LM3876 amp info needed

[jude ward]

Hi! I was looking into building an amp from the LM3876 power amp chip. I am just looking to find somthing to drive a set of subs in my car, or even just play with. I figured that the IC might be a little easier to work with than the FET family of transistors.

I planned on running one amp and one sub on the left channel of my preamp out, and one amp and one sub on my right channel of the preamp out. My subs aren't that big wattage wize, so I figured that the 40 or 50W would be good.

There is still one problem. The schematic on the ESP site that I might like to use calls for like +/- 35 volts, and my car has +12. could I run the amp on 12 volts? or would it be possible for a voltage regulator to boost the voltage up to 35V? I am out of ideas. My electronics teacher said that it would be best to build an inverter, run it thru a transformer, then rectify it to get the desired voltage. Would this really be the easiest way?

Whell, Thankyou in advance for the help!
Jude

 

[blmn]

Jude

Why don't you see the project that I told you in other thread? It's a $20 book.

The power supply is capable to feed two 75W amps at +/- 36V regulated output. You can make just the power supply. There is the complete project there, inclunding PCB drawings.

You can't achieve the power you want feeding the amp directly from the battery, and the solution of you teacher seems to me a little strange, and with some problems.

Regards,

 

[blmn]

There is another solution for your question, but I think it will be not so good.

There are some chips designed for use in automotive applications from Thomsom and other brands. See at www.st.com and look for Ic amps for automotive applications. They have power at this range (40W or 50W), bridged, but the distortion will be higher than in a design using high voltage values.

regards

 

[lohk]

As far as I know all car amps with a bit more power use internal power inverters which boost up the voltage. Thats why they use so much current!
There should be lots of links in the net.

Your LM chip will not work with a single 12V supply.

There is another possible link for a single ended class A car amp:
http://www.geocities.com/ResearchTriangle/8231/car/index.html

 

[jude ward]

allrite....

k....

"blmn".. I havn't got around to the library yet to see if they have it. I figured that if I could use an IC, it might be able to take a smaller voltage. thankyou for posting the other link. I still might check out the book you suigjested. my teacher is really odd..

"lohk" .. thankyou for posting the link. I will have to take a look.

thankyou.
Jude

 

[blmn]

Jude,

You can make just the power supply and use it with the LM3876 amp. It's easier than the original amplifier section to make, they are independent modules in the original article.

regards,

 

[AudioFreak]

Jude the reality is that if you want decent sound for those subs you cant do it with only 12V .... you will need to construct/buy a switching power supply so that you can have decent voltage rails to use for the amps.

 

[blmn]

Jude

I agree with Audiofreak, the best option is, as I told you before, making a SMPS power supply to achieve the power levels needed without high amounts of distortion and other correlated problems, but, you can´t imagine how loud could an amplifier be even at 12V supply.

regards

 

[subwo1]

One fairlly easy option you may consider is to take one of those ubiquitous 12V to 120VAC converters (commonly called an inverter) and run into a suitable 60Hz transformer, rectify, and filter it.

 

[AudioFreak]

You could do that but efficiency would be absolutely terrible.

 

[subwo1]

Years ago, I took a cheap 12V bridged output amp, drove it with square waves, which then drove a charge pump. A variation of that type of thing may be an option also.

 

[jude ward]

I will look into a switched power supply.

I will look into a switched power supply. My electronics teacher said that maby I could look for a "voltage doubler". Might do that also.

Thanks for the help.
Jude

 

[paulb]

A voltage doubler needs an AC signal driving it, that's pretty much what subwo1 was referring to. It ends up being difficult to get a lot of power out of it.