2 Watt Transistor Guitar Amplifier Stripboard Veroboard Layout

When I was young (about 9 or 10) - this is one of the first "big" projects I successfully completed and still actually use to this day so I thought I would build a new one for everyone to enjoy.

Ruby Amplifier Stripboard Layout

I got the schematic of this from http://www.runoffgroove.com/ruby.html - I just wanted to make a really quick test amplifier and the Ruby amp is good for this. it's quite loud relative to its size.

if you want some power amplifiers with more power than this one check out the "Power Amplifier" stripboard layouts on my site. http://www.paulinthelab.com/search/label/Power%20Amplifiers

My bands albums;
Double Negative - The Day The Dark Won
Double Negative - When We're Gone
Digital Versions

LM1036 Hifi Preamp And Tone Control Stripboard

I've done a few stripboard layouts for hifi low wattage power amps on this site including the most recent 2 watt one;
http://www.paulinthelab.com/2014/04/tpa6021a4-2-watt-stereo-amplifier.html

or this 110mW one;
http://www.paulinthelab.com/2013/12/mp3-headphone-amplifier-tda2822m.html

Or even this 6 Watt beast from 2012;
http://www.paulinthelab.com/2012/08/6-watt-desktop-headphone-amplifier.html

So I thought it was about time a did a sort of stereo HiFi front end for these power amps and I remembered that I had some LM1036 ICs which are a really cool all-in-one basic EQ/Balance/preamp and Volume control

All the pots are 47K Linear
The voltage range is between 9 - 16volts
the official Datasheet can be found HERE

TPA6021A4N 2 Watt Stereo Amplifier Stripboard Veroboard Layout

This is one of the best amplifier ICs I've used -
there is no noise (well barely any)
it has a built in digital volume control so you can just use a single gang pot to control the volume (or a microcontroller if you want)
it has an on/off switch that fades the audio in and out so you don't damage your speakers/headphones with pops and it is also very low voltage 3volts - 6volts
the only downside is the max rating is 6 volts so you can't just whack a 9v battery in it -
but 2 - 3 AAs and you're laughing.

I built this to use with my iPod but I strongly advise that you don't turn it on with your headphones on because this goes VERY loud. easily loud enough to damage your hearing instantly!

NB: there is now a hifi preamp with bass/treble/balance controls that works well with this project LM1036-hifi-preamp-and-tone-control

MP3 / iPod Headphone Amplifier TDA2822M Stripboard Veroboard Layout

The TDA2822M IC is a stereo power amplifier that I often come across in old walkmans/radios so I thought I would make a stripboard project for you people. Because I'm sure if you're an avid junk collector like me you will probably have one of these however if you don't; no worries you can buy them really cheaply from the grey market (or probably on digikey or something) below is a link to a grey market china shop I use often and so have had no trouble with. you could buy 50 of them for £3.56 ! so if you have 50 friends who have iPods that can't power headphones properly because they have piss weak amplifiers in them - since that idiot sued them - you can make 50 headphone amplifiers and sell them to your mates or whatever. Grey Market ICS

Anyway using this kind of IC is much better than using that well known CMOY amp design that is essentially more of a line buffer (which is useful in itself) but doesn't give you any extra power - where as this does!

The other cool thing about this IC is that you can run it from as low as 1.8 volts.

I know I will get questions asking me about its performance using different headphones so I am going to preemptively post the typical output power from the datasheet.

if you're new to reading datasheets this may look abit like gibberish but I'll give you a quick description of what you're looking at.
this is the part of the datasheet that deals with "Po" or power output and this is measured in watts (or in this case miliwatts
and they get these results from using a 1 KHz sinewave which is a typical test condition for testing a lot of electronic components (as listed under the Parameter section)
They then list the "Test Conditions" which in this case uses Rᴸ (Resistive Load - which in this case is a pair of headphones)
the other number "Vs" - is "Voltage Supply" (which I'm sure you know is whatever voltage you're powering it with)

Then we get to the Min./Max section - this is basically the Power Output of the IC (in miliwatts) using some basic test conditions.

So.. using this table I can get an idea of the Power Output with the headphones I own.
for example I have a pair of headphones on the desk here (for abuse)
using my meter on the resistance range I know that their impedance is about 4Ω and I am powering the stripboard (below) using 2 AA batteries which should be 3 volts.
using the table above I know that the Power Output will be about 110mW - which is very dam loud when we're talking headphones. (there will obviously be some discrepancy because music isn't just a 1KHz sinewave but it's good enough to gauge how much Power we're going to get out of this thing.

