well it can power 4 ohms by itself. not very well or anything but it can do it. just try one and hook it up to the 4 ohm and see if it will go loud enough for your application.
if you want to try to parallel them try to just build 2 the same and connect each output to the speaker output capacitor through a resistor. I am not sure what value yiou need for a little amp like that. 0.1 ohm is common for lm3886 in parallel . they may run a bit wermer though you might want to stick some ramsinks on there.
if you want to try to parallel them try to just build 2 the same and connect each output to the speaker output capacitor through a resistor. I am not sure what value yiou need for a little amp like that. 0.1 ohm is common for lm3886 in parallel . they may run a bit wermer though you might want to stick some ramsinks on there.
With paralleling LM386 chips, you can use 0.1-0.5 ohm output resistors with no problem. But LM386 is rather weak chip for any real power, but they still go nice and loud.
***However, DON'T bridge LM386***
I did that using 5 and 12V to run the 2 LM386 IC chips. Used an 8 ohm speaker and bridged. Even with only 5V, it played very loud, but ran warm. When I bridged with 12V it played extremely loud, but after 15 seconds the chips got hot and blew! lol
Instead of LM386, why not use a better chip that can safely drive 4 ohms with a decent amount of power? Even if you are using 6V or so of supply, a typical car audio IC will do fine.
Most car radio IC can drive 2 ohms/channel, or 4 ohms bridged. Much better IMO.
***However, DON'T bridge LM386***
I did that using 5 and 12V to run the 2 LM386 IC chips. Used an 8 ohm speaker and bridged. Even with only 5V, it played very loud, but ran warm. When I bridged with 12V it played extremely loud, but after 15 seconds the chips got hot and blew! lol
Instead of LM386, why not use a better chip that can safely drive 4 ohms with a decent amount of power? Even if you are using 6V or so of supply, a typical car audio IC will do fine.
Most car radio IC can drive 2 ohms/channel, or 4 ohms bridged. Much better IMO.
A chip I'm about to use for an amp project is the AN7147 which is 5W/channel @ 12V 3 ohms. I'm using this to boost the output of my soundcard for a stereo headphone amp 
and to drive small computer speakers too. The IC manufacturer says you can run without a heatsink if not putting out much power, but I'd still recommend a heatsink, even if it's just a flat piece of metal.
AN7147 DATASHEET: http://www.datasheets.org.uk/search.php?q=an7147&sType=part&ExactDS=Starts
This website has them for $1.40 a piece:
http://www.futurlec.com/Sanyo/AN7147pr.shtml
Also, since it's a 2 channel chip, you can parallel the two channels on the chip to drive 1.5 ohms
and to drive small computer speakers too. The IC manufacturer says you can run without a heatsink if not putting out much power, but I'd still recommend a heatsink, even if it's just a flat piece of metal.AN7147 DATASHEET: http://www.datasheets.org.uk/search.php?q=an7147&sType=part&ExactDS=Starts
This website has them for $1.40 a piece:
http://www.futurlec.com/Sanyo/AN7147pr.shtml
Also, since it's a 2 channel chip, you can parallel the two channels on the chip to drive 1.5 ohms
Bigger Chips
Joe,
Try NEC's mPC1230H2. I use to use this chip until I graduated SMPS-powered discrete Amplifiers.
I believe the old Alpine3505 (2-channel)and 3510 (4-channel)Amps used this chip. It is rated at 13W into 4W at 14.2V. Many of Alpine's old-old school (1980s) head units also used this chip. It is has BTL (Bridged Transformer-Less) output that enables the 13W rating.
I used a number of them to drive some Radio Shack Minimus-7s with exceptional results. The bass was strong and tight, the highs were crisp but not too bright, and the midrange was very full of presence- an all-around great chip to use.
I think they can still be ordered from Parts Express or MCM Electronics. for about $5-7 each.
Hope this helps,
Steve
Joe,
Try NEC's mPC1230H2. I use to use this chip until I graduated SMPS-powered discrete Amplifiers.
I believe the old Alpine3505 (2-channel)and 3510 (4-channel)Amps used this chip. It is rated at 13W into 4W at 14.2V. Many of Alpine's old-old school (1980s) head units also used this chip. It is has BTL (Bridged Transformer-Less) output that enables the 13W rating.
I used a number of them to drive some Radio Shack Minimus-7s with exceptional results. The bass was strong and tight, the highs were crisp but not too bright, and the midrange was very full of presence- an all-around great chip to use.
I think they can still be ordered from Parts Express or MCM Electronics. for about $5-7 each.
