Thanks Saturnus~ How would you charge said battery?
and btw... another question that has been bugging me... if you had left and right channels of stereo running opposing in a single chamber, is it imperative that the chamber be separated, or can one do anything to help the clarity, by perhaps a partial wall to block direct cross interference... I have read some contradicting info on this. I desire to keep stereo so as to use walls to produce cool stereo separation from a small device.
Again ~ what an awesome thread.
t
and btw... another question that has been bugging me... if you had left and right channels of stereo running opposing in a single chamber, is it imperative that the chamber be separated, or can one do anything to help the clarity, by perhaps a partial wall to block direct cross interference... I have read some contradicting info on this. I desire to keep stereo so as to use walls to produce cool stereo separation from a small device.
Again ~ what an awesome thread.
t
The Boominator uses a stereo configuration. The woofers in each chamber are parallel connected, so that they both share one channel. The left and right channel are separated by the electronics compartment.
Thanks WesleyK.... I was thinking more of a cubinator arrangement. One chamber, two speakers... and keeping the stereo. Isn't the cubinator a mono devise?
Yep the Cubinator is a mono device, it's the only way as you only have one chamber that needs to share it's volume, and have magnet to (brace to) magnet construction.
That's not entirely correct. Neither the qubinator nor the halfinator are necessarily mono. They can be, and is usually used in stereo. However, I'd not recommend it for the Boominator. It's meant to have one side of the stereo on each end, and even though that in principle reverses the left/right from what it should on one side, it's by far the preferable option.
I thought this might have been the best place to ask this (feel free to send me away if it is not). I am about to start my first real boominator, based on your plans, amp, speakers, etc. I have built 2 previous portable stereos, one of my own design, and after seeing your first boominator, one loosely based on it.
I'll cut to the question, I like to have a few extra features on my previous versions. Bluetooth for streaming, an Airport express for Airplay, and radio (Because here in Aus, we like to blow our cities away once a year, and its good to know what going on).
On my last built I used a singe DIN head unit (after trial with a pre amp) which worked well, but before I go ahead and order a Parrot ASTEROID Smart (Double DIN Touch Screen HU). I was wondering, could the Head Unit cause poor quality audio? could the 6v Pre-Out cause the amp to over power and distort (Obviously not an audio expert here).
The only reason I choose this rout is, the Parrot has 3 USB inputs for iOS devices, External HDDs, etc, as well as Radio, Bluetooth streaming and so on, it cuts my work down a lot. (I Understand Bluetooth would already loose quality, what I mean is for all other audio input, 3.5mm, USB, etc).
Thank you in advance, and I love your work Saturnus!
I'll cut to the question, I like to have a few extra features on my previous versions. Bluetooth for streaming, an Airport express for Airplay, and radio (Because here in Aus, we like to blow our cities away once a year, and its good to know what going on).
On my last built I used a singe DIN head unit (after trial with a pre amp) which worked well, but before I go ahead and order a Parrot ASTEROID Smart (Double DIN Touch Screen HU). I was wondering, could the Head Unit cause poor quality audio? could the 6v Pre-Out cause the amp to over power and distort (Obviously not an audio expert here).
The only reason I choose this rout is, the Parrot has 3 USB inputs for iOS devices, External HDDs, etc, as well as Radio, Bluetooth streaming and so on, it cuts my work down a lot. (I Understand Bluetooth would already loose quality, what I mean is for all other audio input, 3.5mm, USB, etc).
Thank you in advance, and I love your work Saturnus!
So if the qubinator was built as a stereo devise, is the compartment divided into two air tight compartments, with a wall between the magnets?
Kirtangl,
I use bluetooth frequently, and its a delight to use... no shame. I have found that using a simple bluetooth "dongle" is the best way to deal with such a radio signal, because there is a common ground loop noise that forms when a bluetooth receiver is run from the same battery as your amp. Airport express is also super cool, may I offer the consideration of using a stand alone airport express, separate from your design, freeing yourself from household wall current. This group is very interested in low power consumption, focusing on huge sound with little electricity. They have it really honed to an art. I did look up that Parrot... thats amazing... good luck with your project~
Tor
I use bluetooth frequently, and its a delight to use... no shame. I have found that using a simple bluetooth "dongle" is the best way to deal with such a radio signal, because there is a common ground loop noise that forms when a bluetooth receiver is run from the same battery as your amp. Airport express is also super cool, may I offer the consideration of using a stand alone airport express, separate from your design, freeing yourself from household wall current. This group is very interested in low power consumption, focusing on huge sound with little electricity. They have it really honed to an art. I did look up that Parrot... thats amazing... good luck with your project~
Tor
My first idea was also to use Bluetooth in the Boominator, together with a 3.5mm socket. But I have now decided on using a RaspberryPi running volumio with a wifi dongle. This way I can use my iPhone with airplay to stream music to the Boominator and play music that's on my local network. It also has a nice web interface where you can create playlists and control the volume/playback. It's still in development stage though, so not everything is working as it should, but it's stable.
By the way, I do like bluetooth, but I think the range is too small and a Boominator deserves a better solution 😉
By the way, I do like bluetooth, but I think the range is too small and a Boominator deserves a better solution 😉
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I'm curious too, I don't think they have special roms for the specified functions, so all other functions will be on. That sucks quite a lot of power compared to a dedicated BT pcb I'd think.
Nah, it's not that bad. With WiFi connected and streaming music the total power consumption should be 2.5W. Both the MaxAmps together will use about 1W standby, and I suspect the miniDSP also uses about 1W. So it does double the standby power usage, but I really like to have airplay and a way to acces my local music/internet radio. What I do want though, is to program something so that the RPi shuts down when I'm playing through a 3.5mm cable(should be possible).
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Go in sleepmode when 30 sec idle? I don't know if it would turn back on if it receives signal via 3.5mm though.... Maybe you could change that in the settings.
Something like that, I'm planning on using a 5 pin 3.5mm socket to send a signal to the RPi if a cable is inserted/unplugged. That will probably need a relay to restart the RPi, but that shouldn't be a problem.
I thought of that, but I deleted the message since I thought it wouldn't work. How would you wire it up? It wouldn't be very userfriendly since you have to wait but you can't see what's going on. Even when you know, it's not ideal.
And a doubling of standby/low output power consumption just to get airplay is in my opinion far from ideal. Even with 2x 10W solar panels you'd struggle to have enough power. And there certainly wouldn't be enough leftover for charging various devices.
I can only recommend Sure Electronics' "APT-X Bluetooth 4.0 Audio Receiver".
Uses about 50mA under load and no more than 10mA when on standby, making it hardly worth even turning it off.
Edit: sound is great too 😉
Uses about 50mA under load and no more than 10mA when on standby, making it hardly worth even turning it off.
Edit: sound is great too 😉
Bluetooth 4.0 is also by a good distance better sound quality than standard audio out on the raspberry pi, so you'd need an additional USB soundcard as well if you want decent sound quality on your airplay set up.