Hopefully that is clear enough to understand (I know I'm not the best at grammar etc. - my brain is often all over the place)
but I urge you to take a look through the whole datasheet because it's very interesting (most datasheets are) HERE

Anyway - when you turn this on don't have your headphones on/in your ears in case you've made a mistake or your MP3 player is playing too loud. Use this amplifier at your own risk

Mini Push Pull Amplifier Stripboard Veroboard Layout

This is a bit of an experimentalist amplifier - the transistors on the BoM won't give you that much amplification however if you put some power transistors in there like BDT63/BDT62 you will get a lot more amplification.

I made this for my iPods headphones and essentially what I did is make one board for each channel so I can stack them on top of each other and it is quite a compact nice little amp.

Sparky 5 Watt Amplifier Stripboard Veroboard Layout

I thought it was about time to tackle something that's been on my todo list for a while and that is to make a follow up to the infamous Ruby amp (made by Runoffgroove.com) which is a popular circuit among the DIY community.

So I thought the best idea was to use an amplifier IC in the same family as the Ruby's amp IC which after an extensive 5 minute search on Texas Instruments website lead me to the LM384 (DATASHEET) which is a 5 watt mono audio amplifier.
it needs a minimum of 12 volts to run though I would run it at 15 volts

All the way up it goes into crazy distortion but before that it is a really nice sounding amp, you get a nice clean and then the louder it goes the more it clips - but nicely - I must do some sound clips!

it powers a 1 x 12" cab very nicely - I've not tried it with a 2 x 12" cab yet but I think it will be fine.

so I introduce to you the SPARKY Amplifier - why did I call it the "SPARKY"? fuck knows, I think it was cause I was watching that cartoon where the piano comes to life.

6 watt desktop amplifier stripboard veroboard layout

I wanted a nice powerful stereo amplifier for studio use, I'm pretty sure this will drive a few pairs of headphones/speakers though I've only tried it with one pair.
this would also be well suited for a nice set of powered monitors for a laptop or any other application.
anyway, I found the TPA1517 from Texas Instruments and it works great.

the powersupply needs to be very clean maybe even external to the unit itself. you'll notice there is a resistor across the terminals of the big capacitor (4700uf) this is a bleed resistor and its purpose is to discharge the capacitor once it is powered off, with the value stated it takes about 3- 4 minutes to discharge the 4700u 40v capacitor. it's not a necessity but it's advised to avoid electric shocks - even the 40 volt cap I used packs a nasty punch.

when you turn it on don't have your headphones over your ears - this is very very loud so the input signal needs to be raised very gradually

Brian May Deacy Amplifier Stripboard Veroboard Layout

Although I am mostly into 90's SkatePunk I am a massive fan of Queen and Brian May, when I was young I obsessed over having the guitar, the homemade deacy amp and the rangemaster - I have the guitar and the rangemaster however until now I didn't have the amp.
So for this weeks project I have laid out the Greg Fryer designed version of the Deacy amplifier.

I got the 2 transformers from eBay - apparently people get "better" sounds from hammond transformers and you are of course free to try what you want but for mine I used the LT44 and the LT700.
according to various sources the speaker used is a 6" one with 4 Ohms impedance. the impedance is pretty critical to the sound of it, I didn't think it would be so vastly off but when I plugged it into an arbitrary 16 ohm speaker I thought it wasn't working correctly however I decided to change the speaker anyway and it sounds like it should.

it's also worth mentioning that this is a rare occasion where I laid out the stripboard and I made no mistakes, usually what I do is lay out a board then check a day later - usually find a few errors, then check another day later and so far this method has seen me with 100% success rate with stripboards

anyway the circuit is a pretty simple push pull amplifier that was used a lot in little radios during the 60's onwards  in fact it is very similar to a mullard 1 watt amplifier from that era.

