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Trike Proto 1

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bitSmasher View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote bitSmasher Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Topic: Trike Proto 1
    Posted: 11 June 2014 at 1:47pm
Sound System on a trike... first prototype. Just in time for our winter!

Have planned this project for months, spent too much time trawling ebay for the perfect trike and scored this Schwinn from only down the road.
It has 26" wheels, 3 speed internal hub gears, and decent brakes - much better features than most trikes on offer.
The rear sub-frame has screw holes for a basket and mudguards, these also worked great as mounting options for this and future system mods.


Side


Front


Rear


These were Klipsch KI-102, refurbished with a few mods - port was sealed and internals stuffed for tighter low/mid response at the sacrifice of bass output


Back of the amp box, from the top down - 50A anderson connector for charging (and to tap in to the battery if necessary). Power switch with LED indicator. 2x Speakon output. Along the top are "star head" bolts for no-tool access to internals



Top of box is hinged for access. Also important is a bike light!
Nevermind the mud marks, from an offroad incident on its first night out



Access panel hinged down. The box is strong enough to support the speakers like this. Speakers themselves have threaded inserts for it all to bolt together securely



Inside... not much going on- 30AH battery, a class D car amp, and basic wiring to suit. Plenty of room for expansion.
Amp is a Pioneer GM-D9500F, 4 channel, which can do about 200w in stereo (2 channels bridged per side). Double the grunt of what the speakers can cope with - and will happily run a sub when that gets added on.



Other side of the box, wiring for the signal cable (ignore the speaker cables hanging freely)
The signal cable is taped to the frame and runs up to the front



What is meant to be a drink holder also perfectly fits a phone/iThing, the foam insulation gives a snug hold. There's even space underneath this holder for excess cable to bundle in, couldn't have designed anything better myself.


First run was for a street procession, sounded harsh but definitely made a huge amount of noise. I measured the amp and it was doing ~200w proper when using an iphone turned all the way up so I wound the gain all the way down and it sounds a fair bit better. Lack of bass can be noticable depending on the track, a sub is definitely to come soon. Also want to wait until there's decent weather and will measure it with test tones and a mic - I have a feeling that the height of the woofer is causing cancellations, hmm...

Anyway, much more to come in the next 3 months to have it ready for spring/summer parties.
First big task will be replacing most of the cheapo stock parts with much stronger MTB bits. Luckily it has 26" wheels, 1 1/8" headset and 68mm bottom bracket, can put on an old Marzocchi fork, run a disc brake up front and use BMX cranks and chain for more strength. Have a set of big whitewall tyres to go on too Wink
Next up will be a chunky platform on the rear, for different speaker options to mount on the back.
Want to run RGB LED tape on the underside of frame (music-controlled of course), and also a lot of white/red illumination for front/rear respectively. It's a big slow beast when loaded up so need to make sure I can be seen on the night rides home.
And finally, more speakers to come! Definitely need bass... have a few ideas, will explore them once the platform is made up.
For now, a bit of fun that took a couple of days to put together - a promising first run, can't wait to see what the end result will be Big smile
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slaz View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote slaz Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 11 June 2014 at 5:14pm
All looks pretty chunky/substantial :-)

How about a 1 x 15" (or even 18") bass box trolley style .... built with axle throught the middle of the box to keep COG low. Might need a bigger battery though .....
Would be fine to travel with I'd have thought - unless you need to reverse the trike at all LOL


REMEMBER....POLITICIANS AND DIAPERS SHOULD BE CHANGED OFTEN AND FOR THE SAME REASON
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote SamV Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 11 June 2014 at 8:42pm
Looks good :)
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote bitSmasher Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 12 June 2014 at 1:21am
Cheers! yeah built solid, strong enough to take a fall but thankfully the ride is stable enough that shouldn't happen.
Will look at rebuilding the box to suit a 12" car sub I have laying around. I think the 30AH battery and 4ch amp would be a good match, that would be the ideal small-scale system with these 8" tops. Though if I come accross a 15" or 18" woofer for the right price (free!) I'll jump on that

Since I plan on building a few Cubo12s (for another 12v project), and about to start on a big pair of 15"+horn tops too (suicide rig), I'm going to keep the options open to swapping between different speakers depending on usage. Not too keen on a trailer, so anything I come up with will have to strap/bolt to the rear platform... oh well, plenty of time to ponder that
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote bitSmasher Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 21 July 2014 at 2:31am
This has had 3 outings now... the first ride I was running late for a party, and less than 1km from home I had a fairly major mechanical issue.

