
Tailoring for loudspeaker selection has cascading effects through the rest of the system.
#AUDIO HIJACK BLUE USB PORTABLE#
Surprising the customer with big sound from a little box is key for success, so each product can offer a unique combination for driving the audio, all housed inside an eye-catching enclosure that lets consumers tell one portable Bluetooth speaker from another. Look at this from the perspective of Bluetooth speaker manufacturers: they want their Bluetooth speaker to stand out from competitors, and the most obvious way is in their selection of loudspeaker drivers. But by changing our Bluetooth speaker mindset from “it’s a reprogrammable computer” to “it’s an integrated collection of useful electronic components”, we turn market diversity into our ally.

There’s way too many different speakers out there for one hack to rule them all.
#AUDIO HIJACK BLUE USB HOW TO#
I’ll show you how to drop an Arduino into a cheap speaker as the blueprint for your own audio adventures.ĭirecting the Hacker Mindset at Myriad Bluetooth Speakers

Now hacking these boxes just requires a change of mindset and a little detective work. Let’s throw the Bluetooth overboard but embrace all those other things. So what if we just take advantage of the best parts of these speakers: great audio fidelity, portability, and the polished look of a consumer good, to serves as the host for our own audio-based hacks. It doesn’t help that most Bluetooth audio modules are opaque, their development toolchains difficult to obtain. Some speakers are amenable to custom firmware, but only a small minority have attracted a software development community. Our main obstacle is a side effect of market diversity: with so many different speakers, a hack posted for one speaker wouldn’t apply to another. As a consequence, nowadays it’s not unusual to have a small collection of them, a fertile field for hacking.īut many surplus speakers are put on a shelf for “do something with it later” only to collect dust. Some have even become branded promotional giveaway items. What was once an expensive luxury is now widely accessible thanks to a prolific landscape of manufacturers mass producing speakers to fit every taste and budget. Portable Bluetooth speakers have joined the club of ubiquitous personal electronics.
