So, I've been poking around here for a few weeks. I started out because I had a pair of old bookshelf speakers and wanted to make a little amp to run them as better quality computer speakers in my office. I have a 3116 amp ordered and on its way. Looking forward to finishing that little project, but the more I read the more I'm interested in trying other little projects. Specifically, I'd like to build a few portable, battery-powered, speakers. One moderately-sized boombox to use on the back porch or for picnics. One mono speaker, a little smaller to keep with camping gear for car camping trips and one teeny tiny speaker to take backpacking.
I'm working through plans for the mini speaker now and I'm wondering if I'm on the right track. I'd like to use a Dayton ND65 as the driver. Using winISD, it looked like a ported box of about 45 c.i. (about 3"Hx6"Wx2.5"D) tuned to somewhere between 70-80 Hz would work okay. I'll add a separate compartment above the speaker enclosure for the amp and battery. Planning to build it with 1/4" birch plywood "hobby panels."
Amp will probably be the tiny little TPA3110 mono board that's available on ebay, and battery will be a 3000mAh Li ion cctv battery (with charger on amazon).
One question I have regards material choice for ports. Looking at the port parameters in winISD, I could use 3 x 1/4" ports each somewhere around 2.5-3" long (depending on the exact box volume I end up using). Using larger diameter port tubing I start to get into a situation where the recommended lengths are too long for the box and/or the vent mach is too high. I have a lot of 1/4" I.D. tygon tubing readily available. Would that be a suitable material to use or is it important to have straight and rigid port tubing? Should I buy maybe some 1/4" copper tubing instead? or 1/4" PEX since it's a little more rigid than tygon?
I realize that this is not going to be hifi in any way shape or form, and perhaps many of you will think that it's a waste of time and money to build something like this when there are fairly inexpensive, small, battery-powered bluetooth speakers that are commonly available. I'm thinking of it more as an exercise in design, material selection, and construction though, than as being an absolutely practical thing to do. It's a way to get my feet wet trying out all aspects of the process with out a big outlay in materials cost and I'll be able to do most of the construction easily with handtools.
So what do you think? Am I missing anything major in my design? Anything that I could improve on? Thanks!
I'm working through plans for the mini speaker now and I'm wondering if I'm on the right track. I'd like to use a Dayton ND65 as the driver. Using winISD, it looked like a ported box of about 45 c.i. (about 3"Hx6"Wx2.5"D) tuned to somewhere between 70-80 Hz would work okay. I'll add a separate compartment above the speaker enclosure for the amp and battery. Planning to build it with 1/4" birch plywood "hobby panels."
Amp will probably be the tiny little TPA3110 mono board that's available on ebay, and battery will be a 3000mAh Li ion cctv battery (with charger on amazon).
One question I have regards material choice for ports. Looking at the port parameters in winISD, I could use 3 x 1/4" ports each somewhere around 2.5-3" long (depending on the exact box volume I end up using). Using larger diameter port tubing I start to get into a situation where the recommended lengths are too long for the box and/or the vent mach is too high. I have a lot of 1/4" I.D. tygon tubing readily available. Would that be a suitable material to use or is it important to have straight and rigid port tubing? Should I buy maybe some 1/4" copper tubing instead? or 1/4" PEX since it's a little more rigid than tygon?
I realize that this is not going to be hifi in any way shape or form, and perhaps many of you will think that it's a waste of time and money to build something like this when there are fairly inexpensive, small, battery-powered bluetooth speakers that are commonly available. I'm thinking of it more as an exercise in design, material selection, and construction though, than as being an absolutely practical thing to do. It's a way to get my feet wet trying out all aspects of the process with out a big outlay in materials cost and I'll be able to do most of the construction easily with handtools.
So what do you think? Am I missing anything major in my design? Anything that I could improve on? Thanks!
