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This automobile stereo amplifier project is a class AB audio power amplifier using the Hitachi HA13118 module. It not only can be used in automobile application but also in any transportable or home amplifier process. It is simple to construct & has a maximum of outside parts. The module has a high power output from a low voltage supply using the bridge tied load system, & a high gain of 55dB.

This project will be useful in applications where the input signal is a low level, without requiring the use of a separate pre-amplifier. This IC module has a built in surge protection circuit, thermal shutdown circuit, ground fault protection circuit & power supply fault protection circuit making it reliable.

The Specifications of this project 
D.C. Input : 8 – 18V at 1-2 A

Power output : 18W maximum, 4 ohm load, 18V DC supply

S/N ratio : > 70 dB

THD : < 0.2% @ 1W

Freq. Response : ~ 30 Hz to 30 kHz, –3 dB

Input level : < 25 mV, for full output (G > 50dB)

Input Impedance : ~ 30 k ohm

The supply voltage necessary for this project is 8 -18V DC, at least one to two Amps. Maximum output power will only be obtained with a power supply of 18V at greater than two A, using a four ohm speaker. The power supply ought to be well filtered to reduce mains hum, a regulated supply will reduce noise even further. Additional filtering is unnecessary if operating from a battery supply.

Circuit Diagram Description

Most of the circuitry is contained within the amplifier module. C10 is the input coupling capacitor and blocks DC from the input. C11 bypasses any RF which may be present at the input. C1 & C2 provide an AC ground for the inverting inputs of the IC. R1/C7 and R2/C8 provide a high frequency load for stability with difficult speakers. C five & C six provide bootstrap feedback for the IC. C9 & C12 provide power supply filtering.

An externally mounted logarithmic potentiometer of between 10k ohm and 50k ohm, is used depending on the desired input impedance. The impedance ought to be keep as high as feasible for a guitar amp, unless using a separate pre-amp. Make sure-that the heat sink is mounted to the module.

Guitar amplifiers are always an fascinating challenge. The tone controls, gain & overload characteristics are individual, & the ideal combination varies from guitarist to the next, & from guitar to the next. There is no amp that satisfies everyones requirements, & this offering is not expected to be an exception. The preamp is now at Revision-A, & although the whole schematic of the new version is not shown below, the essential characteristics are not changed - it still has the same tone control "stack" & other controls, but now has a second op amp to reduce output impedance & improve gain characteristics.

One major difference from any "store bought" amplifier is that in case you build it yourself, you can alter things to fit your own needs. The ability to experiment is the key to this circuit, which is although introduced in complete form, there is every expectation that builders will make modifications to suit themselves.

The amp is rated at 100W in to a four Ohms load, as this is typical of a "combo" type amp with 8 Ohm speakers in parallel. Alternatively, you can run the amp in to a "quad" box (four x 8 Ohm speakers in series parallel - see Figure five in Project 27b, the original editorial) and will get about 60 Watts. For the adventurous, two quad boxes and the amp head will provide 100W, but will be much louder than the twin. This is a common combination for guitarists, but it does make it hard for the sound man to bring everything else up to the same level.

A picture of the Revision-A preamp is shown below. Youll see that theres dual op amps, but the schematic only shows. This is the main part of the Rev-A update - the output section now has gain (which is basically selected), and a better buffered low output impedance. The remainder of the circuit is unchanged.

The preamp circuit is shown in Figure one, and has a few fascinating characteristics that separate it from the "normal" - assuming that there is such a thing. This is simple but elegant design, that provides excellent tonal range. The gain structure is designed to provide a immense amount of gain, which is ideal for those guitarists who like to get that fully distorted "fat" sound.

However, with a couple of simple changes, the preamp can be tamed to suit any style of playing. Likewise, the tone controls as shown have sufficient range to cover very anything from an electrified violin to a bass guitar - The response can be limited in the event you wish (by experimenting with the tone control capacitor values), but I recommend that you try it "as is" before making any changes.

