Kickstarter Edition SoundBuckets

The SoundBuckets were first launched on Kickstarter. The software can be updated to the current version (contact us at sales@soundbuckets.com), but here are the user instructions for the Kickstarter SoundBuckets:

Using your SoundBucket

Open the box. Inside you should find…

The speaker unit
The Aux cable cable

This is for connecting your SoundBucket to a non Bluetooth device or connecting multiple SoundBuckets.

The micro USB charging lead

This is for charging your SoundBucket.

The mini manual
Piece of cardboard in lid – this is to stop your unit turning on in transit. Please just remove this and put it in your cardboard recycling.

If any of this is missing, please call 01672 811649 or email office@soundbuckets.com.

Packaging

Keep your speaker in its bag and tube or use them for your sandwiches – ha ha!

Get Connected

Connect a device – how?

Turn your device on by pushing the lid down for 2 seconds. A green light on the base will flash when it’s on and then it will flash a sequence of green/yellow/red to indicate the battery level.
Decide whether you’ll be using a wireless Bluetooth connection, or your Aux jack cable (only used to link multiple SoundBuckets, or for devices with no Bluetooth).
Use the relevant instructions below.

Using Bluetooth

Make sure your SoundBucket is switched on. Turn it on by pushing the lid down for 2 seconds – a green light on the base will flash when it’s on and then it will flash a sequence of green/yellow/red to indicate the battery level.
Get the device you want to ‘pair’ your SoundBucket to, i.e. your phone, computer or tablet. Make sure it is within a meter of your SoundBucket the first time you ‘pair’ them. After that, you can be within 5-10 meters from it. 3 devices maximum can be connected to it at one time, but it will remember the last 8 devices it has connected to. If you would like a 4th device to pair with your SoundBucket, one of the first 3 will need to disconnect.
Go to your device’s Bluetooth settings. These can often be found in the general settings of your device.
Make sure Bluetooth is switched on on your device (it will either say on or off).
Press the ‘search for Bluetooth devices’ button on your device. This will search for the SoundBucket.
When ‘SoundBucket-1234’ or similar shows up, click on it.
You don’t need to do anything else. The SoundBucket will beep when it has paired with your device, and then it’s ready to play music.
Simply go to your device/the music you want to play, click the play button and use your device’s volume setting to increase or decrease the volume (the same as you would if you were using headphones).
The next time you come to use the SoundBucket and the same device, it should recall your setting as soon as the SoundBucket is turned on. If not, please re-follow the steps above.

Using Aux Jack Cable to link SoundBucket to non Bluetooth Device

This cable is only used to link multiple SoundBuckets, or to link your SoundBucket to a device that does not have Bluetooth.
Make sure your SoundBucket and device are both switched on. Switch on your SoundBucket by pushing down its lid for 2 seconds. A green light on the base will flash when it’s on and then it will flash a sequence of green/yellow/red to indicate the battery level.
Put one end of the Aux Jack lead (it doesn’t matter which) into the ‘Aux In’ slot on the back of your SoundBucket.
Put the other end of the lead into the headphones socket on your device.
Now you can play music from your device out of the SoundBucket.

Using Aux Jack Cable to link multiple SoundBuckets

Make sure both SoundBuckets are switched on. Switch them on by pushing down their lids for 2 seconds. A green light on the base will flash when it’s on and then it will flash a sequence of green/yellow/red to indicate the battery level.
Connect the first SoundBucket to your music playing device using Bluetooth (instructions above).
Put one end of the Aux Jack lead (it doesn’t matter which end) into the ‘Aux Out’ socket of the SoundBucket playing music.
Put the other end of the Aux Jack lead into the ‘Aux In’ socket of the second SoundBucket.
Your SoundBuckets are now linked as a stereo set and should both be playing music.
NOTE: the ‘Aux Out’ socket is only ever used when linking multiple SoundBuckets.

Charging your SoundBucket using Micro USB lead

Turn off your SoundBucket by holding down the lid for 2 seconds. The base LED light will go red.
Connect the supplied USB lead: the type A connector (larger end) of the lead into a standard phone charger or computer (this is the second best option).
The other end will go into the USB power socket on the side of the SoundBucket. Full charge will take 16 hours, depending on how much charge is required.
During charge, the light on the base will flash yellow/red every 30 seconds and will turn to green when fully charged.
Please note it is always best to connect your SoundBucket via USB to a form of wall charger (i.e. standard phone charger) rather than a device, as the SoundBucket will take power from whatever you connect it to.

Charging your SoundBucket using the optional power supply

You can alternatively buy an optional power supply here: https://soundbuckets.com/how-to-buy/.

The plug end will be plugged into your mains socket and the other end will plug into the Ext power socket on the side of your SoundBucket.

What’s the battery life and how do I check the levels?

Maximum 30 hours battery life

See base to check battery level

When you turn on and the green light has flashed.

After that, every 30 seconds this light source will flash 3 times.

The following lights show the charge in the battery:

100% green flash

75% green/yellow

50% yellow

25% yellow/red

Less than 25% red need to charge battery

Want to go louder?

To make your SoundBucket even louder, you can use our high power external power supply. This is not included in your original SoundBucket package but you can get it from the Buy page.

