Ukebox
Custom rechargeable Bluetooth speaker in a Ukulele
Ukebox - Bluetooth speaker in a ukulele
After talking to former colleague and friend, Talia Yat, about some of the projects I had been working on, she asked if it was possible to create a Bluetooth speaker in the shape of a Ukulele. After sitting on the idea for a while, the plan for the Ukebox was hatched. Wrangling a plethora of challenges, this project took many hours to complete, over almost a span of a year. With very limited bass and low effect, it is a fully functioning, rechargeable Bluetooth speaker.
Development.
The development started with the process of finding a speaker driver that would fit the sound hole of the ukulele as closely as possible, as well as delivering the best possible sound quality. It turned out that there were plenty of drivers, but not as many amplifiers, that could bridge dual channels to a single speaker. Having scoured the internet for a month, I found myself with a handful of solutions from Aliexpress, but they all lacked in some aspect. I was on the verge of attempting to build my own amplifier from scratch before coming to my senses. I’m no electrician and definitely not a sound engineer, so I opted to use the best available out of a range of low effect amps that would sound OK in the corner of a small room or at a picnic.
Because the Ukebox was going to run on battery, the amp was very limited and needed to run at 3.7V at most,which was a huge bottleneck. Once I had the amp and driver connected I added a Bluetooth receiver and a LiPo battery as well as a small breakout USB charger. As this was a pet project for a friend, I also wanted to avoid buying components for hundreds of dollars. Some of the challenges would have simply been avoided by throwing money at the problem - but where is the fun (challenge) in that?
Another challenge was to physically secure everything inside of the ukulele, so that it would be accessible, were any of the components to break - and also not have everything fling around when moved. One of the fiddliest things I’ve ever endured was mounting the nuts on the inside of the ukulele, so that the back cover could be removed (by unscrewing some bolts).
The speaker driver I ended up getting was slightly too small for the sound hole and required a collar to not fall through the hole. I cut a simple shape on the laser cutter and painted it black so that the 2-3mm area around the speaker wouldn’t be noticeable.
The hole on the back of the ukulele was cut using an Exacto knife. It was the least intrusive/non-destructive way to create a hole, and allowed me to still use the piece that was cut out. I glued it onto the back of the laser cut/engraved back plate (with my former logo on), in order to create a better seal and minimize sound leaking out the back.
To my knowledge, it still works to this day!
Features.
Custom solution (amp, driver, Bluetooth receiver)
Built-in bluetooth
Dual channel single driver
Runs on rechargeable LiPo battery
Playable ukulele