The Stereo Speaker In My Bike Basket Doesn't Like Bumps

I recently posted a response to another http://ask.metafilter.com/276072/Safer-effective-non-eardrum-destroying-headphones-for-bikes#4004977. The answer is, well, bluetooth. I use a bluetooth speaker on my bike, and i'm friends with a bunch of bike messenger and delivery guys who all use bluetooth speakers. This is a sample size of tens of people, not 3 or something. The aforementioned boombot is popular. For basket use, i've seen http://gprojectgear.com/products/g-boom. A friend whose smashed several now(not from them smacking around on the bike, but i think from dropping them while drunk or laying the bike down with them on it) has one of http://www.jbl.com/bluetooth-portables/JBL+CHARGE+II.html?dwvar_JBL%20CHARGE%20II_color=Black&cgid=bluetooth-portables#start=1, although i was unimpressed with it compared to my big jambox. Yea, bluetooth can have issues. But breaking 3.5mm sockets or your phone when the cable gets yanked is more tiresome them dealing with it. And for what it's worth, i've never seen a dead jambox. They stop looking new annoyingly fast, but once they get ugly they just keep going forever. The bose boxes are also a good product, but overpriced. I wouldn't buy the new plastic one, after playing with a friends it would last exactly one drop imo. The cheap http://gprojectgear.com/products/g-go2 is VERY durable, although not as loud as some others. When we accidentally buried the other speakers, we used one of those for music all the way from seattle to nevada for burning man. It's ok, but it's great for $60. It's probably the cheapest one that isn't a certified Hunk Of Junk™ All of these also support 3.5mm input. I can attest to the jack on the big jambox being made out of some kind of adamantium, i've seen multiple ones with a plug shattered off in the socket but if you extract it, the actual socket is fine. The others, i don't know. As i said, everyone uses bluetooth. Cables are a liability and ports fail. and anyway I'd rather just stick with my non-bluetooth mp3 player for this purpose. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00OB3DDAG/metafilter-20/ref=nosim/, or an even cheaper one. alternatively, you can do the silly thing i did which is buy a 1st gen ipod nano at a thrift store for $9, https://www.apple.com/support/ipodnano_replacement/, and get a free brand new ipod nano with bluetooth(and lots of space!) But really though, bluetooth. Sorry to suggest what you said you didn't want, but that's what everyone i know is doing. The amount of hardware destroyed before that was a real option... i still have a bunch of broken boomboxes and stuff like a really beat to hell one of http://www.overstock.com/Electronics/JVC-RS-WP1-Rock-It-Sports-Portable-Backpack-System-Refurbished/606269/product.html lying in a heap somewhere.

It seems most likely that one or both of two things are happening here; 1) the little metal bits inside the jack that make the connection with the cable are getting bent from the cable bumping around in the jack, and/or 2) the places on the circuit board where the jack connects to the rest of the electronics are breaking. Either way, I really doubt there's anything you or a tech could do to prevent or repair this, almost certainly not anything that would be cost effective (speaking from experience taking a variety of music electronics apart, and dealing with a variety of equipment that gets bumped around a lot.) Some music equipment is designed & engineered & built to get both bumped around and (eventually) repaired - portable mp3 speakers do not usually fall into this category. So I'll second the idea that your best bet is to reduce the bumps that your speaker gets, with bubble wrap or something. Or look into some kind of case or a different "rugged" or bike-mounted portable speaker that's maybe designed to take more jostling than whatever you're using now.

I wouldn't be surprised if it's not just the jack that has a problem, but the rest of the electronics as well. The hard jostling from bumps combined with more brittle leadless solder can lead to premature electronics failures if the speaker wasn't designed to handle it. Whatever you can do to lessen the impact of the shocks (like bubble wrap) should help prolong the speaker's life.

https://store.boombotix.com/collections/boombot-rex-wireless-speakers/products/boombot-rex-blue

I would probably just disassemble a cheapass speaker and cover the board connections in RTV silicone.

You could solder the wires directly to the circuit board and then spooge it up with silicone

Part of my job involves vibration testing of electronics equipment. Diagnosing a vibration- or shock-related failure is probably beyond the scope of something you can do at home. Debilitating damage is often not visible to the naked eye, especially with modern surface-mount components. However, for a simple speaker amplifier there are probably not many parts inside the case if you feel inclined to open it up and poke around. Most likely point of failure is going to be a broken solder joint which may be repairable by hand depending on exactly which component it is and how it's attached to the board. To prevent it in the future, you need some kind of shock dampening system to prevent the sharp blows that will cause damage. If the speaker is just resting in your basket, I would try securing it firmly to the bottom first; some Velcro loops should work fine and will allow you remove the speaker when you need to. This will prevent the speaker from moving independently of the bike, so that the tires will damp out the shocks for the speaker. Beyond that, adding a little padding underneath it will also help (a small piece of packing foam would be ideal).

Oh yea, i completely missed that one. I put some of http://www.thermotec.com/products/11001-exhaust-insulating-wrap.html under the speaker http://i.imgur.com/eaVSNSq.jpg(i don't use a basket, i made this bracket out of some time trial bars and a hack saw). Then i secured it with a big, thick bungee cable. A roland microcube or a g-boom will survive smashing around, most little speakers wont. It also sounds better when it's not shaking around because the vibrations aren't interfering with the motion of the speakers nearly as much. Damping and securing, regardless of what you end up choosing. I mean, it might not make a difference with some of the sturdier stuff... but might as well. I will note that i'm unique among my friends in doing this, but also that most of them secure their speakers to their bag, not the bike itself. Only a couple do the basket thing.

Thanks for the comments and suggestions, folks! Due to the design of both the speaker and that of the basket, it will be a challenge to find a way to secure the one to the other (the speaker really does require that the entire front and back grills be fully uncovered as the speaker cones go right to the edges, while the top has the controls on it, so that leaves only the bottom and sides to work with. I went out for a ride yesterday, after replacing the empty small cardboard box the speaker was resting on (for elevation) in the basket with a thick plastic bag filled with a bunch of rolled-up thin plastic bags and some layers of bubble wrap on the bottom. It didn't resolve the issue completely, but the difference was definitely noticeable. The amorphousness of the bag also made it easy to form it around the base of the speaker, creating a kind of soft cradle to further shield/enclose/protect the speaker on all sides so that it stays put. emptythought: yes, I know: bluetooth! One thing I wasn't aware of, though, was the existence of audio-to-bluetooth transmitters, so that's worth considering if I want to stick with my current non-bluetooth mp3 player. Thank you for bringing them to my attention! I had read with interest your earlier post re: your bike speaker; unfortunately, the speaker I use is anything but rugged in design, and requires a delicate touch and pampering (kinda like having a cat in a bike basket, I suppose), so brutalist approaches are out...