First time Class D-IYer

[alexmoose]

please excuse the terrible pun.

Hello everyone, I am looking to build a simple class D amplifier, because I love the concept (and my RA keeps bugging me to build one). The only problem is that I have never worked on any real digital circuitry before (only tubes, and other analoge stuff). Is there a schematic that is simple, and fun for a first timer? I don't need much power, 5-15 WPC should be just fine.

Thanks alot
-Moose

[niiico]

You could go there : www.41hz.com

You won't get circuits descriptions but kits ready to be built.

[Xspunge]

Niico gave you a good site to check out. You should check out the Amp6 Basic. There are reviews on this site on that particular amp you can check out (from me and from others). They are somewhere under the Class D forums, maybe on the 2nd, 3rd or 4th page, but no later than that.

It is the most beginner friendly amp to build. And since you are in school you can probably get an electrial engineering student to check your work or have them with you when you solder to ensure you got everything correct. You should also be able to borrow a multimeter from them too. Also, the instructions are the easiest to follow too, since there are pictures to guide you. Other amps don't have that.

I have pics of a finished Amp 6 Basic posted here

http://s101.photobucket.com/albums/m59/Xspunge/?

Let us know what questions you have and someone will be able to help you out.

[RX5]

nice work on the speaker BOX.... how thick are those plastics??

[v-bro]

Amp9 is also a very easy build, like amp6 also with trough-hole components mainly... Amp9 has the chip I listen to every day with much enjoyment

A bit more power can't hurt?

And the chip is quite fool-proof, protected against all kinds of abuse..

Supply is within the range of a single 10 to 27 Vdc, but this amp allready rocks at 12 Vdc!

[alexmoose]

I was thinking and almost positive I going to make Amp5. I looked at amp 9, but was dis-enchanted when I saw it is designed for a 4 ohm load, has anyone run it with an 8-ohm load? do you still seggest the amp9 for my 8-ohm speakers?

[niiico]

It should work well with 8 Ohms load.

But if you want to tune it for 8 Ohms, you could change the output caps values and the toroid values.

I don't know the amp9, but usually it is replacing .22uF caps by .47uF caps and the toroid should be around 15mH.

[alexmoose]

Okay, I don't know how much this matters with digital electronics, but is there any specific brand of toroid's, or caps that work the best? I don't understand Class D well enough to know exactly what the caps do, but would some nice Paper in Oil caps work to achieve a better sound? so I know, are the caps we are speaking of the blue ones toward the left side of the board?

http://www.41hz.com/showgraph.aspx?ID=215

[niiico]

Nope.

In the TK2050, it is said : "Use a high quality film capacitor capable of sustaining the ripple current caused by the switching outputs. Electrolytic capacitors should not be used."

So...

[alexmoose]

Okay, I looked at the datasheet for the TAA4100A, (this is the chip used in amp 9, right?), and those caps are not in the signal path, so paper in oils would gain nothing there

On the datasheet, it shows the output Toroids at 10uH, and the Caps at .47, is this set-up for 8 ohms? or 4 ohms? would you please clearify?

Thank you

-Moose

http://www.41hz.com/downloads/TAA4100A.PDF