2 Amps, 2 Problems

[rhb]

Hello,

New to the world of boombox building, not very electronically experinced, but learning and not afraid to make mistakes along the way.

Am looking into boomboxes for one to go on my bike to show off in schools as part of my job & take out on critical mass rides etc. It doesn't need to be best sound quality or the loudest, lightweight and not mega-expensive are

Bought a Lepai TA2020, first use it smoked, popped and crackled a bit, but there's no evidence of owt scorched inside. Funny chemically smell too - made me think the smoke was some sort of plastic compound just being burnt off as components heated first few times perhaps?

Anyway, it doesn't work (and never has), I get constant "hiss" output on the right channel, nowt thru left channel.

Is it likely completely fried so fit for the bin?

The other Amp, maybe not Tripath, I've taken an old Genius 2.1 PC speaker set apart, had 2 x 5 watt 4ohm tweeters and 1 x 15 watt "woofer" (it's tiny, but sounded ok volume wise in it's housing, albeit a bit rattly).

The built in PSU converts 240v mains to 11v which drives an amp with unusual speaker outputs, one of the tweeters is wired into the board then there's two colour coded single-jack outs for the other tweeter and the bass. Only the bass has output which I can double check by plugging the spare tweeter in instead, going against the colour coding.

Is this one likely to be a bin job too?

I've powered both boards today using the Lepai provided power cable hooked up to a 12v Jump Start battery pack. Checked polarity using one of those little polarity checking widgets.

Tested all three speakers via a working amp and using same input source all day - everything works except both amps.

Should I give up on both as lost causes and look into the Amp6basic as something a bit more solid, or learn more about how these things work and to get them going again?

[ruchirablog]

If you want to get more power for juice, your best bet is Tripath T2020 chip. Lepai T2020A+ is based on that and its great for a boombox.
Take a look at this - The Boominator - another stab at the ultimate party machine

So get a new Lepai LP2020A+ and make sure polarity is right!!! And dont ever connect 2 speaker grounds together! So it wont blow up next time :P

[rhb]

I think I used wrong psu on the first one, new ta2020 arrived today and works fine with a 12v leisure battery, boominator type project is on... cheers.

the genius 2.1 amp remains a mystery...