Robosapien V2 - Audio Upgrade

Robosapien V2 - Audio Upgrade

April 06 2013

The Robosapien V2 has a speaker that can only be charitably described as...."cheap sounding".  It's a little 16 Ohm speaker at .3 watts

While browsing the local electronics store about a month ago, I noticed that they had the same kind of speaker that the Robosapien V2 has, but slightly more powerful and constructed from higher quality materials.  Seeing as the cost was USD0.75 for the speaker, I picked it up and decided to install it some day.

Today is the day.


This upgrade should take about 30 minutes to complete.

Existing Robosapien V2 Speaker

Here's the existing Robosapien V2 speaker:

A little close up of the unit.

H.L.
16 Ohms
.3 Watts (I think)

Why they chose to use BLACK for the speaker POSITIVE lead I will never know...

Robosapien V2 - Speaker Upgrade

Here's the replacement speaker.  It cost HKD6.00 / USD0.75.

Here's a picture of the speaker.  I forgot to take a photo of it pre-installation, so here's one of the speaker after installation, taped to the bottom of the Robosapien V2 torso (for now).  

I think that later the speaker will form the "back" of a custom Robosapien V2 Expansion Backpack that I plan to design and put into service later, to hold an ARDUINO board and some other assorted goodies.

Here's the Datasheet for the replacement speaker:

The important bits:

16 Ohms - The impedance is the same as the unit that is being replaced
.5 Watts  - The power rating is a little higher than the unit that is being replaced

More than anything, I am hoping that the Robosapiens V2 will SOUND MORE CLEAR with this new speaker installed.  The cone of the replacement speaker is plastic (Mylar, probably) instead of paper and I am hoping that the lower mass of the speaker material will give a more crisp sound.


Here's a picture of the speaker with the proper leads installed.

POSITIVE = RED
NEGATIVE = BLACK

The other end has had 2mm crimped leads put on and is ready to be inserted into the DuPont connector

A picture of the completed, assembled unit ready to be connected to the Robosapien V2.

I'm happy to say that the robot voice sounds a little crisper and clearer now.

Fixed.