Oops.
Had to be picked up in a van, fixed it at the party then used the trike to lead a bicycle procession from one venue to the next - good fun

Second time out was another bicycle procession, then park it in a park for the afternoon to play music until the sun sets...
Unfortuantely 1km from home again, I had the handlebar work loose - and since the trike needs wrestling to handle it, that was less than ideal. Fixed it on the go, and made it back home again after we did this:


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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote bitSmasher Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 21 July 2014 at 2:43am
Then the weekend just past I gave it more of a workout, linking it with my mate's dutch trike
His is decked with a 15" sub and 10+horn top, powered via a Hypex ClassD plate amp running through a 600w inverter from a massive SLA. His rig on the right, and me on the left being cold on a winter's afternoon



He has a small mixer on it so I could use the secondary output to drive my amp, it went well with the hotter signal than what a phone can deliver.
It's definitely the loudest I've run my small setup, usually the high and mids overtake everything and it sounds harsh/unbalanced... but with a hot but still clean signal, and the bass from his sub reinforcing things, they sounded great together. Had just under 6 hours of reggae played loud before I noticed the LED lights pulsing with the beat, a sure sign the battery has done its job for the day...

This is the setup, 45s being played off turntable powered by inverter, and my LED rope light illuminating it all


A cold night in the park justified building a fire, thankfully we were hidden behind a big hill and down in the trees so didn't draw any unwanted attention - I'm sure park rangers wouldn't be happy to see this:



Rolled home and measured the battery at 11v, bit more discharge than I'd like but still happy with the days performance.

Now planning to revise it all, definitely need a sub and a bigger battery!

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote SuitcaseSound Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 21 July 2014 at 2:10pm
Nice! ; )
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote studio45 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 21 July 2014 at 3:59pm
That thing is tip-top work mate, good on you! Plenty of room for a sub on there I reckon. Spruce plywood is a good way to keep weight down without sacrificing too much strength. I especially like your trap angles keeping the dispersion right for the two boxes. No comb filtering on this rig eh Wink
Don't keep running your battery down to 11v though, or it'll die.....

Originally posted by bitSmasher bitSmasher wrote:

being cold on a winter's afternoon


Aren't you in Australia? Gwarn with your "being cold" LOL
Studio45 - Repairs & Building Commotion Soundsystem -Mobile PA
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote bitSmasher Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 21 July 2014 at 11:42pm
Cheers Cool

Ahh those tops and arraying, not the greatest. It's a tractrix horn and there are some issues when splayed like that, but I'm commiting many sound system sins right now so don't pay that much attention to combing!

Putting a voltmeter on the battery... definitely a priority. The battery has been flogged a few times now, but thankfully I was donated a pair of brand new 65AH SLAs last week so I'll retire this 30Ah soon. Any new battery and system will have a led voltmeter as well as a low battery warning light.

And yeah, cold... for us - 13 degrees and 40km/h winds, not the usual shorts & shirt weather I like. The wind made for a not-so-fun ride home, those speakers act like sails! 3 days later and my body is still aching from the weekend, really need to get fit - best way to do so could just be making this heavier and riding it more Thumbs Up

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote bitSmasher Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 01 September 2014 at 8:15am
Rolled out to the anti-government protest on the Sunday just passed, not only to show my disapproval but to promote our own Reclaim The Streets event for next week

trike in the march, playing 90s rave - had a bunch of people dancing along behind


how good do I look in a hi-vis tutu Dead


and at the end we did a 3-way link with these two rigs

the sub is a MTH4564 with a Mach top, amp is an Alpine PDX and out of shot are 3 bike generators powering it all

The trolley is an old HMV stereo with a JBL AP25 underneath it. Been done up with DJ mixer and pro drivers that were laying around. Painted to suit, best looking rolling rig around IMO
Cranks out the noise, but he's running AB amps so chews through battery

This was a practise run for next Saturday's event:
Reclaim The Streets Sydney - 6th September
which should be good fun!
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote bitSmasher Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 01 September 2014 at 8:20am
Also, I have a distinct lack of bass... as previously mentioned...
The mids and highs of the Klipsch are very nice when run within reason, but it really sounds best paired with subs
Since I'm not going to get anything built before Saturday, it might be worthwhile trying one of these I have hiding somewhere
Waves Maxxbass 103 - car audio processor



Anyone had experience with these? Will put it in line with the amp and see (hear) if it's of any use
If nothing else, the gain controls are a good thing to have!
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote SamV Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 01 September 2014 at 5:31pm
Whats the issue with the current lack of bass?
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