Being interested in all manner of smart home automation and IoT devices I’m naturally a member of several Facebook groups dedicated to the subject. Some are informative and worth staying with, some are a waste of time and better left rather than letting them annoy you unduly.
In one of these groups a question was asked by Danny: “So I was wondering anyone has done this or knows if it is possible. I use Google home across my house and I want to put approx 6 speakers in my ceiling and link them back to the Google home so the music plays through them. Does this involve taking the Google home apart and soldering new wires for the speakers ?”
Now, I know social media is a great way to get tips, advice and help for a range of different DIY subjects, so I’m not criticising the original poster for that, but if you’re thinking of taking your electronic devices apart and soldering peripherals onto it, there’s a chance you might just void your warranty. Oh, and you might just add the risk of fire or electrocution if you’re an amateur permanently adding additional cable to your electronic devices.
Don’t Destroy It Yourself
The simple answer to the question from Tom was: “Using the Google home app you can pair a Bluetooth speaker to a Google Home and it would use that to play the audio through instead of it’s self. So if they were all hooked up to a single Bluetooth receiver the Google Home would act as the mic and use the speakers to play the sound.” (Or ask someone like Briant Communications to install a home AV system which is both scalable and adaptable, designed to suit your particular needs.)
Fortunately, Danny saw this answer and said he would try that out first, which is a relief, because Derek said: “Not an expert but in another discussion, it was recommended that you wire all the speakers back to one point rather than wire them in series. More wiring to do but gives much more flexibility in the future.”
True, he’s clearly not an expert, and as such it would be better not to trust the opinion of anyone who qualifies their comment with the proviso ‘I’m not an expert but…’ because his suggestion is not only foolish, it’s dangerous and will become expensive when the equipment needs replacing thanks to the warranty being voided by attaching clearly unsuitable add-ons.
If You Don’t Think Your Wireless Device Has Enough Wires, Don’t Just Add Them Solder Them On
There are so many things wrong with the idea of soldering additional cables and speakers to your Smart Speaker, home hub or other it’s really difficult to know where to start: The device is designed to be wireless, so a loom of cables, each one leading to an additional speaker is a complete non-starter; the amount of drain the speakers and tens of metres of wire will create will mean that by the time the signal gets to the speakers it won’t in fact be audible anyway; if you were to make contingencies with boosters or an amplifier it adds an incredible amount of additional hardware, cabling, and defeats the object of having a smart home hub when you could just have a smart hifi or multi room audio system installed.
It should go without saying that if you’re proposing to take your brand new smart home device apart to solder additional devices to it, you’re probably doing something wrong and coming at the problem from the wrong angle. Instead of asking on Facebook, if you’re thinking of carrying out such a course of action, ask a search engine ‘how to attach ceiling speakers to my google home?’ You’ll notice that NONE of the answers include taking devices apart, soldering, or running additional cable from the home hub to every room in the house. Instead, there are product recommendations, how-tos, and a plethora of articles on the subject talking about the many ways of increasing the range and quality of your home entertainment systems.
Insist On Insured Installation
If you’re in the predicament that you have equipment that you don’t really understand or know how to install and the articles you find online are unhelpful or demand too much of your DIY skills then why not call in professional help? Companies like ours offer free, no obligation quotes and what you get is so much more than simple installation. We talk over what your requirements are, what you might like to expand into in the future, and the current products available to suit your needs and your budget. Naturally there’s a fee for us to carry out the work, but we’ll always let you know the cost before we carry out the work and the price of additional equipment that might be needed. But what you also get is work carried out by insured professionals with many years’ experience. If anything gets broken, including not only the goods we’re fitting, but your property, including paintwork, carpets, plastering, then your installers’ insurance will pay for it to be put right at no further cost to you. That’s certainly something that can’t be said for anyone soldering wires to their gadgets at home and placing them in the ceiling.
So if you prefer not to DIY, you know the task is beyond the skills, and tools you have, you have a disability which prevents you from taking on such DIY projects, or you simply want the reassurance of having the job done by fully insured professionals, then contact your local Smart Home installers’ service.
Originally published at www.briantcomms.com on March 11, 2019.
