Firefly Jar Portable Bluetooth Speakers

I build all sorts of speakers, from simple to technical, but one thing most of them have in common is some sort of woodworking. I realize not everyone has big woodworking tools like a table saw or a miter saw, but a lot of people do have a drill and a soldering iron! My goal for this project was to build a pair of powered portable bluetooth speakers using found or bought objects for the enclosures, with some holiday inspiration. I chose these glass containers because they are cheap, look pretty cool, and have a nice bamboo lid to mount the drivers.

These speakers aren't designed to shake your house down with big bass, but they do sound really great and you can take them anywhere.

More speaker building videos HERE

I wanted to add a little holiday inspiration to this build and I thought a few cheap led fairy lights would do the trick, so glass was the obvious choice. Read on to see how I frosted the glass.

If you are choosing your own containers, make sure the diameter of the lid AND opening to the actual container are greater than the baffle cutout diameter of the driver you choose.

Materials Needed
The Best Cheap Portable Bluetooth Speaker Kit - https://goo.gl/eSwdvT

Glass Jars - http://amzn.to/2B8DBZ8

LED String - http://amzn.to/2zbCeHX

Li-Ion Battery - http://amzn.to/2zbCeHX

Frosted Glass Paint - http://amzn.to/2zbCeHX

Tools Needed

Soldering Iron - http://amzn.to/2dLPBHA

Glue Gun - http://amzn.to/2dCjf2K

Drill - http://amzn.to/2zk5U5I

Hole Saw - http://amzn.to/2zkptuD

Multimeter - http://amzn.to/2zlg8mg

Remove the lid form your jars, then remove the wire hinge and rubber o-ring from the lid.

Use some paper and some tape or just a lot of tape to mask off the outside of the jar. In the video, I place tape on the inside lip of the jar, I probably wouldn't do that again. It left an uneven rim around the top of the jar that wasn't frosted. I would only tap on the top of the outside of the jar.

This is pretty straight forward, spray paint the inside of the jar with "special glass frosting paint".

You are probably smarter than I am, so of course you will read the directions on the can before starting this step. But just in case, it takes about 10-15 minutes for the frost to start to show up (about how long it takes for the paint to dry). So if it doesn't show up right away, don't keep spraying the jars wondering what is going wrong, THEN read the directions. Just spray it a bit, let it dry, and if it needs a second or third coat, go for it.

Find the center of the lid and cut a 2" hole into it.

You can mount the drivers on the front of the lid, or if you have the tools, you can chamfer out the inside of the hole and back-mount the drivers.

Mark the position of the driver and drill out the mounting holes.

If you are using the drivers from the kit, the lip around the edge of the surround can hold a piece of cloth over the cone of the driver. This makes for a pretty slick looking dust cover.

Be sure not to drill through the wood. Use a small piece of tape to ensure the correct depth.

Use the wiring PDF to lay out your circuit and solder it all up.

Use a multimeter to set the step-up board to around 5V.

The second speaker is connected to the amp through a wire out of the powered jar into the passive jar. The lids will clamp and seal over the wires. I placed them at the bottom of my jars and you can hardly se them.

Everything you need, including the bluetooth amp and other boards, (except for the battery) are included in this build kit.

Add the LED string lights to the inside of the jars. I tried to place them randomly, then moved them around a bit to get the best look I could.

Add the electronics to the inside of one jar and secure everything down with some hot glue.

That's it! Pretty simple!

Just flip the lids open to turn on the LED's and the amp and you're good to go!

I have lots of other speaker building videos on my YouTube Channel if you want more!

I also have Speaker Build Kits & Plans on my website. New kits and plans added all the time!

Thanks so much for tagging along! Go make something!

-Kirby