Beginner - Four Independent Speakers

Hi all - I am new to this, so bear with me for my likely basic questions.

I am working on a project to have 4 independently controlled speakers playing square tones. I got the 4 speakers (3W 8Ohm) working off my Uno (5v) but at an incredibly low volume. I know I don't have proper power getting to the speakers, but I am not sure if I need to find adequate resisters to get them working or if I need a (or more) amplifier. I wonder if someone can point me in the right direction.

I know the quality of sound is not going to be great, it is part of an art project that I actually wanted iffy quality, and I want the Uno to play nonstop, so I don't need any sort of on/off. I probably need to get a volume dial involved here too, but that can be my next step.

Thank you - I know this is probably simple, and appreciate your help with my dumb question.

Can you show us how you wired the speaker?
To drive a 3W speaker you will need an amplifier. If you want a square wave, you could use one mosfet per speaker. Otherwise you would need an audio amplifier.

And to add to the volume problem, you are using only DC, which means the speaker stiffness is the only thing that returns the speaker cone to it's resting position and ready for the next pulse. Real audio is AC, so the speaker cone is pulled and pushed by the electrical signal, not just pulled one way as in your system.

Yes - Im super bad at drawing the wiring but I used tinkercad to get this together. Ive only been running the power off USB so far, but will need to use something else later...

Its highly possible I didn't even use the right resistors... I was thinking I likely needed amplifiers, which I assume I'd need one for each speaker.

Replace 10 k resistors with 220 ohm resistors...
That should make quite some difference...
(Redredbrown or redredblackblack)

The art of making schematics is to minimize the amount of crossings...

Yes. One amplifier per speaker speaker, or two stereo amplifiers for 4 speakers.
You can buy complete little amplifiers like this (or a bigger amplifier) or you can buy amplifier boards or amplifier chips to build your own.

At mid-frequencies (1kHz) and above you can get rather loud with 1 Watt. Bass frequencies take more power and bigger speakers/woofers.

But before that... Your schematic shows 10K resistors. Assuming 8-Ohm speakers, that makes an 8/10,008 Voltage Divider and I'm surprised if you can hear anything!

Try about 220 Ohms. That will give you about 20mA (Ohm's Law) which is about the recommended maximum current from an output pin. (The "Absolute Maximum" is 40mA.)

You're still loosing most of the voltage across the resistor but it's worth a quick try.

With no resistor (and no amplifier) you'll get excess current, you won't get the full 5V, and the Arduino will overheat, possibly damaging it.

Other than background noise, "quality" isn't much of an issue with square waves. ...If you over-drive an amplifier with a sine wave the you get clipping which is harmonic distortion. Worst case the sine wave turns into a square wave, and that turns-out to be 50% harmonic distortion.

With no resistor you'll get excess current, you won't get the full 5V, and the Arduino will overheat, possibly damaging it.

Not a problem with low power (like through a resistor) and the the cone is actually "pulled back" to the center when the output goes low.

Most amplifiers have a capacitor on the input to block DC (and convert it to AC) but to be sure you can add a capacitor in series between the Arduino and amplifier. 0.1uF is usually OK but you may need a higher value for low frequencies, and this also depends on the amplifier's input impedance. (It makes a high-pass filter and since DC is "zero Hz" the "DC component" it gets blocked while allowing the signal through.)

Not to state the obvious , but an arduino isn't designed to amplify sound. If you want to do that, use and LM386 IC. There are a zillion schematics online for LM386 circuits. Don't try to make a dog talk. You can get a boost converter to boost the arduino 5V to 12V to drive the speakers but if you turn the volume up it will probably overload the onboard 5V regulator. Better to just use a 9V battery to power the amplifier.

You have a 5V peak-peak square wave feeding your speakers via a divider network 10k: 8 ohms.
the rms voltage is 2.5V
the voltage V at the speaker is 2.5 * 8 / 10000 = 2mV
the power at the speaker is V^2 /R = 4 / 8 = 0.5 uW; ie "incredibly low volume"

I'd suggest you try piezo speakers connected to your digital outputs, without any resisitors
https://www.amazon.co.uk/POFET-Waterproof-Tweeter-Piezoelectric-Ultrasonic/dp/B08721F9GW/ref=sr_1_5?keywords=piezo+speaker&qid=1673510829&sr=8-5

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