It's a bipole, and thereby "push-push". A dipole, or "push-pull" wouldn't work.
Wrap-up
Hi guys,
Just finished writing about some of the experiences with my Boominator build over here:
The “Malen” Boombox « Popdevelop – A developer team from Malmö, Sweden
Most focus is on the electronics stuff. Maybe it will be of help to someone.
@thokn @Saturnus We were also at Roskilde 2010. I'm really sad that we missed out on the Boominator party in the pictures posted here. We could have brought some light to the place aswell
Hi guys,
Just finished writing about some of the experiences with my Boominator build over here:
The “Malen” Boombox « Popdevelop – A developer team from Malmö, Sweden
Most focus is on the electronics stuff. Maybe it will be of help to someone.
@thokn @Saturnus We were also at Roskilde 2010. I'm really sad that we missed out on the Boominator party in the pictures posted here. We could have brought some light to the place aswell
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
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It wasn't really a "Boominator party", but just our camps that put them together a couple of times, since we are actually many friends who is split up in two different camps.Hi guys,
@thokn @Saturnus We were also at Roskilde 2010. I'm really sad that we missed out on the Boominator party in the pictures posted here. We could have brought some light to the place aswell
But a Boominator party could be cool. We have build in a signal 'amplifier' in our boominators so that one other Boominator can hook up to our signal. Then the next one can have a Boominator hooked up to it and so on. This year we will have an external 4-channel headphone amp so that 4 stereos can hook up to the same signal
One from our camp also suggested at Roskilde's facebook page, that they should host an event in the camping area with some artist, and the sound should then be delivered by all the boomboxes that showed up. I like that idea very much That's a nice Boominator you have there. Do you know how much power your LED-panel uses? I suspect it will drastically lower the playtime on the Boominator?
Is your solar panel durable or glass that will eventually break? I can't seem to find a solar panel with plastic cover instead of glass. Our glass panel broke last time, although it still worked afterwards
Please do!ThokN, it was so nice to visit your camp (Fri Ost). I also saw the other one at Roskilde. The blue one in the pics I didn't see. Always very nice to see that people are enjoying their home built stuff.
We plan to camp at the exact same spot as last year and '09.Hmm...we don't have a large flightcase hehe. I'll look more into horn-subs.
The Boominator, revised?
Hi everyone, im planning on making a similar box.. Except with a few changes. I was thinking about using the Amp9basic instead of the Amp6basic, and 2 pc of 60Ah batteries connected in series Still using the same woofers and tweeters. Would that be recommendable?
/Thranemeister
Hi everyone, im planning on making a similar box.. Except with a few changes. I was thinking about using the Amp9basic instead of the Amp6basic, and 2 pc of 60Ah batteries connected in series
Still using the same woofers and tweeters. Would that be recommendable?/Thranemeister
Sorry. That was inaccurate of me. The 4.5 times was per channel. The amp9b has 4 channels and not 2 so it's actually almost 9 times as much when playing maximum volume.
However, the idle current is also much higher so it uses a lot more power than the amp6b. Let's compare:
amp6b idle: 60mA @ 12V = 0.72W
amp6b max: 350mA @12V = 4.2W (loaded with 4 Ohms drivers, 2.5W with 8 Ohms)
amp9b idle: 220mA @ 24V = 5.3W
amp9b max: 1470mA @ 24V = 35.3W (loaded with 4 Ohms drivers, 20.3W with 8 Ohms)
I'm not saying the amp9b is not a great, if not fantastic amp, but you should know it's drawbacks in that it has a much more normal power consumption compared to the amp6b which uses a miniscule amount. The amp9b uses more power in idle on 24V than an amp6b uses at full volume on 12V.
So no, I don't think your pair of 60Ah batteries will last an entire festival with an amp9b without being recharged or supplemented by solar cells.
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Well..
Ah.. Yeah,. That makes hell of a difference.. Amp6basic it is! By the way.. is it hard to solder together? I mean, for a guy that have soldered 5 times in his life.. And that guy being me.. ?
/Thranemeister
Ah.. Yeah,. That makes hell of a difference.. Amp6basic it is! By the way.. is it hard to solder together? I mean, for a guy that have soldered 5 times in his life.. And that guy being me.. ?
/Thranemeister
WOW I was not aware of this. I thought the Amp9 used only a tiny bit more power at the same volume as the Amp6! No wonder we had to charge our batteries once a day last year. We thought it was mostly because we didn't have a solar panel as in '09.
I am actually considering if we should step down to Amp6 again. This is bad news. Because even though the Amp9 was louder, it does not justify the enormous power consumption compared.
Hmmmmmmm....
Could we install 2 Amp6's in the Boominator and use one for each side maybe? So that one gets left, the other gets right, and in each of them, the two channels will be bridged maybe?
We really need more sound than Amp6, so do you perhaps have a suggestion that is louder than Amp6, but less power hungry than Amp9, if money is not a big problem?
Thranemeister, the Amp6 is quite easy to solder. There are a few surface mount components, but they are quite large and so no special skills are required. I think it took me two hours or so, being extra careful.
Thokn, Amp6 cannot be bridged, as I think the amp is already bridged internally.
