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MrDobalina
Contributor I
January 23, 2020
Answered

Repurpose recycled Play 5

I purchased a play 5 for part. Turns out it’s recycled but the speakers work just fine. I understand the need to brick the software component of the speaker but is there any reason this can’t be used as a plain old “dumb speaker?” Seems like a total waste to make the speaker completely non functional.

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      Stanley_4
      Stanley_4Answer
      Grand Maestro
      January 24, 2020

      No direct instructions but you could start with something like a Raspberry Pi Zero-W (cheap and has a WiFi radio) computer and add a power-amp to it. Making that a bit more complicated the internal speakers in a Play 5 aren’t a simple left right pair.

      LF Driver: 3 x 4” woofers and HF Driver: 1 x 1” and 2 x ¾” tweeters

       

      From a quick look at Amazon, to drive just a stereo pair of the internal LF and HF speakers this setup would work.

      A complete kit, just the Pi is a lot cheaper if you have the other stuff:

      https://smile.amazon.com/CanaKit-Raspberry-Wireless-Complete-Starter/dp/B07CMVDHWB/ref=sr_1_5

      Small 3 Watt amp:

      https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B01N24JQ37/?coliid=I31UEI8A46877I&colid=3U87SXP1HSZ5E&psc=1&ref_=lv_ov_lig_dp_it

      Or a hefty 60 Watt amp:

      https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B076DLCRHF/?coliid=I19I9RWMCNUVJB&colid=3U87SXP1HSZ5E&psc=1&ref_=lv_ov_lig_dp_it

      Crossover:

      https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B01N6Q75DW/ref=psdc_11042521_t1_B01IZ7JF2I

       

       

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      Dr. Zoidberg
      Lyricist III
      January 25, 2020

      The links in my post above will get you a working speaker with WiFi, Bluetooth and Ethernet if you switch to a Pi 3 or 4 instead of the Zero.

      Hi Stanley, I think there would be a great amount of interest if you provided a little more understanding on how the Pi can re-purpose the Play 5. I have a Pi3 sitting on my shelf at the moment.

      Are you proposing that all the electronics needed to be gutted and replaced with the Pi and the 60W amp effectively bypassing the built-in amps? I think the play 5 has 6 speakers, so how would you possibly wire the Pi amplifier to 6 separate speaker? Thanks!

      Stanley_4
      Stanley_4
      Grand Maestro
      January 25, 2020

      Yes, a complete gutting of the electronics, and properly recycling them of course.

      My plan is to initially do it as a stereo pair and see how it sounds. With 60 watts available there are several possibilities to power the remaining speakers. I think using a stereo to mono mixing transformer might be a good option.

      https://dbbaudio.com/2012/stereo-to-mono-conversions/

      https://smile.amazon.com/ILS-pieces-Transformer-Transformateur-Transformador/dp/B07913D6VJ/ref=sr_1_26

      Symmetry
      Lyricist I
      February 13, 2020

      Realistically, if anyone can do this it is Sonos via some kind of firmware change that allows the line in analog signal to reach the drive units after amplification - and the unit would do nothing else, and not sit on any Sonos system, legacy or otherwise.

      But the interest in this will be too small for the effort to be justified, even if possible. 

      I’m not so sure. I have recently recycled my Play 5 to get a discount on something new. Now, before this i would never have considered taking my fully-functioning Play5 out to my dusty old shed, because its a crappy environment for such a good speaker. But now that the Play5 has been recycled and is otherwise heading for landfill anyway, that has changed.

      Being able to line in to the Play5 from my phone (no software, no wifi… just dumb old analog amplification) would be useful to me. And it seems like i have this perfectly good unit that would now be perfect for my dusty old shed, and the only thing wrong with it is that the software is unusable.

      Am i really the only one in this position?

      I’m thinking, surely the signal comes out of the processor/wifi board to be amplified by the pre-amps. Is there really no simple way to tap a line-in jack into that?

        z0n0es
        Contributor II
        March 27, 2020

        Am i really the only one in this position?

        I’m thinking, surely the signal comes out of the processor/wifi board to be amplified by the pre-amps. Is there really no simple way to tap a line-in jack into that?

