The Boominator - another stab at the ultimate party machine

jeesh, these pictures are small. I don't have a pic hosting site, so they'll have to do for now.

Here's the inside. Still kind of a rat's nest. Eventually I plan to clean it up and tie everything down so it looks like 1950s military avionics.

You can see the boards it was built of here. The whole lid screws down with the four big knurled screws on the top. Note that the amps are built into a subchassis made of modelmaker's ABS (styrene) that's super easy to cut and glues up permanently with cynaoacrylate glue.

--Buckapound
 

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Boominator

Buckapound said:
jeesh, these pictures are small. I don't have a pic hosting site, so they'll have to do for now.

Here's the inside. Still kind of a rat's nest. Eventually I plan to clean it up and tie everything down so it looks like 1950s military avionics.

You can see the boards it was built of here. The whole lid screws down with the four big knurled screws on the top. Note that the amps are built into a subchassis made of modelmaker's ABS (styrene) that's super easy to cut and glues up permanently with cynaoacrylate glue.

--Buckapound

Buckapound,

This thing looks awesome. I'd love to see larger pictures! Can you email them to me? Thanks.
 
Buckapound said:
I was lucky enough to find a piece of composite material for my boombox on eBay: 1 cm nomex honeycomb panels. Skins are cross-plys of carbon fiber encased by cross-plys of fiberglas on each side. Not super-light, but very, very strong. As I recall it came out of some military/aerospace contractor in Kansas or Oklahoma. Surprisingly little of that kind of thing on eBay. Perhaps it all gets slurped up by racers of various kinds.

The stuff is a little problematic to work with because the edges show the honeycomb so you either have to miter, fill or hide them. And there's no secure way to glue them except for glopping them up with epoxy and sanding them back to square. I ended up with a welded stainless steel frame, kind of like an anvil case type of construction. The stuff was green, rough and ugly, too, so I ended up gluing on cosmetic carbon fber skin with polyurethane caulk.

--Buckapound


^^
 
aphelion said:

aphelion,

Thanks, I am familiar with the process of epoxying to fill the honeycomb on the edges as a friend has done the same process. The carbon fiber skin gives it a nice look, sort of vintage military with a modern twist. Anyway, you've done a beautiful job with this, with well thought out features (battery/AC, etc.)

I'm hoping to finish my bicycle mounted sound system soon and all of this "Boominator" information has been helpful. I decided specifically against using honeycomb material because it seemed too complex, even though the lightweight and stiffness characteristics seem beneficial.

At the risk of being redundant, because I have posted this link before, photos of my project are here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/macpaulster/sets/72157612483184893/
 
aphelion said:
Macaudio,

Apologies, I thought you were asking for the name of the honeycomb material.


Aph

Apheliion,

Yes, I WAS asking about the material, I didn't know exactly what my friends material was (it's different than yours) so I was curious about what you used. So thank you for the explanation on the material. I'm also planning another boom box project which will be smaller and lighter. I am thinking of sort of a modified pyramid shape, four sides with speakers in each side for 360 degree sound. Then maybe a flat tip, i.e. truncated pyramid for controls.
 
Saturnus said:
aphelion, I've been reviewing my build, and I'm not completely satisfied. I'll be adding tweeters to the build, and since I am already using the same drivers as the podzuma I might as well just use the same tweeters as it does but just double up on them. I'm also working on an extremely clever solution for the bass compensation. It might take a week or two before I have a ready-to-go build, though.


Saturnus,

I'm going to be ordering the parts for this micro build today or tomorrow. Any chance you have some rough notes on the build? I'm going to try to have this completed for a trip I'm taking in 2 weeks (tough, I know), so I'm going to be doing the best I can with the knowledge I have. Help from you would be awesome and greatly appreciated! :)

Aph
 
I have all the parts ordered and on the way - except for that transformer (Neutrik NTE4). Does anyone know where I can get that part here in the US? Everywhere I've called has said it will take them 2-3 weeks to get it over here, and then another week to ship it to me. :dead:

Or maybe there's something comparable from another company that ships to the US more often?
 
Ok, well I have another question for saturnus (or tsnell, or anyone else who can answer it):

I just received the speakers, and I discovered that you cannot mount them magnet to magnet perfectly. They stick together when their bases are off-center (maybe 3/4 inch or so), but when perfectly aligned, they repel each other. Am I supposed to mount them while they're doing this (in essence they'd continually be pushing against each other, with the wood box holding them together)?
 
Hey aphelion,

I’m not the designer so you’ll have to wait for Saturnus to pipe up but mine are aligned as straight as I could get them, yes they repel but you can push them into alignment fairly easily. You are going to epoxy glue the magnets together, plus the centre brace (in mine anyway) is a snug fit around the back of the magnets so it holds them in alignment. I epoxy’d them together and to the centre brace all at the same time.

Hope that helps.

Cheers,
Tim
 
Are you having any issues with noises like whistling through the pole vents? If I hold mine up to the light I can see straight through the dust cap and through the pole vent to the other side. I have a pair of the 8ohm P-Audio HP-10W sitting in their boxes waiting for a project. Still not sure what to do with them. Might make up a pair of fullrange with some mids and bullet tweeters Iv'e got.

col.
 
Hey Col,

Not that I've noticed. I haven't really had my head down close to it when it is up loud. I'll have a listen tonight and see if I can notice anything.

I bought the laptop supply (12-24V) from Altronics that you mentioned on 41Hz too. Haven't had a chance to hook it up yet though. I'll do that tonight and post back with some feedback too.

Cheers,
Tim