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LEAK! LM386 extension speaker project needs a name

Hi, hardly original on my part, but "(The) Rustica/Rusticas/Rustico" seem apt names to me, rgds, sreten.

another theme : CigarBox again not very original, but a nice simple name.
 
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"Hava-ampa" - in reference to the little "Hav-A-Tampa" cigars.

"La Gloria Ampla" - in reference to "La Gloria Cubana" cigars. A bit higher class, but less name recognition if you're not a cigar smoker.:smoke:

Radio Free Havana, at 386 on your LM dial...... -.-. --.- -.-. --.- -.-


Browse the JR cigar website and look for ideas that work with cigar kind of feel to them.

I tried. Don't know how they strike you?
In payment, I'm going to copy your clever design. :thmbsp:

Have some 386's, cedar cigar boxes, a line cord smps and small speakers looking fo something to do. Think I'll do a pair for my son's Ipod. :music:
One more pile of parts waiting for their turn...

Good luck!
 
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@Scott;
You're welcome to cop the idea. That's why I did it. Below is the schematic I used. The 10K/.033uf feedback network is for bass boost and is probably needed for a small speaker/box.
I changed the input resistor from the original 10K to 100 Ohms. This is necessary when using a headphone device as input because unless you draw a significant amount of current many MP3 players' output stages will put out high frequency noise.
I like the cigar based name ideas but I probably have to downplay the tobacco aspect because it's for publication. That takes a lot of interesting options off the table.
 

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Thanks!

I have scared up some old entertainment center speakers. Looks like it's going to be a 2-way.

Let us know when your article is published.
 
I built a small stereo amp out of a JRC 8 pin chip, the spec sheet said it was like .3 thd at 250-500 mwpc and like .8thd at 1wpc, I built a 9 volt power supply with transformer from a alarm clock and it performed pretty well with speakers with sensitivity in the high 90's. It blew a few peoples minds when they saw the tiny amp with a transformer the size of a walnut fill the room with sound.
 
bsabel said:
Oh! Let's combine the India reference with the sci-fi reference. The old-school, steam punk look makes me think Jules Verne. What about the "Phileas" after the main character in Around the World in Eighty Days?
Click to expand...

Or, leaning in the French direction again, Phileas' mate, Passepartout
 
Cigars come outta Cigar Boxes.

I like the cigar based name ideas but I probably have to downplay the tobacco aspect because it's for publication.
Click to expand...

I'd think even politically correct type Diy'ers could see past the evil Tobacco reference, especially since it'a a CIGAR BOX. They probably didn't come into it's ownership by accident. Besides a recent fed study showed moderate cigar smokers (<2/day) actually have a lower cancer incidence than non-smokers. Both you and I know that's well within the margin of error on a moderate to small research project, but I'd bet the cigar I smoke each weekend isn't doing me any more harm than the 15 minutes in line sucking fumes at the toll booth on the NYS thruway. (imagine working there!)

Sorry for the divert, but I have and like Guns, Cigars, and homebrew beer. In addition to good, loud music. (not all at once or necessarily together), and get tired at everybody sniping at my while admittedly non-optimal, but free in America likes. Everything in moderation. Don't let them control your CIGAR box recycling (see how nice it sounds when you make it "green")

PS and thanks for the info. I've had the same problems driving high-z loads with modern mp3 type gear. 100ohms input is good. Even 50 is fine with your basic Ipod.

Thanks
Scott
 
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Scott594 said:
I'd think even politically correct type Diy'ers could see past the evil Tobacco reference, especially since it'a a CIGAR BOX. They probably didn't come into it's ownership by accident. Besides a recent fed study showed moderate cigar smokers (<2/day) actually have a lower cancer incidence than non-smokers. Both you and I know that's well within the margin of error on a moderate to small research project, but I'd bet the cigar I smoke each weekend isn't doing me any more harm than the 15 minutes in line sucking fumes at the toll booth on the NYS thruway. (imagine working there!)

Sorry for the divert, but I have and like Guns, Cigars, and homebrew beer. In addition to good, loud music. (not all at once or necessarily together), and get tired at everybody sniping at my while admittedly non-optimal, but free in America likes. Everything in moderation. Don't let them control your CIGAR box recycling (see how nice it sounds when you make it "green")

PS and thanks for the info. I've had the same problems driving high-z loads with modern mp3 type gear. 100ohms input is good. Even 50 is fine with your basic Ipod.

