The Boominator - another stab at the ultimate party machine

[NED 209]

thanks! im looking into that type of material now. i attempted to start a new thread fotr this project but it kept telling me to browse the forum?..

[Saturnus]

Originally posted by NED 209
thanks! im looking into that type of material now. i attempted to start a new thread fotr this project but it kept telling me to browse the forum?..

When you start a new thread there's a tiny tick-off field on the top that says: Did you search the forum?, you need to tick that off before any new thread is accepted.

[Saturnus]

Oh, and btw, I'm not sure but I think my refurbished 80s boombox has gone to hifi heaven. I gave it to a friend of mine years ago before she moved to the other end of the country. I don't know if she still has it, since she only had to use until she got settled in and bought a decent stereo of her own. Maybe she still has it in her addict?

[NED 209]

thanks Saturnus

[v-bro]

Did any of you look at those casemodding gadgets you can buy, like neon tubes and led lighting normally used to enhance the looks of your computer housing?

It's all 12V stuff, quite nice to up the looks a bit!

And not expensive...

You can even get your 'brandname' illuminated Saturnus!
http://gathering.tweakers.net/forum/...essages/883458

http://shop.freezinghardware.nl/inde...gina=00015&c=5

[Tekko]

NO! Those light thingies wastes unneccessary power that could be used to make music. And they look stupid too.

[Saturnus]

Yes, I have thought about it but came to the same conclusion as Tekko that it would use up power unnescessarily. The only gadget I will include is an round dial analog voltmeter with 8-18 volt read out which would fit all the different types of batteries you could stuff in it, ie SLA, 3 cell LiO and 9 cell NiMH.

That would look extremely cool I think, especially in the design I'd prefer which would be a red "cherry" veneer finish with inlaid "ebony" and "ivory" corner fillings like those on vintage audio and tv equipment.

But when (if there's indeed any customers for it) I start selling it, the customer could order any design they'd like as long as the basic box isn't affected. So if they decided that they would have a multichannel lightshow built in, so be it.

[Richard Ellis]

I built something similar in the mid eighties..how nostalgic!
I took a then high tech Pioneer KP-???? AM-FM Cassette mated with a "High power" Pioneer GM-120 amp rated at 60 WPC Peak RMS.
Built a wood box to hold a small 12V tractor battery, mounted the 'deck' vertically, fastened the amp on the back & mounted two Radio Shack Minimus 7s' with the factory brackets.
She was small & the sound was excellent....a few summers I would have her playing while sunbathing at Willamette Park in Portland Oregon....had countless people come up to me wondering what that great sound came from!
____________________________________Rick.......... ....

[Xspunge]

Neon would be cool, but in a portable system wouldn't be very practical. If you kicked the box, dropped it, or hit it against a car door, then you stand a very good chance of breaking that long Neon tubing.

I've closed the car door on my box, hit it against the wall of my house, accidentally kicked the side of it too. I can only imagine what would have happened had I installed a Neon system inside.

I thought about putting lights like a string of LED's or EL-Wire inside mine (and since V-Bro has seen it but most of you haven't - my boom box is encased entrirely in plexiglass)

I was originally going to run it off the amp power supply since the LED's don't draw much. But going from 12v down to the voltage of the LED string or strands of EL Wire pretty much required a separate power souce, which means a separate but smaller battery. Not too bad of a weight penalty, but since I mainly use mine during daylight hours it would be a waste of time and money since no one would see the lights under the sunlight. So thus I scrapped it.

Those two are much more practical in a portable system, but won't be as bright as a Neon system. But they will be easier to deal with since you can bend/wrap the LED string or EL-Wire, not to mention they are a lot cheaper to fix or replace.

[v-bro]

I often use my small boombox at night by the campfire, so a bit of light prevents it from being kicked all the time, or worse... people tripping over it breaking their necks...

A few leds and some plexi-distribution won't kill your batterypower too much....