Mycroft Community Forum

Better speaker than stock AIY v1?

#1

Mycroft is as loud as I can get him, and sometimes he sounds a bit muffled. Either the AIY HAT is the root cause, or the speaker.

My main goal was to keep the Mycroft assistant in a simple enclosure, containing the mic and speaker; that’s why I went for the Google AIY route. The box I 3D printed works great.

I can’t get any info on the 3" speaker that came with the kit, so I am curious if this is better or practically the same:

https://www.amazon.com/GRS-3FR-4-Range-Speaker-Driver/dp/B00K2ESJZ2/ref=sr_1_9?dchild=1&keywords=3"speaker&qid=1609810777&s=electronics&sr=1-9

EDIT: I don’t think a 3.5" speaker will fit in my enclosure, unless I go to TinkerCAD and redesign the whole thing…

#2

Any 1w+ speaker should work. The board doesn’t provide a huge amount of power. They recommend using an external power supply and if you implement stereo, an additional amp module:

#3

@goldyfruit The only notation I found on the stock speaker was 3W then some other random numbers. The speaker above is 10W. I went ahead and ordered it.

I was actually just hoping for a better mono sound, and didn’t even notice the stereo instruction on that page. Now, I’m really interested in that setup.

I’d like to pick your brain here. I want to see if I’m thinking of an idea correctly. For now, I’m going to stick with a single speaker Mycroft. If I add that amp board, and connect my speaker to it, then I would have better amplification on my mono setup? That is, assuming I don’t cut the right channel JP4 pin just yet. And to complete that better sound setup, I would need to supply direct 5V to the HAT?

#4

I didn’t say anything xD

#5

What do you think of the second part of my response? Would the Adafruit amp board work as a better amplifier than the stock AIY board for a single speaker, or practically the same? I really can’t find anything online of someone installing that board on the Voice HAT.

#6

Honestly, the more I read, I don’t think it would work. Seems to be a stereo only solution

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#7

I think that it’s a question for @gez-mycroft which is working on the Mark II.

Have a look there:

#8

@goldyfruit I just now realized I responded to you and not @baconator , earlier. Oops… :upside_down_face:

I appreciate you adding input though.

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#9

I have no direct experience with the stereo aspect of things, though it is tempting.

#10

I found one guy with a YouTube video, tracked the user over to Twitter, then found him on LinkedIn. I shot him a direct message.

Now I kind of feel like a stalker… :roll_eyes:

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#11

Yeah, the Pi itself is pretty under powered for audio output so the SJ201 (audio front-end board for the Mark II) includes an amp and everythings powered from a 12v barrel. We have swapped to an I2S Audio Amp (TAS5806MD) but the Adafruit @goldyfruit linked to is probably the kind of thing you’re after.

The whole reason we ended up building the SJ201 is because there isn’t really anything out there that gives you the whole package. Once we get the Mark II’s pumping out, we may sell the boards themselves as I know we aren’t the only ones looking to solve this problem.

1 Like
#12

I appreciate the response. I will most likely go the stereo route later on. I’ll have to design and print a whole new enclosure for the components. Right now, I’m working on setting up Home Assistant.