With the right switching (relays, maybe, so you can switch around speakers and battery connections as well as inputs), you could add an Amp6 and switch back and forth between the two, going to the more powerful amp when the party is really rocking, and the Amp6 when it's more like background music--if it ever gets that mellow at Roskilde.
Also, do be sure you have enough gain in the system. Might want to add a gain/preamp stage such as the Arjenhelder tube buffer if you don't. Reasonable price, runs on 12v, doesn't consume too much power.
--Buckapound
Thokn, Amp6 cannot be bridged, as I think the amp is already bridged internally.
With the right switching (relays, maybe, so you can switch around speakers and battery connections as well as inputs), you could add an Amp6 and switch back and forth between the two, going to the more powerful amp when the party is really rocking, and the Amp6 when it's more like background music--if it ever gets that mellow at Roskilde.
Also, do be sure you have enough gain in the system. Might want to add a gain/preamp stage such as the Arjenhelder tube buffer if you don't. Reasonable price, runs on 12v, doesn't consume too much power.
--Buckapound
Yes that would be a possibility. We have installed a 12V/24V switch on our Amp9, so that saves some power when not playing loud. But still the high idle consumption is bad. Don't know if installing a Amp6 also is worth the hassle for us this year, but we'll see.
We already have a passive gain-thing installed
I just thought about this some more...in the current Boominator, we installed the amp as a box with power and output connectors so that it could be taken out of the Boominator anytime. We could just make the exact same box but with an Amp6 inside instead. That way we could just swap the amps depending on if we need to play very loud or not.
The boxes would then have 2 power-input connectors (one for each battery), so that inside them, the Amp6 will be parallel wired for 12V and the Amp9 will be serial wired for 24V.
The boxes would then have 2 power-input connectors (one for each battery), so that inside them, the Amp6 will be parallel wired for 12V and the Amp9 will be serial wired for 24V.
Remember that the power consumption chart made earlier was with the amp9b running on 24V. Half those idle and max consumption figures if it runs on 12V instead. So you could just switch between 12V and 24V.
Of course switching between amps instead would be ideal but in that case I'd very much suggest putting in a safe guard so that you don't accidentally plug the amp6b to 24V which will fry it.
There'd be absolutely no benefits on having 2 amp6b's powering either side.
Quite frankly, I don't know any amps with the same output power as the amp9b that is more efficient. Many people are very happy with having Sure amps on 12V even though the have 340mA idle consumption.
Us Roskilde people are different simple because Roskilde is a 8 days event with party every night, and not a one-off one-nighter once in a while. So we need something that has the very best efficiency.
It's for that purpose I suggest the amp6b (or any TA202x power amp really) because they have superior efficiency. It's for the same reason I suggest the amp9b. It's the most efficient amp I know off that will give you more output power as an alternative.
EDIT: I've found an easy way to make the needed safeguard if you go with the amp switching plan. Have both batteries connect to both the amp cases with separate connectors. Then inside each amp case you either parallel or serial connect the connectors from the batteries to get either 12V or 24V. It's not ideal seen from a battery load balancing POW but if you keep the wires for the batteries relatively short and very importantly of exactly the same length, it be ok. And it's 100% sure way to prevent the wrong voltage being connected.
Of course switching between amps instead would be ideal but in that case I'd very much suggest putting in a safe guard so that you don't accidentally plug the amp6b to 24V which will fry it.
There'd be absolutely no benefits on having 2 amp6b's powering either side.
Quite frankly, I don't know any amps with the same output power as the amp9b that is more efficient. Many people are very happy with having Sure amps on 12V even though the have 340mA idle consumption.
Us Roskilde people are different simple because Roskilde is a 8 days event with party every night, and not a one-off one-nighter once in a while. So we need something that has the very best efficiency.
It's for that purpose I suggest the amp6b (or any TA202x power amp really) because they have superior efficiency. It's for the same reason I suggest the amp9b. It's the most efficient amp I know off that will give you more output power as an alternative.
EDIT: I've found an easy way to make the needed safeguard if you go with the amp switching plan. Have both batteries connect to both the amp cases with separate connectors. Then inside each amp case you either parallel or serial connect the connectors from the batteries to get either 12V or 24V. It's not ideal seen from a battery load balancing POW but if you keep the wires for the batteries relatively short and very importantly of exactly the same length, it be ok. And it's 100% sure way to prevent the wrong voltage being connected.
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Exactly my plan
I still think that the bonus of adding an Amp6 is worth it, even compared to Amp9 in 12V. Didn't know about the importance of equal cable length, so thanks for that!
The TP200x chipset has slightly higher idle consumption than the TA4100A. With a single STA317B (which has slight lower idle than the TK2050) it's 250mA, and with 2 STA317Bs for 4 channels, it's 320mA.
External regulators from the PS4 will just add even more power consumption unless there's a way to completely shutdown the internal regulator which I doubt but even so it's probably only 20-30mA difference, if that.
OK! Thanks for the info! I thought the external 5V was the only one - so is there another power rail equivalent to VN10, generated internally?
There's no VN10 needed for the TC200x chipset as far as I know.
Hmm! OK - Which internal regulator is it that's taking causing the brunt of the current consumption?