: Get Your Old Laptop
Laptops are useful things while they’re working. In fact, nowadays, everyone’s lives seem pretty much stored in these little computers. However, all good things must come to an end, and your beloved laptop is no exception. Sometimes, they break down, become really slow, or just get too old for you to still do anything productive with them.
Well, your dead laptop actually has a lot of useful materials and components inside just waiting to be repurposed. One of these components is the laptop’s speakers. Some laptops, particularly those manufactured around the late 2000s, had ridiculously good speakers.
During this time, media playback was a huge focus for gadgets like phones and computers. In fact, some speakers were even designed to boost the bass. A pair of Bluetooth speakers with good audio quality nowadays can really cost a fortune. If you happen to have an old laptop lying around at home, then grab it and start making your very own DIY Bluetooth speaker.
Step 2: Take it Apart and Grab the Speakers
Once you have your old laptop with you, the first thing you need to do is open it up. Often, this involves unscrewing pretty much all the screws you might find on the back and prying apart the plastics.
Make sure to separate all the internals carefully as some of them can be fragile. Set them on a flat surface in an organized manner.
You can repurpose most of those components later on. For this, however, we will be focusing on the speakers, so grab those.
Step 3: Glue the Speakers Together
Most of these speakers are built inside their own sealed enclosures. As such, you no longer need to build a separate speaker box for them.
Laptop speakers are physically quite flat. Depending on the shape of your laptop speakers, you can glue them together to form one unit.
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Step 4: Give Your Speakers Bluetooth Capability
To allow your DIY Bluetooth speaker to connect to your phone via Bluetooth, solder it up to a mini Bluetooth amplifier. Afterwards, you can also glue it in place.
Step 5: Make It USB Compatible
Most of these Bluetooth amplifiers work off 5 volts. As such, you can solder on a USB socket. This allows you to plug your DIY Bluetooth speaker to a USB battery bank for power.
Step 6: Design Your DIY Bluetooth Speaker
Now that your DIY Bluetooth speaker is pretty much good to go, it’s time to make it look a bit neater. Simply get some plastic strips and glue them together to fit around the perimeter of your speakers.
You can also get some thin fabric and fit it around the speakers to act as a grill.
Step 7: Enjoy Your Music
That’s it! You can mount your DIY Bluetooth speaker unto a wall to make it as unobtrusive and slick as possible or just leave it on top of your desk. Afterwards, connect your phone, turn on the music, and enjoy your impressive-sounding DIY Bluetooth speaker.
If you’re both a DIYer and an audiophile, then you might enjoy this video from Kirby Meets Audio showing you how to turn any speaker into a Bluetooth speaker:
Having quality Bluetooth speakers doesn’t need to be as expensive as you might think it is. If you have an old laptop just lying around at home, you can use that to craft your very own DIY Bluetooth speaker that’s just as good as a brand new pair of speakers.
Besides a DIY Bluetooth speaker, do you know of other things you can craft from an old laptop? Share them with us in the comments section below! UP NEXT:
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