Power saving features:

If on batteries, the SoundBucket will automatically turn off after 5 hours to save battery. To stop the timer, tap lid once and it will dim sound and then tap again to un-dim. This re-sets the 5 hour timer. You can also use this dimming feature if you wish to take a phone call or talk to someone; just tap the lid to dim the volume and tap again to go back to the previous volume level.

Secret Menu

With only one button, we’ve tried to make the SoundBucket really easy to use. However there are lots of extra features you can access via the Secret Menu.
The Secret Menu allows you to:

Link two SoundBuckets together wirelessly in stereo
Force a SoundBucket to play the left, right or both audio streams
Increase the volume, or give yourself more headroom
Set the SoundBucket to autoconnect to your phone etc, when it powers on
Clear and reset all the Bluetooth system

How to get to the menu

With the SoundBucket on, go to turn it off, but keep holding your fingers on the grille after the RED led lights, until a YELLOW led lights. Let go at this point, or it really will turn off.

You are now in secret menu mode. To go back to normal mode, either power off, or keep holding your fingers on the grille after the RED led lights, until a GREEN led lights. Let go again at this point, or it will turn off. You will now be in normal menu mode.

How to access the extra functions

So now you’re in the secret menu, how do you access the extra features? Well it’s all to do with how many times you tap the grille. As normal, one tap dims the unit, however in secret menu mode:

While you’re dimmed:

tap undims as normal
taps forces the SoundBucket to listen to the left audio stream only
taps forces the SoundBucket to listen to the right audio stream only
taps forces the SoundBucket to mono and listen both left and right audio streams
taps toggles between high and standard gain

If you’re not dimmed:

tap dims the unit
taps tells the SoundBucket to try and wirelessly link to another SoundBucket for wireless stereo
taps tells the SoundBucket to accept a wireless link from another SoundBucket for wireless stereo
taps toggles the auto connect feature
taps resets the Bluetooth system

More Information

There’s more information about these modes in the online manual. Have a look there to understand how to use them.

Tips

We recommend that once you’ve done what you need to do, that you exit the secret menu so you don’t accidentally access a function

Stereo Linking

A single SoundBucket will play your music beautifully, but you can two SoundBuckets together to play your music with great stereo imaging, just as it was made in the studio.

To get the best stereo performance, the SoundBucket should be at the same height, in front of you, and about the same distance apart as you are in front of them.

Wired or wireless?

You can join two SoundBuckets together wirelessly, via Bluetooth, or with the attached aux cable. These are the pro’s and cons of each method:

Wirelessly

+ no wires (sic)
+ can separate the speakers easily
– stereo imaging is not quite as good as wired
– stereo linked Bluetooth drops out now and then. It drops out nicely, but it does drop out

Wired

+ perfect stereo imaging
+ no dropouts
– need wires (sic)
– speakers can only be separated as long as the wire between them

How to make it work with wires

Power up your two SoundBuckets as normal
Choose the one you’re going to connect to via Bluetooth ( or aux cable) – the Master SoundBucket, and place this on the left
Take the aux cable, connect one end to the AUX OUT connector of this SoundBucket, and the other end into the AUX IN connector of the other SoundBucket. Place this on the right
If you connect now to the Master SoundBucket, they will both work, but in dual mono, not stereo.
To play them in Stereo, select the Secret Menu mode for both SoundBuckets
On the Master SoundBucket, dim it, then tap twice – it will now play the left channel
On the other SoundBucket, dim it and tap three times – it will now play the right channel

That’s it! When you power off, both SoundBuckets will revert to normal non stereo mode.

How to make it work wirelessly

Power up your two SoundBuckets as normal
Choose the one you’re going to connect to via Bluetooth ( or aux cable) – the Master SoundBucket, and place this on the left
Place the other SoundBucket (the slave) on the right. Initially, put them close together to make it easy for them to pair
Select the Secret Menu mode for both SoundBuckets
On the Slave SoundBucket, tap three times, – it will flash YELLOW, and disconnect from any existing Bluetooth connections
On the Master SoundBucket, tap twice – it will flash GREEN, and disconnect from any existing Bluetooth connections
The Master SoundBucket will eventually stop flashing GREEN once it’s paired. If it flashes RED, it’s failed to connect to the slave, so just repeat points 5&6 again.
Once paired, just connect as normal to the Master SoundBucket, and your SoundBuckets will play stereo music. Just reposition them to suit.
You can still connect to the slave SoundBucket, but you’ll only get sound coming out of that speaker, so make sure you know the name/number of the Master one!

That’s it! When you power off, both SoundBuckets will revert to normal non stereo mode.

Bluetooth Autoconnect

You can make your SoundBucket automatically connect to the last device(s) it was paired with. This is useful if you typically always use your SoundBucket with the same music player. Conversely, it can be a nuisance if you have multiple music players, as it will try and connect to probably the wrong device!

How to turn on Autoconnect

Enter the secret menu and then tap the lid four times (four red flashes), one after the other. The LED will flash green 4 times. Your SoundBucket will remember from now on the last device it was paired with, and will try to reconnect with it on power up.

How to turn off Autoconnect

Enter the secret menu and then tap the lid four times (four red flashes), one after the other. The LED will flash red 4 times. Your SoundBucket will now need you to reconnect it to your music device each time you power it up.

Multiple Connections

You can connect up to 3 devices simultaneously with your SoundBucket, and with Autoconnect on, it will try and reconnect to all 3 devices. If it can’t connect with one device, it will move onto the next one.