Arduino sound on big speakers

Submitted by Werner on Tue, 05/12/2020 - 20:44

Hi. If this topic has been covered a 1000 times please just point me in the right direction, this is not my speciality and I'm new to Arduino.

I need to build a sound player that can play back any of 10 pre-recorded sounds at the press of a remote button, but on bigger speakers with about 120W RMS. It will be 10 different bird sounds, each only about 30 seconds duration. So not massive storage needed and if I can do away with an SD card it would be good for durability. Its for an environmental project.

I assume Arduino would be sufficient, cheaper and more durable than Rasberry Pi? Will I need something like a relay to handle the bigger speakers, perhaps an external amp or not? Does anyone have any good ideas for a remote setup for Arduino please? I want to make sure that I buy the correct Arduino board to start experimenting with. 

Thanks so much for any help or direction!

 

 

 

 

A mp3 module is needed which will play the sound from the sd card and the playback will be supported by the arduino.

You need at least 60-80 watt actual output (not rms) power amplifier which will provide equivalent 120 rms output in a 8-10 inch speaker. However, I may be wrong about the output beacuse it depends on the environment, speaker chassis, power amplifier specification etc.

Your work will be easier if you use raspberry Pi because it has dedicated audio output and you just add an amplifier and the work will be done.

  Joined February 12, 2018      696
Monday at 02:11 PM

Hi Sourav,

Sorry for my delayed response, I didn't realise that someone replied already to my post. Thank you very much for the advice, the Rasberry Pi does sound simpler but I'll have to experiment to see if it can be used with a long distance remote (1.5 - 2km) outdoors direct line of sight. Not even sure how to cross that bridge with Arduino :-). It will be an outdoor research application so hopefully I can find outdoor IP65 waterproof rated speakers with a build in amplifier.

Any ideas on the remote activation, does Rasberry Pi have inputs for external swithces (without using cellular or wifi)?

 

 

 

 

 

  Joined May 12, 2020      3
Tuesday at 08:28 PM

What is your planning and actually what is the application? What you want to do?

  Joined February 12, 2018      696
Monday at 02:11 PM

I need to be able to play back a bird sound with the press of a remote button from about 1.5 - 2km away, it is to study the reaction of eagles on the sound of certain falcon species. Ideal would be to be able to select from a few different falcon sounds with the remote (maybe even up to 10 different sounds), but not sure if that may be too ambitious.

  Joined May 12, 2020      3
Tuesday at 08:28 PM

You need dedicated RF based remote controller reciver and transmitter module that needs to be interfaced with the Arduino or Raspberry pi. If you find the perfect module for such a long range. You can easily make it.

  Joined February 12, 2018      696
Monday at 02:11 PM

I was not sure if such long rabge communication abilities were already integrated into Rasberry Pi, but know now thanks. I'll search for and interface a dedicated RF unit. This has been useful, thanks for the help.

 

Cheers

  Joined May 12, 2020      3
Tuesday at 08:28 PM

"You need at least 60-80 watt actual output (not rms) power amplifier..."

What is "actual output?"  I've heard of "RMS", "peak", "maximum" and "continuous".  "Actual output" is a new term for me.  Why not "RMS?"

  Joined May 19, 2020      4
Tuesday at 11:59 PM