scwhiteley
New Member
Hello!
I'm working on a portable stereo project and could use a little input. I've built a few stereos over the past couple of years with varying success. So far I've only used TDA2003 and TDA2030 IC's in my projects, but I'm open to suggestions.
Here are some of the hardware parameters of the current project:
The speakers: Two cheap 4 inch, 4 ohm, 100 peak watt speakers
The power: I was planning to use a 12 cell pack of NiMH AA's, so a 14.4 volt pack. The cells I've been looking at are rated anywhere from ~2500 to ~3500 mAH.
Finally, the aspect of these projects that gives me the most trouble: the amps...
My original intent for this particular project was to use a pair of bridged TDA2030's for each channel (which, according to the schematic specs, will provide 20W per channel) The biggest problem is this, my success rate in building amps with TDA2003 and TDA2030 IC's is about 50%. So really not very good at all... I lovingly assemble and solder them, and about half of them work. I have been building them on perf. project boards from Radio Shack, and my best guess at the problem is that I'm a subpar solderer. The joints look good to me, and I painstakingly inspect them for even the tiniest of macroscopic shorts. Alas, the pair of amps I built for this project (on one project board) aren't functioning properly. The left unit seems to work okay by itself (it doesn't seem to sound as good as some of the others I've put together), and the right sounds like absolute staticky, frothy excrement. And they both sound terrible when running together. Frustration abounds.
To be completely honest I'm sub-amateur at all of this stuff, but I'm willing to learn. If anyone had some input on good literature regarding simple electronics and amplifiers, I'm all ears. That being said, I'm not sure that I'm pairing the proper amps to the rest of the get-up. I know very little about what amp IC's are available and which would work best in my projects, I'm going entirely off what I learn from the internet. I'd greatly appreciate some wisdom in this area. What amp would you use? I'm willing to budge on the power supply and maybe even the speakers, but it needs to be rather compact... and cheap, of course.
As I have apparently been cursed by the god's of solid state amplification, perhaps a good question would be this:
In you're experience, what is the greatest pitfall of the home-made amp? Bad solder jobs? Bad schematics? Bad implementation of schematics on a perf. board?
Thank you for reading, sorry for rambling.
-S. Chad Whiteley
P.S. - Of course, all of my schematics and diagrams are available for, well, entertainment probably.
I'm working on a portable stereo project and could use a little input. I've built a few stereos over the past couple of years with varying success. So far I've only used TDA2003 and TDA2030 IC's in my projects, but I'm open to suggestions.
Here are some of the hardware parameters of the current project:
The speakers: Two cheap 4 inch, 4 ohm, 100 peak watt speakers
The power: I was planning to use a 12 cell pack of NiMH AA's, so a 14.4 volt pack. The cells I've been looking at are rated anywhere from ~2500 to ~3500 mAH.
Finally, the aspect of these projects that gives me the most trouble: the amps...
My original intent for this particular project was to use a pair of bridged TDA2030's for each channel (which, according to the schematic specs, will provide 20W per channel) The biggest problem is this, my success rate in building amps with TDA2003 and TDA2030 IC's is about 50%. So really not very good at all... I lovingly assemble and solder them, and about half of them work. I have been building them on perf. project boards from Radio Shack, and my best guess at the problem is that I'm a subpar solderer. The joints look good to me, and I painstakingly inspect them for even the tiniest of macroscopic shorts. Alas, the pair of amps I built for this project (on one project board) aren't functioning properly. The left unit seems to work okay by itself (it doesn't seem to sound as good as some of the others I've put together), and the right sounds like absolute staticky, frothy excrement. And they both sound terrible when running together. Frustration abounds.
To be completely honest I'm sub-amateur at all of this stuff, but I'm willing to learn. If anyone had some input on good literature regarding simple electronics and amplifiers, I'm all ears. That being said, I'm not sure that I'm pairing the proper amps to the rest of the get-up. I know very little about what amp IC's are available and which would work best in my projects, I'm going entirely off what I learn from the internet. I'd greatly appreciate some wisdom in this area. What amp would you use? I'm willing to budge on the power supply and maybe even the speakers, but it needs to be rather compact... and cheap, of course.
As I have apparently been cursed by the god's of solid state amplification, perhaps a good question would be this:
In you're experience, what is the greatest pitfall of the home-made amp? Bad solder jobs? Bad schematics? Bad implementation of schematics on a perf. board?
Thank you for reading, sorry for rambling.
-S. Chad Whiteley
P.S. - Of course, all of my schematics and diagrams are available for, well, entertainment probably.