Wireless speaker project for Scouts

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NickAskew
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Joined: Fri Jul 23, 2010 2:24 pm

Wireless speaker project for Scouts

Post by NickAskew » Fri Jul 23, 2010 4:09 pm

Hi

Could anyone point me in the direction of components that could make my life easier in the following project please?

I wish to set up a remote speaker in the middle of some woods so I can play wolf noises and such (it's a yearly Scout camp, we try and scare them at least a little bit before their parents get them back!) from an iPod Nano.

My nano has a 3.5mm stereo headphone jack and the speaker I haven't built yet.. I just need advice on how I could wirelessly transfer audio to a speaker positioned approximately 20 metres away (will be a mid range speaker with a cheap car amp running from a 12 volt battery suspended in a tree somewhere..)

Are there any simple/cheap to build (we don't have a lot of funds) circuits anyone is aware of for sending audio between two devices in this fashion? I don't need anything particularly smart, I can leave the speaker switched on for several hours ready to receive audio - no electronic on/off switching required, any ideas anyone?

The only idea I have had so far is to put a cheap car radio and speaker in the tree connected to a car battery tuned into FM station xxx and get a FM sender for my Nano, however I have no idea how far the range on the FM senders are, guessing there is legal reasons why they can't be very highly powered? Anyone know of a cheap FM transmitter circuit that takes an audio jack as an input?

Thanks for reading.

Sincerely

Nick

Simon (Webmaster)
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Re: Wireless speaker project for Scouts

Post by Simon (Webmaster) » Fri Jul 23, 2010 6:24 pm

Before you go too far, does it definitely need to be wireless? 20m isn't a big distance to send a signal over screen audio cable. Obviously it would need to be routed so that no-one could trip over it, but perhaps running this overhead in trees could work? All you'd need would be a 3.5mm jack at the ipod end, and you'd need a car radio with an external input to connect it to.

A quick search for 'wireless audio sender' brings up a few things, but most seem to be discontinued or expensive.

I'm not sure of the legalities of the FM transmitters in the UK, and as you say they will probably be very limited in range.

I suppose another option to consider is whether a remote control for the ipod is available, in which case this could be next the amplifier.
Simon Carter
Electronics 2000
http://www.electronics2000.co.uk

NickAskew
Posts: 2
Joined: Fri Jul 23, 2010 2:24 pm

Re: Wireless speaker project for Scouts

Post by NickAskew » Sun Jul 25, 2010 4:04 pm

Hi, thanks very much for your reply :)

It needs to be hidden in a tree, so connecting it via a wire isn't an option (I'll be sat round the camp fire with the Scouts I'd like to frighten :)

I have come up with a solution that will suffice though if anyone is interested, I'm now going to use an old tape recorder, pre-record some noises on tape and leave it in the play position - purchased a remote control that triggers a switch to connect/disconnect the power on the tape recorder so I can have it play for a few seconds at a time using what looks like a car alarm key fob.

Regards

Nick

Simon (Webmaster)
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Re: Wireless speaker project for Scouts

Post by Simon (Webmaster) » Sun Jul 25, 2010 6:05 pm

Sometimes the oldest technology is the best solution. Lucky kids :).
Simon Carter
Electronics 2000
http://www.electronics2000.co.uk

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