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Amp & Speakers for raspberry pi project

seba

Feb 6, 2013
1
Joined
Feb 6, 2013
Messages
1
Hello,

First some more information about the project, so you have a better idea of what I'm trying to achieve:
A friend has some DIY shops. He wants to hang a lot of screens (~100) to display product images and video's that can be controlled from a central point (his computer). I'll program the software for him, but I don't know a lot about electronics.
At first we were thinking to use tablets with custom firmware (which I can make), but that will be too costly. That's why I'm thinking about using a raspberry pi with a custom build of openelec (which I can also make) in a custom case. Raspberry pi's are cheap, and together with these screens: http://www.chalk-elec.com/?page_id=1280 it'd be almost half as pricy as a decent tablet.

The only problem is the audio. Thing is, I can find a lot of little cheap amps and speakers on farnell or rs, but, as we would need about ~100, it'd be a huge work to solder the speakers to the amps (and the power and audio cable).

So I'm looking for a solution that is easy to connect. So preferably the amp & speaker(s) are 1 piece with a 3.5mm jack input and powered through usb, so I just need to connect the cables.
Something like this: http://www.amazon.com/Altec-Lansing-iML237USB-Portable-USB-Powered/dp/B002NEG0VO . But without housing, smaller & cheaper is what I'm looking for.

If none exist, I could probably look into creating a custom pcb, but I don't know if that's interesting for only 100 units.
 

CocaCola

Apr 7, 2012
3,635
Joined
Apr 7, 2012
Messages
3,635
Lots of low cost cheap amps and speakers all over Ebay or any other Asian import site...

For example only...

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Vibe-USB-Po...er_MP3_Player_Accessories&hash=item417085ad2d

You just have to search them out, most will be powered by batteries but you can make them USB powered in most cases... Personally I would power them from wall warts over USB as you will tax the USB port pretty quickly...

If none exist, I could probably look into creating a custom pcb, but I don't know if that's interesting for only 100 units.

100 units is enough to make it worth your while if you want to get exactly what you want, and opens up options for a better amplifier circuit then you will find in most cheap over the counter systems...
 
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