Hi, I will apologise st the outset as I likely don't really belong here. I'm more the sort of person who when something breaks I look for the burnt out part or the disconnected wire. Yes I can pull apart a heap of stuff and put it back together but building something is a whole other kettle of fish. My knowledge is severely limited and I will do my best to follow your explanations but please forgive the stupid questions.

Short story is that I wish to make howlers for my friends birthday party coming up. I've experimented with several kits/toys/old phone-answering machine. My main issues are how to get it louder? And power. Ideally they would be battery powered and self contained units (speaker included). But I think that the small speakers will just never have enough volume. What might be the best way to go about achieving this? The premade ones reviews all say it's not loud enough so I'm wishing to make my own. I had several ideas such as Bluetooth to send to a speaker on the table with enough volume. Or amplifiers? Is this project even realistically possible? Advice much appreciated.

 

Welcome to AAC!

For louder output, you need a power amplifier and a larger loudspeaker.
You may DIY or you can purchase something off-the-shelf, such as one of these:

 

What is that called please?

For further clarification, in my imagination it is something that is re-recordable, eg people can record their own audio on it, and then play it back, loudly. Kind of a centrepiece that people will have fun with recording their messages and then sending people over. If it's not too costly I'd like to make a few for people to play with. It's a big themed party.

I see many voice recorder and playback kits available. I just need a better understanding of what to get and how to implement it. Thank you for taking the time to answer me.

 

I did search btw but that didn't come up. Thanks again for pointing me in the right direction.

 

Ooooohhhh, questions! I have an old car stereo laying around, and a Bluetooth speaker, as well as an old phone system (with memos and greetings etc). Would it be possible to rig something up from mostly salvaged components?

 

What is that called please?

There are many brands, clones and copy-cats on the market.
The one I am familiar with is x-mini speaker.

 

Thank you

 

I just wanted to say thank you for the help on this thread and other threads I've read through. I've had a very steep learning curve but have learned so much. I ended up building a little amp so that everything is on board. Plus a light sensitive switch which will initiate playback once the howler is opened rather than the person having to press a button. As the board is quite big and I don't need all the functions I now have the knowledge to put together my own smaller circuit using the chip.

I've also come to the conclusion that the lady from the electronics store has no idea what she's talking about. She told me the kit was "very advanced", that a light sensitive switch was impossible to use and far too advanced (it was very basic), and finally that the arduino voice recorder module (which I'm using to play the fat lady's "password" at the gate by motion activation) could only be used with the arduino and not stand alone. She was wrong on all counts. It's a good thing I can think for myself and have the knowledge and advice of people such as yourselves. Thanks again.

 

She also claimed the capacitors don't say on them what they are so I had to show her where I got them from. And then she argued with me that they are the wrong ones. Ah, no lady.