From Figure one, you can see that the preamp makes use of a dual op amp as its only amplification. The lone transistor is an emitter follower, & maintains a low output impedance after the master volume control. As shown, with a typical guitar input, it is feasible to receive a fat overdrive sound by winding up the volume, & then setting the master for an appropriate level. The general frequency response is deliberately limited to prevent extreme low-end waffle, & to cut the extreme highs to help reduce noise & to limit the response to the normal requirements for guitar. In case you use the TL072 op amp as shown, you may find that noise is an issue - at high gain with lots of treble boost. I strongly recommend that you use an OPA2134 - a premium audio op amp from Los angels Instruments (Burr-Brown division), you will then find this possibly the quietest guitar amp you have ever heard (or not heard :-). At any gain setting, there is more pickup noise from my guitar than circuit noise - & for the prototype one used carbon resistors!

Notes:
one - IC pin outs are industry standard for dual op amps - pin four is -ve supply, and pin 8 is +ve supply.
two - Op amp supply pins must be bypassed to earth with 100nF caps (preferably ceramic) as close as feasible to the op amp itself.
three - Diodes are 1N4148, 1N914 or similar.
four - Pots ought to be linear for tone controls, & log for volume and master.

The power supply section (bottom left corner) connects directly to the main +/-35V power amp supply. Use one Watt zen-er diodes (D5 and D6), and make positive that the zen-er supply resistors (R18 and R19, 680 ohm one Watt) are kept away from other parts, as they will get warm in operation. Again, the preamp PCB accommodates the supply on the board.

The pin connections shown (either huge dots or "port" symbols) are the pins from the PCB. Normally, all pots would be PCB types, and mounted directly to the board. For a do-it-yourself project, that would limit the layout to that imposed by the board, so all connections use wiring. It may look a bit hard, but is simple and looks fine when the unit is done. Cable ties keep the wiring tidy, and only a single connection to the GND point ought to be used(several are provided, so select that suits your layout. VCC is +35V from the main supply, and VEE is the -35V supply.

In the event you dont require all the gain that is available, basically increase the worth of R6 (the first 4k7 resistor) - for even less noise and gain, increase R11 (the second 4k7) as well. For more gain, decrease R11 - I recommend a maximum of 2k2 here.

If the bright switch is bright ( much treble), increase the 1k resistor (R5) to tame it down again. Reduce the worth to get more bite. The tone control arrangement shown will give zero output if all controls are set to maximum - this is unlikely to be a common requirement in use, but be aware of it when testing.

The diode network at the output is designed to permit the preamp to generate a "soft" clipping characteristic when the volume is turned up. Because of the diode clipping, the power amp needs to have an input sensitivity of about 750mV for full output, otherwise it wont be feasible to get full power even with the Master gain control at the maximum setting.

Make positive that the input connectors are isolated from the chassis. The earth isolation parts in the power supply help to prevent hum ( when the amp is connected to other mains powered equipment).

If issues are encountered with this circuit, then you have made a wiring mistake .. period. A golden rule here is to check the wiring, then keep on checking it until you find the error, since I can assure you that if it does not work properly there is at least mistake, & probably more.

The input, effects & output connections are shown in Figure 1B.

If you are looking for a low drop voltage regulator that can provide a power supply of 1A with an output voltage of between 5V and 20V DC, National Semiconductor LM2941 Low Dropout Adjustable Regulator is that you can pick to make use of. Its a typical dropout voltage of 0.5V which means that the input supply need only must be 0.5V DC over the desired output voltage. Its other features include internal short circuit current limit and reverse battery protection.

As shown in the schematic below, the regulator has five pins which consists of the ON/OFF control, Input Voltage, Output Voltage, Ground & Adjustable pins. ON/OFF is used for the purpose of switching on & off of the regulator. The capacitors C1 & E1 are to be placed as close as feasible to the regulator.

The output of the circuit can be varied by varying the worth of potentiometer VR1 from 5V DC to 20V DC. The input voltage is limited from five.5V DC to 30V DC. Resistor R1 must be greater than 1K. The worth of the VR1 that needs to be set is calculated from the formula given below:

Many times the hobbyist desires to have a simple, dual power supply for a project. Existing power supplies may be large either in power output or physical size. a simple Dual Power Supply is necessary.For most non-critical applications the best & simplest choice for a voltage regulator is the 3-terminal type.The three terminals are input, ground & output.