        No you are not. Like said before, each of the amplifying components are microcontrolled by the software engine which is dead. The real problem lies in the volume control, which is part of the software module. The least time consuming and most cost effective solution, would be to open up it up and remove everything you can, save the baffles and speakers. Buy this (has line in jack AND bluetooth). You could drill a hole in the top or the back for the volume control, aux jack. You’ll need to feed in a DC power supply. Here is the nice thing about bluetooth. You could set the volume knob to 50% and then use the the volume control on your phone to go from 0-50% on the box by going 0-100% on your phone. I’d happily build this for you for free labor, but the shipping of the sonos would preclude value. 

        MoZoY
        Lyricist II
        March 30, 2020

        Hello everyone,

         

        I managed to revive a recycled Sonos play 5 and it's original amplification board, with a cheap Arylic module. Not only can it stream from music services again, but know it also has become a Bluetooth-able speaker. 

         

        But my play 5 was in an awaiting recycle mode status (I unplugged it before the 20 days, and it never get connected to Sonos since then), so I need to validate my build with a sonos-ota-recycle-bricked device. Do you know where I can get one for research purposes?

         

        If anyone is interested I can share more details.

          z0n0es
          Contributor II
          March 30, 2020

          If anyone is interested I can share more details.

          yes !

          MoZoY
          Lyricist II
          March 31, 2020

            

          yes !

          Disclaimer, please be aware that the opening of this device exposes you to electrical shock risks.

           

          As mentionnend before my play 5 was shut down during the 21 days of its recycle mode. After what I removed the WLAN module.

          My first attemp idea was to keep only the power board from the Sonos, and replace the Sonos logic board with an Arylic Pro board I had lying around.

          The GPIO-like port exposes most of the CS44800 DAC pins, especialy the I2S protocol pins that I could output from the Arylic bord, but I didn’t managed yet to power up the DAC.

           

          But overall, with the Sonos logic board reinserted, the device still starts, and won’t connect anymore because of the missing WLAN board. The line-in jack passthrough works after the play 5 has booted up, so I only soldered some wires from the jack and placed the Arylic board into the bottom of the play 5. And it still work since 5-6 months now.

            Landfillsonos
            Lyricist II
            May 15, 2020

              

            yes !

            Disclaimer, please be aware that the opening of this device exposes you to electrical shock risks.

             

            As mentionnend before my play 5 was shut down during the 21 days of its recycle mode. After what I removed the WLAN module.

            My first attemp idea was to keep only the power board from the Sonos, and replace the Sonos logic board with an Arylic Pro board I had lying around.

            The GPIO-like port exposes most of the CS44800 DAC pins, especialy the I2S protocol pins that I could output from the Arylic bord, but I didn’t managed yet to power up the DAC.

             

            But overall, with the Sonos logic board reinserted, the device still starts, and won’t connect anymore because of the missing WLAN board. The line-in jack passthrough works after the play 5 has booted up, so I only soldered some wires from the jack and placed the Arylic board into the bottom of the play 5. And it still work since 5-6 months now.

            Exactly which board did u use? Can u show a schematic of what u did? Id love to just use this as a Bluetooth speaker 

             

            Is it possible to override the recycled status?

             

            Or can a recycled speaker be added to your set up at all?? 

            controlav
            controlav
            Lead Maestro
            May 15, 2020

            Others have claimed that Deactivated Sonos devices can now be re-added back. I have one, and I was asked if I wanted to add it to my existing Household. I declined the offer (don’t ask why), but Reddit users have claimed this works.

            Author of the leading independent Sonos apps for Android, MacOS, iOS, Windows and Xbox.
              Landfillsonos
              Lyricist II
              May 15, 2020

              Others have claimed that Deactivated Sonos devices can now be re-added back. I have one, and I was asked if I wanted to add it to my existing Household. I declined the offer (don’t ask why), but Reddit users have claimed this works.

              i sent an email asking if it could be added, since i bought it 2nd hand, im not sure they will allow it...i just wanted a play 5 for the home garage gym… i hope i can somehow add it, but when i try to set it up, it gets to where it shows up and says speaker has been recycled...cannot add...

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