What's the estimated price tag ?
Also, about power input, will I be able to input 12v like they were comming from solar panels and the cAMP charges the battery same way? Or because of the solar charger circuit on the pcb it's not possible ?
My idea is to have two options: charging from solar panel or charging from 12v input (basically disconnect solar panels and connect a regulated 12v psu connected to where the solar panels was connected)
There's a single charging input, intended for use with solar panels. But you can disconnect the solar panels and hook up a separate power supply if you want, as long as it's in the 18-30V range. A laptop adapter (almost always 19V) will work just fine.
Charging off 12V isn't possible, as the DC/DC converter doing the charging (Linear LT3652HV) can't boost voltage. If you absolutely need the feature, 12V to 24V converters can be cheaply had:
Waterproof DC 12V to 24V 3A 72W Step Up DC DC Converter Regulator Boost Module | eBay
As for the price, I'm estimating at least $200 for a bare card - Canopy Sound is handling the purchasing/distribution/business side of things so they'll provide the final number.
Charging off 12V isn't possible, as the DC/DC converter doing the charging (Linear LT3652HV) can't boost voltage. If you absolutely need the feature, 12V to 24V converters can be cheaply had:
Waterproof DC 12V to 24V 3A 72W Step Up DC DC Converter Regulator Boost Module | eBay
As for the price, I'm estimating at least $200 for a bare card - Canopy Sound is handling the purchasing/distribution/business side of things so they'll provide the final number.
I dont need it to be necessarly 12v , let's say instead of the solar panels i connect a 19v laptop adapter, the battery will charge using the same circuit as the solar panel charger ?
A bit high for my first boombox, but lets wait 😉 i've ready all the 20 pages since the beginning and im amazed with your and Saturnus work
Correct, using a 19V laptop charger instead of the solar panels will work just fine.
The price is a bit high, but there's over $100 worth of electronic components on the card.
The DC/DC converter alone easily has $25 worth of parts in it - a $6 controller IC, four $2 FETs, two $2 inductors, several other parts, plus the PCB underneath it. However, it's expensive 'cause I decided to do the best job I can with it - keep the quiescent current low, keep the efficiency up, and keep DC/DC noise out of the audio stage and the 12V input. End result is an interleaved 2-phase synchronous boost converter. Spendy, but it works very well.
The rest of the amp is designed pretty much the same way, functionality/performance over price.
At the same time, I like to think if you bought a solar charger, battery discharge protection PCB, ground loop breaker, MiniDSP card, etc... you'd end up at the same or even higher price point.
The price is a bit high, but there's over $100 worth of electronic components on the card.
The DC/DC converter alone easily has $25 worth of parts in it - a $6 controller IC, four $2 FETs, two $2 inductors, several other parts, plus the PCB underneath it. However, it's expensive 'cause I decided to do the best job I can with it - keep the quiescent current low, keep the efficiency up, and keep DC/DC noise out of the audio stage and the 12V input. End result is an interleaved 2-phase synchronous boost converter. Spendy, but it works very well.
The rest of the amp is designed pretty much the same way, functionality/performance over price.
At the same time, I like to think if you bought a solar charger, battery discharge protection PCB, ground loop breaker, MiniDSP card, etc... you'd end up at the same or even higher price point.
And this is why, while expensive it may still have a very good value proposition. You mention miniDSP functionality. Will the cAMP be able to replace the crossover too? I only see 2 speaker outputs, not 4 that would be required so I'm guessing no unless there are some components on the B side of the board. 🙂
Damnit, I actually meant to go back and change that to 'DSP' there. This card will be 2 channels, and the user interface for configuring the DSP won't be anywhere as nice as what MiniDSP has. It'll have some of the functionality but I can't say it's the same.
DSP functionality will be:
- Configurable highpass on input
- Halfinator mode, which removes the stereo image below a configurable frequency
- Multiband EQ
- Parametric EQ
- Soft clipping (active when the amp's driven almost to clipping, intended to save tweeters more than anything)
Crossover replacement is nice, but biamping involves a 2nd amplifier stage, which increases the amp quiescent current. I suspect there's less power loss in a passive crossover.
Biamping is far more flexible/configurable, which is nice. If there's enough demand, I'll bang out a 4 channel version - this won't be for a while though, it'll be after the 2ch cAMP is established on the market.
DSP functionality will be:
- Configurable highpass on input
- Halfinator mode, which removes the stereo image below a configurable frequency
- Multiband EQ
- Parametric EQ
- Soft clipping (active when the amp's driven almost to clipping, intended to save tweeters more than anything)
Crossover replacement is nice, but biamping involves a 2nd amplifier stage, which increases the amp quiescent current. I suspect there's less power loss in a passive crossover.
Biamping is far more flexible/configurable, which is nice. If there's enough demand, I'll bang out a 4 channel version - this won't be for a while though, it'll be after the 2ch cAMP is established on the market.
Is it configurable per channel? Because then a Halfinator would be bi-amp able by putting the woofers and tweeters on seperate channels right?
I'd love a 4-channel version. It would make it a lot easier compared to the franken-amp I currently have with the AMP9 Basic, MiniDSP and several other board for 5V etc.
Nice to see some progress on this one, even though we won't get the chance to enjoy it this summer 🙂
Well, it didn't blow up 🙂 +3.3V rail measures fine, and my AVR Dragon sees the XMEGA board controller. The DC/DC is working, its output level is controlled by the DSP which isn't running yet, so it presently idles at 13V output.
And that's my afternoon break blown at work. Continuing work on it this evening...
And that's my afternoon break blown at work. Continuing work on it this evening...
Show off. I just got coffee. 🙂. In all seriousness, it's great to see this coming together. There's always a great sense of satisfaction when you're billed starts to work. Congratulations
I've got way better tools at work than at home - a decent bench supply, DMM and oscilloscope on my desk. And a lab bench with a stereo microscope and a JBC soldering station, which came in handy soldering the few SOT23-8's on the card.
Plus, I'm in the "new board in, must play with it" phase - it's like a new toy that I made myself. Messing with it took priority over coffee.
Banging out the initial AVR power up code right now. Guess I could have done this while waiting for the board, oh well...
It's alive!
cAMP prototype - YouTube
Hardware is fully verified. Currently 3 bodge wires - I had power +/- reversed on an op-amp and let the smoke out of it, and I forgot to bring the 'charging' signal from the solar charger to the AVR.
Software's in progress. AVR doesn't boot the DSP yet, currently running the DSP with an emulator.
cAMP prototype - YouTube
Hardware is fully verified. Currently 3 bodge wires - I had power +/- reversed on an op-amp and let the smoke out of it, and I forgot to bring the 'charging' signal from the solar charger to the AVR.
Software's in progress. AVR doesn't boot the DSP yet, currently running the DSP with an emulator.
Update: Viktor at Canopy Sound has a cAMP prototype in his hands, which will be at Rosklide.
Still lots of work to do on the UI/DSP side - right now it's booting fixed DSP code with no adjustments possible, and the USB connector doesn't do anything. Getting there though, everything else is done/working.
Still lots of work to do on the UI/DSP side - right now it's booting fixed DSP code with no adjustments possible, and the USB connector doesn't do anything. Getting there though, everything else is done/working.