Brian May says in various articles that he used a wah pedal to shape the sound along with his treble booster and microphone positions and if you move this thing in different directions you can hear how he got some of the sounds.
anyway on to the layout.

it's also worth mentioning about the whole positive ground thing, back in the olden days they used to have positive grounding rather than the more normal (now) negative ground. it's okay though even though it says -9v on the stripboard all you have to do is connect the negative to the -9v and the positive to the ground and it will work - this amplifier was originally battery powered so using pedals wasn't an issue however should you wish to use a power supply then you need to use a separate one to any pedals you have plugged into it or it won't work

inside the cabinet

Headphone Amplifier Stripboard Veroboard

I haven't experimented too much with this, I just needed something as small as possible based around a Class AB headphone amplifier IC I found in an old TV that would pretty much compensate for the crappy volume limit that Apple have implemented on their iPods (as mentioned in the Apple Rant blog earlier)
and I'm sorry Chu Moy - your op-amp based buffer type headphone amp just doesn't cut the mustard for me.
the datasheet for this IC claims a THD of 0.001% so if that's your thing - power to you.
and a S/N ratio of 110dB
however the thing that interested me the most is that it's pretty low on current usage which maxes at about 7mA under load and around 3-5mA quiescent. I desoldered a 3v lithium battery holder from an old PC motherboard and used a lithium battery as the power source. but I'm sure 2 AA's or AAA's will work fine.
originally I was going to power it via a 9v/5v regulator method but I thought it would be a pain in the arse when carrying it around in my pocket. 
I may do some scope captures at some point but until then - this thing works great.
 
Since everyone feels the need to disclaim liabilities I shall do the same. If you build this and listen to music too loud and you damage your hearing, it's your own fault. 

Testing to see if it works - it does!

Experimental Class D Amplifier Stripboard Veroboard

the reason this is qualified as "experimental" is because it does work but I haven't found a use for it yet. I designed this primarily to see how well the 555 timer IC would reliably create the PWM at high enough frequencies for audio. I haven't done much testing other than a quick check with a signal generator/speaker to see if it worked and of course a few passes with an oscilloscope to make sure things were doing what they were meant to be doing. I used a LF351 op-amp pretty much because it was the nearest wideband op-amp to me. I often try to explain that the reason I choose certain ICs is not because they have some magical "warm" sound or any of the other shit audiophiles make up but because I have looked at the datasheet and determined it's the best part for the job based on the explained data within the data sheet, either that or I'm lazy and I know a specific one within arms reach will work.

this kind of amplifier requires an inductor, a value I didn't have to hand so I used some salvaged enameled copper wire from the secondary of a burned out mains transformer (24AWG if you need a wire size)
to make the inductor I wrapped 70 turns around a bolt from my massive box of all the screws I've collected over the years salvaging stuff, the bolt is about 5mm in diameter.and that will get you in the ballpark of 470uH I think mine ended up being 500uH ish.

anyway I will draw up the schematic maybe tomorrow but for now here is the veroboard layout

TDA2030 Based Amplifier Stripboard Veroboard

I needed a little boxed amplifier to power a 4 x 12" cab for studio use so I came up with this little thing, it works well. because I wanted to have a battery powered ability to it I used the OPA134 opamp because it draws stupidally low quiescent current, in fact it draws barely any current when you're hitting it with signal either. I'm not one of those dickheads who thinks that putting a Burr Brown op-amp in a tube screamer in place of the 4558 that comes in it will sound better - it's an overdrive pedal if there is any difference it will be gain not "clarity" "warmth" and any of that other Audiowank people talk about.
Anyway this thing is pretty cool - IT NEEDS A HEAT SINK!
The reason I chose this specific IC (TDA2030) is because it was in just about every broken thing with an amplifier built into it in my junk shed - there were 3 in 1 TV - 6 in another, 6 in just one of the old cheap shit surround sound system things so it made sense to just use a salvage part since I have loads of them.
I'm not sure if it is pin compatible with higher wattage types like the TDA2050 etc. but maybe I'll look into that at a later date.
I'll include my hand drawn schematic and update it when I can be bothered to draw it in EAGLE anyway here you go

My bands albums;
Double Negative - The Day The Dark Won
Double Negative - When We're Gone
Digital Versions

Sound Sample

Full Schematic

This is the layout including the power supply stage

my brutal transformer shielding, it buzzed a bit with a high gain distortion before it but the shielding sorted it out completely

70dB gain LM386 Amplifier Stripboard Veroboard

it always bores me when I see people use this IC, only because everyone does but I played around and got abit more gain out of it - so here you go.