With a 3D printed case and spare speaker, you can build a battery powered MP3 player thanks to the affordable DFPlayer module.
MP3 players are readily available in the market. But where’s the fun in buying when you build one for yourself. If you are a maker and love DIY, this project will help you build a mini battery-powered mp3 player with a 3.5mm headphone jack (to connect your headphone or aux) that you can carry with you anywhere you go. You may also choose to build a portable mp3 player with a pair of speakers.
What's more, you can interface this module with Arduino or any microcontroller with RX/TX capabilities, such as ESP8266, and integrate with Home Assistant to play voice alerts or sound an alarm.
DFPlayer is a low-cost mini MP3 player module that can play music or audio (MP3 files) with direct output to the speaker. You can use this module for variety of projects. It can be used to build a standalone music player, you can add buttons to control its various functions and mode, or pair it with Arduino or ESP8266 to control it wirelessly.
To build a portable DIY MP3 player, you need the following:
You need some experience in soldering electronic components. If you have never soldered any component or used a soldering iron before, refer to this guide to learn simple tips to solder electronics.
However, if you don’t want to solder and want to test or build this temporarily to learn and for fun, you can use a breadboard.
Follow the steps given below to build a DIY MP3 player.
To build the control panel to control various functions, such as increase or decrease volume, play or pause music or switch to the previous or next track, you need a general PCB. If you don’t have a general PCB.
You can now add speakers to the DFPlayer module. The module can run two 3W 4/8 ohm speakers without any issues. If you are using a 3W speaker, you can connect them directly to the DFPlayer as shown in the following diagram.
You may also install a PAM8403 3W mini 5V digital amplifier board to connect the speaker and control volume using the volume knob.
However, if you want to connect bigger speakers for more sound, you can use a more powerful amplifier module in between the DFPlayer and the speakers.
Once all the connections are made, you can connect a 5V power supply to the female micro USB and then solder the two wires to the DFPlayer as shown in the following diagram.
You may also use a 5mm male-female DC power jack to supply 5V power through any 5V adapter.
You can create up to 100 folders and add up to 255 songs in each folder. To add music files, copy the MP3 files to the root of the SD card. Do not create any folder for now.
Once done, insert the SD card into the DFPlayer module.
Connect the power supply and then press the B1 (Play/Pause) or B2/B3 (Previous/Next) button once. It should start playing the MP3 file stored on the SD card.
If you long-press on B2, it will decrease the volume. Similarly, a long press on button B3 will increase the volume. A short press on B2 and B3 will switch between the previous or next track on the SD card respectively.
Once you have tested and built a working DIY MP3 player, you may enclose it in a 3D printed case (such as the one suggested above) or any enclosure you can find on Thingiverse. You may also design one in Fusion 360.
To integrate the DFPlayer or your DIY MP3 player with Home Assistant for smart home automation alerts, you will need a NodeMCU or D1 Mini and flash it with Tasmota or ESPHome firmware.
You can use the Text to Speech converter tool to create mp3 voice alerts or notification alerts and paste those files to the root of your SD card or arrange them in a folder.
Then add automation in Home Assistant. For instance, you can choose a device trigger, such as a DIY smart ultrasonic water level sensor, choose the MP3 player in action, select payload (MP3 file number) to play when the tank is full or empty or reaches a certain level. You may also build a smart energy monitoring device for Home Assistant and play alerts when high power usage is detected.
Similarly, you add multiple automation for each event in Home Assistant that will play a voice alert through your DIY MP3 player.
Additionally, you can get a Bluetooth transmitter, such as KCX_BT_EMITTER, and pair it with the DFPlayer’s DAC output to transmit and play audio to other Bluetooth-enabled audio systems, such as your headphones or Bluetooth soundbar. Similarly, you may pair a KCX BT003 Bluetooth receiver module with DFPlayer side-by-side to connect your smartphone and stream music wirelessly on your portable DIY MP3 player.
You can even add a mic in the Bluetooth module to use the DIY MP3 player for receiving voice calls.
Ravi is an expert tech explainer, an IoT enthusiast and Linux lover with a background in big data and app development. He spends most of his weekends working with IoT devices and playing games on the Xbox. He is also a solo traveler who loves hiking and exploring new trails.
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