BOHA BASS BLUETOOTH SPEAKER

OK. So you love bass fishing. And you love music. Wouldn't it be great if you could combine your two greatest passions? Well fear not gentle reader, for this Instructable will show you how to build your very own Big Ole Hairy A$$ (BOHA) Bass Bluetooth Speaker!!

Imagine if you will.... Its a lazy Saturday afternoon. You invite your friends to come over and admire your latest trophy catch. But wait... where's that music coming from? Could it be??? It is!!! Your favorite tunes are emanating from the mouth of your prize bass!!! "What is this sorcery? " your friends ask themselves as you drink in the awe and admiration of all.

Ready to get started? Ready to build the most unique bluetooth speaker known to mankind? Lets go!!!!!!

The most important step in this process is procuring the perfect piscatorial specimen for the project.

Ideally you should track to your favorite fishing hole, angle until you have successfully caught the largest bass in the lake, rush to your neighborhood taxidermist and have your prize catch mounted.

However, for those, like myself who are challenged in the talent of fish procurement, you can buy your prize catch at a local antique store or flea market.

Make sure the mount is in good shape. You ideally want a large mouth bass with its mouth large enough to fit a speaker inside. You also want to chose a style of mount that will allow you to cut into the back side of the bass to mount the electronics so that they will be hidden from view.

For this project I used the following materials:

PAM8403 5V 3W+3W amplifier

USB Bluetooth Audio Receiver

USB Female Type A Female DIP socket

Murata NKE0505SC (Isolated DC DC convertor to eliminate ground loops)

47uH Inductor

4.7uF Capacitor

(2) 470 Ohm resistor

(1) 22K Ohm resistor

2" speaker (salvaged)

DC Jack

Toggle Switch

Proto board

Misc Mounting Hardware

5V DC power supply

The goal of this project was to use a small amplifier that could be run off of either a 5V power supply, a USB port, or even a power bank. The 3W+3W PAM8403 fit the bill. It was small and powerful enough for this application.

Since this was going to be a mono speaker, I had to combine the left and right channels of the audio signal to feed into one channel of the amplifier. In order to do this, I used a resistor array to mix the signals and to provide an impedance load to the amplifier.

I wanted to run both the Bluetooth receiver and amplifier off a single power supply. In order to eliminate the possibility of ground loop interference, I used a Murata isolated DC/DC convertor to isolate the power going to the Bluetooth receiver.

The 2" speaker for this project was scavenged from an old radio. The 5V power supply was an old cell phone charger.

The amplifier and Bluetooth were built on a protoboard according to the above schematic. Pics of the components that I used and the assembled protoboard is shown above.

Once you have everything wired up, its time to start stuffing the bass!!!

I wanted to have have the speaker in a convenient location with minimal obstructions.

I initially looked at using a pair of 1" speakers mounted in the gills, but the sound just wasn't right.

I scavenged a 2" speaker from a portable player and it fit perfectly inside the mouth. Voila. Plus it sounded fantastic! A little hot glue kept it in place and the speaker wires were run through the gills on the back side of the fish.

I decided to mount the Bluetooth Amp board inside the bass. That way the electronics would be hidden from sight.

I picked a spot on the "back side" of the bass, where the flank of the fish was attached to the wooden mounting board. I cut into the bass just below where the mounting screws held the fish onto the mounting board.

Underneath the skin was plaster of paris. Cutting through the plaster, there was sand filled cloth form around which the fish was shaped by the taxidermist. The Bluetooth Amp board fit neatly in the hole made by removing the plaster and the cloth sack made a perfect bed onto which I glued the Bluetooth Amp board.

I then soldered the speaker wires to the amplifier.

To power my BOHA Bass Bluetooth Speaker I used a 5V power adaptor. I ran the power wires along the underside of the bass and I mounted an on/off switch and DC power jack on a small bracket that I epoxied just underneath the bass' tail. This hid all the wiring and made the bass mount look clean and neat.

All that was left to do was re-attach the wooden mounting board, hook up the power cord, pair the Bluetooth to my phone, and let the hilarity ensue!!

Click on the video above to see the BOHA Bass Bluetooth Speaker in action!!!!

Thanks for checking it out and have fun building your own!!