Hope this helps,
Steve
Re: Dicontinued......
NTE is overpriced.................
Being that he's only playing with simple chips, that's why I told him to go with AN7147, because it's just as easy to hook up as a LM386, nearly as cheap too, and they are still available, and it does not require much heatsinking. Also does not need any resistors other than 2.2ohm/0.1uf zobel network.
If he's wanting some real power from 12V, he could always get one of those 50W max BTL Car radio chips
N-Channel said:Well, I just looked at MCM's catalon-online, and they're........discontinued.too bad. These were great chips. NTE's version (NTE1389) might still be available somewhere....
NTE is overpriced.................
Being that he's only playing with simple chips, that's why I told him to go with AN7147, because it's just as easy to hook up as a LM386, nearly as cheap too, and they are still available, and it does not require much heatsinking. Also does not need any resistors other than 2.2ohm/0.1uf zobel network.
If he's wanting some real power from 12V, he could always get one of those 50W max BTL Car radio chips
What I would probably do instead of paralelling the chips is make a simple push-pull current gain stage on the output using 2 bjt transistors. This way you are limited only to the amount of current that the transistors can provide. Adding a small single output stage would be a fairly easy to do.
Yeahhhh!!!!! Your!!! Right but not blown your bit to exaggerated most of all if!!! Only if you try to parrallell lm386 l in 2 means you got you have filtered 1 watt amp so!!! That's!!! The case but!!! In the otherwise it will run in speaker 5 watt 8 ohms speaker and!!! It so freaking Fidel at its finest !!! But the problem is the make it loud to but it heats ups if you try to move its power supply to 12-14lvolts but no!!! Amps!!! It cause your ic will perfectly heats up that your hands will bit burn because of!! Heatness to it so!!! If you put around 10volts no amp you get a 1 watt stable no heats more!!! Amplifier. So could run perfectly at all!!! ......in second thought I try it again but I use 4 lm386 l in parralell and damn it so bass that I got so happy!!! But here's is the real problem to it it can't run in 10volt!! No amps!!!! So i try to make it increase the amps to!! 2amps 10volts wow!!!! My circuits is!!! Running and well done!!!! But!!! Hey!!!!! Like as uu said within 15 second the ic is so *******!!! Hot!!! My hand burn much better than!!! The first!!! I try to run my amp to 1amps 9 volts and they finish low and little bit of distortion and can't do much better I try to less more amps like .5 amps and still !!! Heats up!! But no sound at all!!! So here is my conclusion put some heatsink to lm386 and some fan to it and perfectly runs it in 10-12 volt rail and your will happy to it its like 150watt amp you made like some pro manufacturing did!!!
2020 here.. This was One of the two threads about the PC1230H2.
I wanted to leave this here for anyone who still wanted to know about this chip.
You can find them at ANY junkyard with the Acoustic 10 system. Minivans have them from 1992 to 2000 I think. They are all wired and ready to go for 12-18v being the high end of input.
THey do 20WRMS at 10% thd, And have no problem running a 2 ohm load from what others have said.
THey do sound great. Its like a plug and play amp for your projects.
Sure most of you have moved on, but I thought I Would chime in for the next dude 10 years from now.
Time to start a new thread about them. and ask some questions.
I wanted to leave this here for anyone who still wanted to know about this chip.
You can find them at ANY junkyard with the Acoustic 10 system. Minivans have them from 1992 to 2000 I think. They are all wired and ready to go for 12-18v being the high end of input.
THey do 20WRMS at 10% thd, And have no problem running a 2 ohm load from what others have said.
THey do sound great. Its like a plug and play amp for your projects.
Sure most of you have moved on, but I thought I Would chime in for the next dude 10 years from now.
Time to start a new thread about them. and ask some questions.
2020 here.. This was One of the two threads about the PC1230H2.
I wanted to leave this here for anyone who still wanted to know about this chip.
You can find them at ANY junkyard with the Acoustic 10 system. Minivans have them from 1992 to 2000 I think. They are all wired and ready to go for 12-18v being the high end of input.
THey do 20WRMS at 10% thd, And have no problem running a 2 ohm load from what others have said.
THey do sound great. Its like a plug and play amp for your projects.
Sure most of you have moved on, but I thought I Would chime in for the next dude 10 years from now.
Time to start a new thread about them. and ask some questions.
Please start a new thread for the uPC1230H2. This thread is for LM386. In such a new thread, please link to a datasheet in English. I did not understand the much from the datasheet in Japanese.
Last edited:
- Status
- This old topic is closed. If you want to reopen this topic, contact a moderator using the "Report Post" button.