Halp, Tiny speaker?

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Helloo! I’ve just bought a tiny LED, mic and board, but the speaker is too big.

I’m very new to making, does anyone know what the smallest speaker is I can use? (I want to play audio files through it, like text to speech). I’ve heard it needs an amplifier too to work. The one I chose has one built in but too big.

These are the items I bought:

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Hi Rebecca
Just having a quick look at RS Components. They have some that look like yours @ 15mm diameter. Don’t know about lead spacing though, you will have to look that up. Data sheets available on the RS page. Search “miniature speaker” and you should find 212 products.

Note changing the speaker size does not really change the board size.
Cheers Bob
EDIT:
Core have a 15mm speaker that looks like yours SKU PRT-20660.
They have another similar one but would you believe the diameter must be a secret. Not specified. No data sheet either.

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Hey Rebecca. Good to have you with us.

When you say its too big is that because your working to a spec or design restriction?
How loud does this speaker have to be?
More context might help us recommend a good solution :slight_smile:

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Thank you so much both!!

I’m new enough that I don’t know how to answer that. I’m trying to build a really tiny laser cut wood dinosaur, that can be a voice assistant. The main issue is that the speaker in the photo is much bigger than all the other components.

So, looking for the smallest possible speaker&amp (can be separate) that can be wired in to make a voice assistant. I don’t mind if the sound quality is poor or quiet. But it should be able to play mp3 sentences generated via API calls.

For future questions like this, what info would help the most to provide? (that’ll give me a research starting point too).

Thanks so much for your help! I bet I’ll be so embarrassed about this in a year haha (not knowing what I don’t know to ask effective questions).

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So Fine.
Some of the questions I asked when I was first starting are actually hilarious.
Actually, some of the questions I ask today are dumb… :man_facepalming:

Firstly, cool idea. Love me a playful project like this.
I think what I’m learning for your reply is that the speaker does not have to be that loud, but the smaller the better.

Speakers

Well, here is a small speaker. :slight_smile:
It’s not going to sound very good, but it’s all just spoken word so it’ll probably be fine.
Additionally, it’s a dinosaur, And maybe this dinosaur has a certain growl in her tone that explains away the limitations of the speaker. Using the narrative of the project to your advantage ya know.

If I could fit it, this 3cm speaker is one that I own, have tested, and know sounds… ok. Acceptable for your use case at least. :+1:

Amps

You can make really small amplifiers with a transistor and a few other jelly-bean parts.

I’m a little hesitant to recommend this because you’re just starting out and I know transistors did not come naturally to me.

However, we’re all different learners, so maybe type “common emitter transistor amplifier” into a search engine and watch some youtube videos and see how you feel about it.

@Robert93820 may be able to suggest a beginner friendly operational amplifier approach, which would also be very compact and easy to hide in your dinosaur.
Operational amplifiers and I are still in the “it’s complicated” stage of our relationship. I’ve built some as experiments, but I’m wouldn’t be brave enough to give direction yet.

The only other option I can think of is a breakout. The one I use is the maker verse one which is pretty damn small and sounds pretty great all things considered.

Further questions

I have two other thoughts here:

  • Do you need to fit the micro-controller inside the dinosaur as well?
  • Tell me more about these API calls?
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Hi Rebecca

Actually mind boggling. But to his credit things seem to have settled down quite a bit.

Pix is correct. There are lots of audio amp circuits around including OpAmp use but they all require building and external components (sometimes many).

So I would agree with his suggestions

The speaker is one of the ones I found yesterday.
The Amp is a class D device and MUST be connected as per the documentation. It has the advantage of being already built up with nothing extra to add. I don’t think you will get anything much smaller in the non specialist range. You could get down to Hearing Aid level but that sort of thing is VERY specialised and I don’t think you want to go there. Particularly as you say you are very new to this field.

Keep in mind though the expected input is Analog Audio. Any decoding say from MP3 etc and processing will have to be done elsewhere. I think there are MP3 etc decoders around which are quite small but I have no experience here.

To enable real advice we need to know just how you envisage all this going together. A block diagram of some sort would be helpful here. Otherwise anything anybody comes up with will be only guess work and time wasting. Also some physical dimensions and any physical constraints you are aware of. In other words how much space are you expecting to have.

Keep asking. You will not learn if you don’t. The subject of electronics can be quite complex and you won’t learn in 5 minutes. But if you learn what to disregard (you have to believe what you are told) and what is important to you you will get by. You might have to be prepared to do some reading regarding the very basics to help understand some aspects but that should not be too difficult.

You are doing OK. You have to make some mistakes to really learn.
Cheers Bob

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fair :laughing: :joy: :melting_face:

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Thought you would like that bit
Cheers Bob

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Heyy Pix and Bob!

Could not be more grateful for your help. Thank you so much for your kindness and helpfulness, all the warm fuzzies right now! :folded_hands::smiling_face_with_three_hearts:

I LOVE the idea of a growly tinny sounding speaker as a characteristic of the dinosaur, that’s so creative haha!

I’ve just ordered the Through-Hole speaker you both suggested, as well as the Makerverse Mono amp. Also picked up a mini oval speaker and an amp the product page recommended for it, to get to try alllll the things out and get a feel for the different approaches.

To answer your follow-up questions Pix

  • I have a little ESP32-c3 beetle microcontroller that I think will work for this. But also have a pi pico to swap out with if needed.
  • API call-wise, will be using OpenAI’s models for calling ChatGPT and text-to-speech.

Here is a project I made before. It’s a Pokemon (Snorlax) lamp made from cardboard. It changes colour to match the colour of a Pokemon you say out loud.

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I didn’t need to do any wiring or anything for this, as the mic and speaker was through my laptop and the colour changing commands were over bluetooth.

So this Dino project is an opportunity to learn more of the hardware stuff :grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes::t_rex:

Follow-up questions

  • To Pix: What do you mean by “jelly-bean parts”? :face_holding_back_tears::grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes:

  • To both of you: What has been your favourite project so far that you’ve built? :star_struck:

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That’s awesome. Looks great.

Good one. :+1: :slight_smile:

I’m a little fuzzy where the boundaries are for what counts as a jellybean part but the typical examples are capacitors, resistors, transistors, inductors, didoes, etc. From context I’ve gotten the vibe that they’re the classics still in production. e.g. the BC548 would probably be considered a jellybean part.

That’s a lovely question.
I’m still really proud of this but I’m pretty sure it broke me and I couldn’t’ look at my soldering iron for a few months following. Wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy. Sounds sick tho.