Thanks
Scott
Click to expand...

Thanks for confirming my findngs on loading MP3 players with low value resistors. I came to that conclusion the hard way and found no published examples of the effects that I observed. But the 'scope doesn't lie.

Personally, I love tobacco, whiskey and things that go boom. All part of a healthy lifestyle, as they say. The naming of the project is slightly constrained because it's for commercial purposes and is graciously sponsored by the electronics store with the initials R. S. It makes sense to avoid associating them with irrelevant outside products.
The project is for MAKE magazine. I want to state here that this publication, it's website and the fantastic people who run it are the best thing that ever happened to DIY since the soldering iron and home electrification. I urge anyone with an interest in making, modding, inventing, tweaking, hacking and creating stuff to have a look at their website. Bring a lunch because you'll find so much cool stuff in there that you won't be able to tear yourself away.
2 years ago they approached me about writing an article for publication about an Econowave speaker build that I had shown one of their advisory board members. They basically gave me, a new writer, free rein and all the guidance I needed. I fully credited Audio Karma, Zilch and Jack Gifford in the article, which has been republished in the projects section of the website:
http://makeprojects.com/Project/Econowave-Speakers/181/1#.T-5MZhee7Qg
 
Just busting on you.

I do understand the deal on publishing, I do a newsletter for The New York State Muzzleloaders Assn., and have been warned many times while having people read a proof for me about a wide variety of correctness infractions. Add kids, guns, or any of a dozen or so hot-button subjects and look-out! It's amazing some of the ways something can be mis-interpreted. Usually a simple photo. You have to assume if anybody could ever possibly misconstrue something, that it will happen.
Unfortunately it's the world we live in.

I'll look into Make. Sounds like a worthwhile publication. We could use something to fill the void left where all the experimenter magazines of the past have one by one disappeared. I for one miss them and would welcome a new one.

Maybe you give them the hint that AK would be a good place to advertise.

Good Luck, and hope to see the LM386er in the Mag.

Scott
 
I know it's boring, and many great suggestions have been made here, but I'm leaning toward the name Monobox or maybe Monovox. The name has to be somewhat descriptive. I called my last project Squelette which I won't explain at this time, and everyone ended up calling it The Chip Amp because that made more sense than the bilingual pun that I came up with.
 
I forgot to come back here and let you all know how this turned out. It got published online and was a big success. The Make Projects video team did an outstanding 7 minute video for the build. It's now been viewed 59,000 times on YouTube.
A number of websites including Boing Boing and Lifehacker picked up the video and linked back to the article.
http://makeprojects.com/Project/MonoBox+Powered+Speaker/2396/1#.URf6ZR19LOs
This is the most successful thing I've ever written in terms of reader involvement. And I literally tossed the whole thing off in a week and a half.
Maybe that's the takeaway from this experience: make stuff fast and simple, and others will be able to duplicate it.
 
thefragger said:
:banana:

Awesome work!


I'd love to know how you got involved with Make! :scratch2:
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Thanks. Make Magazine is great to work with. I got involved with them through the Econowave speaker project on the AK Speakers forum. A few years ago I wrote a How-To thread on converting Large Advents to Econowave. It's still linked in the first post on the Econowave thread. I showed that to a blogger that I know who turned out to be on Make Magazine's advisory board. They contacted me and asked me to re-write it for the magazine. I re-did the whole build and wrote it up. That appeared in Issue 20. Later the article was converted to a Project on Make Online.
It's here: http://makeprojects.com/Project/Econowave+Speakers/181/1
With appropriate credit to AK of course.
After that I developed a bigger project for the magazine, Squelette the Bare Bones Amp, a gainclone project for Issue 23 (I think). That was pretty popular despite being a challenging build.
Since then I've done other things on request, including this simple, quickie powered speaker build.

It's not difficult to develop something for Make Magazine. You have to have a finished, fairly original project with some documentation to present. They actively solicit new reader projects. If you're interested in contributing something I'd recommend doing some reading on the magazine's Projects website. I'm not a professional writer, just an electronics tech. The editors are accustomed to working with contributors who don't have journalism degrees.
 
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