Well thanks to everyone who helped me out on this forum when I was designing this board! Took me a long time to get it to this point but I have a few made now and have been happy with the results - currently using one in my Fidelity speaker. It uses the TPA3116D2 chip from Texas Instruments and has a TI battery charger chip which handles charging of a 3S Li-Ion pack. I'm using a relatively outdated RN-52 for the Bluetooth but I liked it for its differential outputs and programmability. I may update it down the line. There's also connections for media controls which I'm using with a custom touch control board on my speaker. The key for me was having a compact package I can use in lots of projects. I made the first prototype at home after getting a board printed using a hot air gun and stencil. Since then I've bought them assembled as making them is a long (but otherwise therapeutic) process.
I've made a video on how I designed it and the board layout here:
I've also linked my final schematic, BOM, and all the helpful learning docs I acquired on the way on my plans page here: https://www.jcracoustics.co.uk/plans/
TLDR Lessons learned in this process:
Thanks again to everyone on here who gave me a hand. I linked the forum in my video description since this is the best resource for those looking to do the same. Hope the resources and video help anyone who wants to try and make a similar design but if you want any more info then give me a shout here.
FYI - I'm not a company although I have made a swanky website for all my designs. I do technically have a spare of this board to sell but frankly even at cost it comes out expensive (I think board design has to be a labour of love unless you can afford to produce millions at a time!)
I've made a video on how I designed it and the board layout here:
TLDR Lessons learned in this process:
- Aluminium Polymer Capacitors are VERY expensive and I probably should have just used Electrolytic for my Bulk Capacitors but I really was sparing no expense on this board.
- Layout is everything when it comes to current sensing resistors (charging on my first prototypes didn't work as my grounding and layout wasn't right)
- Start small - I spent ages getting bogged down in how to do an active crossover with split rails before I finally decided to leave it out on this design. This also gave me more flexibility on using the amp in different projects this way.
- Black PCBs look great but get your first prototype in green because it's a million times easier to see the traces when you're debugging.
Thanks again to everyone on here who gave me a hand. I linked the forum in my video description since this is the best resource for those looking to do the same. Hope the resources and video help anyone who wants to try and make a similar design but if you want any more info then give me a shout here.
FYI - I'm not a company although I have made a swanky website for all my designs. I do technically have a spare of this board to sell but frankly even at cost it comes out expensive (I think board design has to be a labour of love unless you can afford to produce millions at a time!)
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