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Make Sonos One portable with portable battery with AC outlet?

  • 28 March 2018
  • 16 replies
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I've been thinking how I would make my Sonos One temporarily portable for use on patio for an hour or two. Has anyone tried a portable battery with an AC outlet like this http://a.co/fVsXngp ? Not sure how well it would work or how long it would last but might be an decent option in a pinch.
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Best answer by Stanley_4 28 March 2018, 21:16

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16 replies

Let us know if you try. I can’t imagine it would be terribly long, but I’m not an electrical engineer.
Userlevel 7
Badge +22
I would imagine you could use a car battery with A/C inverter attached and it would run it for a full day.

Inverter like this attached to battery https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0714B231X/ref=dp_cerb_1
Userlevel 7
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I'd look for an inverter that offers full sine-wave output, some of the modified sine-wave or stepped voltage output inverters generate excess heat and / or current in your device's power supply. Not long until they fry, I lost several devices to these inverters in my RV travelling days.

Some of the lower quality inverters will work at higher battery levels but cause problems as the battery charge decreases.

You can roughly figure run time by looking at the battery rating in amp hours, take 25% of that (more will lead to short battery life) then reduce that number by 20% more for inverter losses. That gives you your available Amp Hours at 12 volts, divide by 10 to get AHs at 120 volts and you'll be in the ballpark.
Or you can probably do something like this....

https://www.amazon.com/100-Watt-Portable-Generator-Emergency-Inverter/dp/B01M3S00H0/ref=sr_1_1_sspa?ie=UTF8&qid=1522264746&sr=8-1-spons&keywords=generator&psc=1

Lots of different battery size out there. I don't know what the power draw is on the Sonos One, but if it's less then 100 watts, this battery (at full charge) should keep it running for 18 hours without a recharge.
Userlevel 7
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That has a 150 Watt Hour battery, it is a lithium polymer one though so you can discharge it further safely than a lead/acid battery. Watt Hours is not the most useful spec but using all 150 WHs minus 20% loss into a Sonos One at about 4 watts at idle gives you 30 hours, in use would be less. That unit doesn't show as providing sine-wave power. I'd not trust anything that doesn't offer that.

This is a quick pick of a pure sine-wave inverter, to serve as an example.

https://www.amazon.com/Samlex-PST-120-12-Pure-Inverter-Watts/dp/B00IXOWPQM/ref=sr_1_5
Lotta trouble and expense for a patio speaker. I have one of these, sounds OK for the patio, battery works for several hours, voice controlled.

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/insignia-voice-smart-portable-bluetooth-speaker-and-alarm-clock-with-the-google-assistant-built-in-gray-black/5865906.p
I agree that there are better options via the non Sonos route for this and at similar price points, good sound quality as well, with battery life now in double digit hours.
Userlevel 2
Badge +6
Extension cord.
Lol. Of course, wherever possible.
Kumar, you're totally spot on. I have the same wish and would love to see a mini boom box style with built in battery, with a handle so you can carry it around the yard and house. it might cut into their single speaker sales but it would be offset by SONOS-buddy sales. See there's a decent name for it too! It's funny to hear the extension cord arguement. I guess we don't need wifi either right??? just plug in a network cord! Hopefully a third party will run with this battery carrier idea.
The Sonos Play 1 seems to use about 150mA to 400mA at 24V depending on the volume. This means that the Sonos needs about 10W. Unfortunately, typical large lithium ion battery charging pack are only about 20Whr. This means at best 2 hours of unplugged use. You (or Sonos) can make it work, but the battery will need to be inconveniently large especially if you consider that battery capacity decreases significantly with use.
Hopefully a third party will run with this battery carrier idea.

A third party did try, on Kickstarter, a couple years back. It failed to get enough interest.
Badge +1
I regularly use an Omnicharge 20 (http://www.omnicharge.co/products/omni-20/) with a Play 3 and it works great! Get three or four hours playing at about 75% volume.

However, I wish Sonos would just bring out a decent portable!!!
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I'm an ex electronics designer. My first Sonos is so old the guarantee has mothballs.

I'm going to open her up and by pass the mains psu and drill for a barrel Jack so I can use one of these usb power banks. How hard can it be.
I use one of these with a One. Never run it all the way down but have gotten 8 hours of it at least.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B078HZXXMY/
Userlevel 2
Badge +2
I use this sometimes and it works great.