The 78xx & 79xx series can provide up to 1A load current & it have on chip circuitry to prevent damage in the event of over heating or excessive current. That is, the chip basically shuts down than blowing out. These regulators are cheap, simple to make use of, & they make it practical to design a method with plenty of P C Bs in which an unregulated supply is brought in & regulation is done locally on each circuit board.

This Dual Power Supply project provides a dual power supply. With the appropriate choice of transformer & 3-terminal voltage regulator pairs you can basically build a tiny power supply delivering up to amp at +/- 5V, +/- 9V, +/- 12V, +/-15V or +/-18V. You require to provide the middle tapped transformer and the 3-terminal pair of regulators you require:7805 & 7905, 7809 & 7909, 7812 & 7912, 7815 & 7915or 7818 & 7918.

The user must pick the pair they needs for his particular application.

Note that the + & - regulators do not must be matched: you can for example, use a +5v & -9V pair. However,the positive regulator must be a 78xx regulator, & the negative a 79xx. They have built in plenty of safety in to this project so it ought to give plenty of years of continuous service.

Transformer
This Dual Power Supply design makes use of a full wave bridge rectifier coupled with a centre-tapped transformer. A transformer with a power output rated at at least 7VA ought to be used. The 7VA rating means that the maximum current which can be delivered without overheating will be around 390mA for the 9V+9V tap; 290mA for the 12V+12V and 230mA for the 15V+15V. If the transformer is rated by output RMS-current then the worth ought to be divided by one.2 to get the current which can be supplied. For example, in this case a 1A RMS can deliver 1/(one.2) or 830mA.

Rectifier

They use an epoxy-packaged four amp bridge rectifier with at least a peak reverse voltage of 200V. (Note the part numbers of bridge rectifiers are not standardised so the number are different from different manufacturers.) For safety the diode voltage rating ought to be at least to times that of the transformers secondary voltage. The current rating of the diodes ought to be two times the maximum load current that will be drawn.

Filter Capacitor
The purpose of the filter capacitor is to smooth out the ripple in the rectified AC voltage. Theres dual amount of ripple is determined by the worth of the filer capacitor: the larger the worth the smaller the ripple.The two,200uF is an appropriate value for all the voltages generated using this project. The other consideration in choosing the correct capacitor is its voltage rating. The working voltage of the capacitor has to be greater than the peak output voltage of the rectifier. For an 18V supply the peak output voltage is one.4 x 18V, or 25V. So they have selected a 35V rated capacitor.

Regulators

The unregulated input voltage must always be higher than the regulators output voltage by at least 3V in order for it to work. If the input/output voltage difference is greater than 3V then the excess potential must be dissipated as heat. Without a heat sink three terminal regulators can dissipate about two watts. A simple calculation of the voltage differential times the current drawn will give the watts to be dissipated. Over two watts a heat sink must be provided. If not then the regulator will automatically turn off if the internal temperature reaches 150oC. For safety it is always best to make use of a small heat sink even in case you do not think you will need.

C4 & C5 improve the regulators ability to react to sudden changes in load current & to prevent uncontrolled oscillations.

The mono block capacitor C2 & C6 across the output provides high frequency decoupling which keep the impedance low at high frequencies.

Two LEDs are provided to show when the output regulated power is online. You do not must make use of the LEDs in the event you do not require to. However, the LED on the negative side of the circuit does provide a maximum load to the 79xx regulator which they found necessary in the coursework of testing. The negative 3-pin regulators did not like a zero load situation. They have provided a 470R/0.5W resistors as the current limiting resistors for the LEDs.

These protect chiefly against any back emf which may come back in to the power supply when it supplies power to inductive lots. They also provide additional short circuit protection in the case that the positive output is connected by accident to the negative output. If this happened the usual current limiting shutdown in each regulator may not work as intended. The diodes will short circuit in this case & protect the two regulators.