Outdoor Technology Turtle Shell Speaker Mod - Proper Micro USB Charger Port

     I have had an Outdoor Technology Turtle Shell bluetooth speaker since December last year.  It is a cool little speaker I am pleased with, small, but powerful enough for quiet or small gatherings of people and has good low end response which is generally lacking on small size speakers.  It is splash resistant and lightweight, I have taken it kayaking to have with me at a backcountry site. 

     The only one thing that bugged me when I initially got the Turtle Shell speaker and opened the box was the fact that it uses a USB charger cord with a strange nonstandard connector.  Looking for quite a while online for what the connector is called,  it looks like it is what is called an 8 pin mini USB cable..  in any case it certainly isn’t the connector that will charge your cell phone, which is typically a USB micro B connector, although from afar, they look similar.  My problem with using a nonstandard cable is you always have to keep track of where it is all the time, and make sure you bring it with you if you travel somewhere and want to charge it, rather than use whatever you use to charge your phone.  I have enough electronics I have chargers all over the place and several different cables as it is, I don’t understand their logic in designing this speaker with a strange cord.  Especially if all you need is power to charge something, why not use a widely used standard connector?

     As it was, it was frustrating to always locate the cable and keep track of it when I traveled. But, my apprehension with this nonstandard cable was confirmed when,while I was camping the connector on the cable cracked.  I had it in a box with a bunch of camping stuff in it and it probably got crushed by a cast iron grill I had in the box.  It doesn’t help that the connector was a lower cost plastic connector instead of a higher quality rubberized connector.  In any case, the connector in the cable was toast. 

     So, now I couldn’t charge the speaker because my cable was busted.  I was going to just order a new cable from Outdoor Technology, since they had it listed for “$5 for cable, shipped, nuff said” as they say on their website, but firstly, they didn’t have any in stock, and secondly they wanted to charge me $10 extra to ship it to Canada, no thanks.  So my frustration led me to purchase some USB micro B surface mount female connectors off of eBay for $5 including shipping, instead, and I decided to modify the speaker to put a proper micro USB port on it so I don’t have any more issues with forgetting to bring the charger cable along or breaking it.

     The lower rubber casing comes off easily if you slide a table knife along the bottom near the switch location to pry it off, then it can be pulled off. The bottom plastic housing is removed with six screws, revealing three circuit boards, the two speakers and attached to the bottom plate is the battery.  I removed the ribbon to the charger/input jack board, unscrewed the board from the upper housing and desoldered the charger jack.  I managed to solder on a Micro USB jack upside down and connect it to the charger leads on the board after a few attempts.  It was easier to solder upside down, as the power and ground were on their corresponding sides when soldered upside down.   

    If you haven’t soldered micro electronics (which I hadn’t in a long  while), it is tricky to solder things that are so small by hand – they are designed for machine wave soldering.  I have a part holder/magnifying glass which is useful for confirming that things are soldered properly.  For wires, I stripped some speaker cable and used 4 strands of bare wire.  I had to desolder the two inductors right near the old jack so the Vcc line didn’t short out on the grounded frame of the new jack, which happened on one of the jacks.  I almost gave up because of various soldering and grounding issues, but after I desoldered the inductor on the Vcc line, it worked perfectly.

     While I was at it, I used the hot soldering iron to widen the hole in the case slightly to fit the marginally wider micro USB connector.  I put the thing back together after that, and it works great!   It doesn't exactly look OEM but it works just fine.  It probably took me about 4 hours of soldering and fiddling with it. Just plug it into my computer or wall charger and it works, with no special cables required.

Update:  The newer version of the turtle shell speaker has this standard micro USB and not the nonstandard version my original turtle shell speaker came with.

Outdoor Technology Turtle Shell Bluetooth Speaker

  

   Sometimes I like to listen to music car camping or even sparingly while backcountry camping, while packing up gear, waiting out a storm or just relaxing after a day on the water or trail.  Some would call that blasphemy, but whatever.  I get my fill of quiet time, reflection and solace regardless.  I could use my android phone with headphones or even the speaker, but headphones are restrictive and bothersome and unsocial, while the speaker’s quality is kinda tinny, and has no base.  A better solution is the Outdoor Technology Turtle Shell Bluetooth speaker.

      It can connect to my phone by Bluetooth or direct wire tot e headphone jack, and it amplifies the sound with an onboard battery, amplifier and  dual speakers.  Even better still, it is designed for the outdoors as a rugged piece of equipment, dust and highly water resistant, according to them.  The speaker also has a built in microphone if you want to use it for taking a call.  It is a simple piece of electronics, with a couple button, up and down volumes.  The jacks are the charging jack and the 3.5mm headphone jack.  That’s it.  And an on/off switch that glows different colors if it is charging or in use.  It has a long 7-10 hour playing time from the battery, which seems to be true the time I have used mine, although I haven’t done any scientific studies, it does last long.  I haven’t yet abused it either, so I will see how it goes in the long run.

     The casing is two parts.  The upper angled stealth bomber looking portion is metal, covered in some kind of silicone like coating.  The lower part is molded rubber or Thermoplastic urethane (TPU).  On the bottom are four feet, and a ¼”-20 threded insert, same as the bottom of a camera to mount to things using your favorite camera mount.  It comes with a stow bag, a 3.5mm to 3.5mm patch cable, a wall charger with a usb outlet, and a usb charger cable for use with the wall charger or plugging into a computer.

The sound is pretty big from the small package, the response across all frequencies is good.  Many people remark on how great the bass is.

     My one and only complaint so far with this is their choice for a proprietary connector for the charging, instead of a standard micro USB cable?  Why??  Why would you do that?  All the thing needs is the 5V output from the USB..  might as well use a micro usb like everyone uses nowadays, so I would always have a cable around and access to charge it instead of having to remember to lug the special cable around.  I just can’t think of a single reason to use a special cable connector, instead of using a micro USB.  Everything else about the design seems to have been well thought out.

     This is a great speaker to use outdoors -  at the beach, campsite, or even in your garden or on your patio.  There is a bike mount available for it too.  I have yet to try it while kayaking, strapped to my deck while connected to my phone in a dry bag by bluetooth, but I suspect it would do well.

 

Links:

Outdoor Technology Bluetooth Speakers