TPA3116D2 Amp

Founder of XSA-Labs
Joined 2012
Paid Member
You won't save any money doing it yourself that's for sure - but there is something very cool about firing up an amp you built yourself and hearing the first music come through it as it comes to life. Same with DIY speaker enclosures, although there - you can definitely save money and get a superior sounding speaker for a fraction of the cost of a high end speaker that you would buy. I learned a lot about SMD soldering, using tweezers and magnifiers, and class D theory by building this. It was also cool to have one of the few first amps on the block before they became commodity items like this one from China.
 
You won't save any money doing it yourself that's for sure - but there is something very cool about firing up an amp you built yourself and hearing the first music come through it as it comes to life. Same with DIY speaker enclosures, although there - you can definitely save money and get a superior sounding speaker for a fraction of the cost of a high end speaker that you would buy. I learned a lot about SMD soldering, using tweezers and magnifiers, and class D theory by building this. It was also cool to have one of the few first amps on the block before they became commodity items like this one from China.

Before I found out about the built up board from China (courtesy of xrk971), I had already requested an eval chip from Texas Instruments, which they kindly Fedex'd to New Zealand.

It arrived yesterday. So I suppose I'll go ahead and build one anyway, knowing full well it will cost me way more than one of the chinese boards.

But by golly, those chips are so tiny... Will have to "invest" in magnifying googles, new soldering iron, 0.4 mm solder etc..
 
Tiny they are and I still marvel at what they can do in such a tiny package. There is a TAS5630 that is 3x as big (14 mm square) and it makes 300 watts per channel.

I have made a board for my next amp...TDA8954...420W @ 10% 8R

My rating 320W 0.5% 8R +/- 40V

Peter...I almost can't get a bare board to you for that price...I probably won't be marketing a board for the 3116.

I am concerned about what xrk971 pointed out in that it has what looks like 22uH inductors in a small package...probably not rated for 3A for 8R and very probably not rated for the 4R load that would get close to 50W.

I really hope this board does not give the TPA3116 a bad name.

We sill see.
 
You won't save any money doing it yourself that's for sure - but there is something very cool about firing up an amp you built yourself and hearing the first music come through it as it comes to life. Same with DIY speaker enclosures, although there - you can definitely save money and get a superior sounding speaker for a fraction of the cost of a high end speaker that you would buy. I learned a lot about SMD soldering, using tweezers and magnifiers, and class D theory by building this. It was also cool to have one of the few first amps on the block before they became commodity items like this one from China.
I get a great deal of pleasure at being able to purchase these little amps without requiring "feedback" because they are so inexpensive.
After spending my working life using microscopes and comparators, I'm sure I would get no satisfaction chasing miniature components floating on a sea of solder.
I can quite understand building speaker boxes and Xovers but these little amps look to have all the magic in the chip with just a few periferal components all of which would presents problems to solder, for me at least.
 
Peter...I almost can't get a bare board to you for that price...I probably won't be marketing a board for the 3116.

I am concerned about what xrk971 pointed out in that it has what looks like 22uH inductors in a small package...probably not rated for 3A for 8R and very probably not rated for the 4R load that would get close to 50W.

I really hope this board does not give the TPA3116 a bad name.

We sill see.

Yep, I understand about getting the bare board to me, Doug. I'm thinking about using a breakout out for the chip and cobble a thru hole board together myself.

About the inductors, you well be right. I may end up replacing them with a higher spec'd one.
 
"The Chinese made Board does say max current is 2amps and they assume 24v supply to get 48 watts? What is the problem with 22 uH inductors ? Not enough HF response? "


The higher the inductance given a specific core size results in a lower current rating before the inductance decreased by a specified amount.

http://productfinder.pulseeng.com/products/datasheets/SPM2006_22.pdf

Note the trend of inductance vs current rating.

If those inductors on the boards are 0.48" square then they could be good for 3A...There are some that size at that rating.