Looking to minimize my robot’s idle power consumption, I recently replaced a very nice sounding, power hungry USB amplified speaker with the MonkMakes Amplified Speaker Kit (for Raspberry Pi). The reduction in power consumption from 54 mA to 10 mA gives my robot, Carl, an extra hour of “playtime” (up to 8.5 hours now, up to 7.5 hours with the HP amplified USB powered speaker.)
Description:
What I liked: Idle current draw under 10mA, came with wires to power it, and connect it to audio output of Raspberry Pi. It has good volume and sufficient response for the robot to be understood.
This is a sample of my bot speaking, shouting, and whispering:
What I disliked: There is a LED power indicator - probably negligible load.
In a nutshell: Good volume, understandable speech to text, low power drain and light weight.
Rating: 
