Cheap TPA3118D2 boards, modding them and everything that comes with it

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#2,166
#2,167
jean-paul said:
Congratulations Doctormord ! I see you did design a better version. Even smaller than the competitor.

Makes me wonder what the cost is. The blue Sanwu are quite hard to beat in that aspect.
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About $40 in BOM cost, also due to the use of softterm/flex ceramic caps, 0.5% resistors and these connectors. You may strip the costs down if using X5R standard MLCC, 5% resistors and cheaper connectors. I suspect the chinese massproduction could bringt the costs down below $10 with parts from "local" suppliers.

But costs weren't mainly in focus while planing this amplifier. There also is. o snake-oil involved.

The blue sanwu boards are a bargain , but one should change for better inductors if used with 4R speakers at higher levels.
 
#2,168
#2,171
Kjeldsen said:
Is Sanwu still the bargain to choose

TPA3118 PBTL mono digital amplifier board 1X60W 12V 24V POWER AMP-in Earphone Accessories from Consumer Electronics on Aliexpress.com | Alibaba Group

or is the even cheaper version just as good

1pcs SAMIORE ROBOT TPA3118 PBTL mono digital amplifier board 1X60W 12V 24V POWER AMP-in Integrated Circuits from Electronic Components & Supplies on Aliexpress.com | Alibaba Group
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I ordered the higher priced version from Ali with Sanwu in the picture and not only did not receive Sanwu branded, but they appeared to be made by different manufacturer or at different times, the inductors did not look the same, print was fuzzier on one than the other, and they were different shades of blue.

Vendors reply: "We don't always send out what is in the picture."

The advice given here is to just order the cheapest, which I did for a second set and I am happy, they at least look the same to each other and appear to have identical devices to the others I received.

I subsequently emailed several vendors on eBay regarding whether they send out the branded one, most did not reply, the ones that did would not commit to sending out what they pictured, so there you have it. Just order the cheapest.

HomePage - Sanwu Lasers has some Sanwu branded boards (not the plain TPA3118 at the moment, though) and everything I have gotten from there has been branded and they do look to be a bit better cosmetically (sharper printing, uniform color, etc).
 
#2,176
Regarding the MeanWell supplies, avoid/beware of any knock-offs/lookalikes/copies available from Ebay/Aliexpress/TaoBao/Whatsoever.

I got myself some (knockoffs) to see how good/bad they're made. While working in first place they lack in creeping distance, isolation and part quality. Some came with recycled high-voltage parts like bulk caps, XY-caps and even the underlying isolation material where resused LCD-backlight-foils which were to thin.

You pretty much get even less than you pay for. The underlying smps concept of the MeanWell supplies isn't any complicated rocked-science but they're made in a reasonable build quality, safety tested and certified for not much as x2 the price of a knockoff.
 
#2,180
Where do you but $200 MW supplies? They are $10-40, depening on power and providing excellent value for the price. But yeah, a crappy amp won't (most likely) getting any better with a good supply.

The main reason to me for getting a brand name like MW is safety and tested performance.
 
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