Boominator build (UK)...

Right now the obvious choice for amp is miniDSPand 2 maxamp20.

That being said, I'm currently in the last steps of finally making a passive filter that will fit both a HP10W and a S2010 crossed to a PHT407N by only moving a single resistor from one position to another. If made on a PCB it would just mean moving a single jumper. Specifically it's a resistor being moved from being either parallel to the series resistor or the parallel resistor on an L-pad so a non-critical component.

You should also note that PCBs are finally being made for the shiznit amp, now renamed to cAMP for trademark reasons. I could write a whole novel about the features that will have but I'll list some of the main features here:

- available late June/early July 2014 (Is our best estimate right now). Priced around $200 retail.

- up to 2x50W into 4 ohm at 0.2% THD

Here I have to note why it says "up to", it's because it runs directly on a 12V battery but if input signal is turned up beyond a certain point an internal dc-dc converter kicks in and raises the voltage as needed up to 24V. The dc-dc converter is one of the most efficient ones ever made in this voltage range and the efficiency in this set up is even better than what the chip manufacturer states is possible, average efficiency when on is around 97% (for the dc-dc converter). 

- Idle consumption: 470µA or 0.006W

Here I also have to note that the amp have a higher idle consumption as long as there is input signal. It turns itself on and off. The signal time out is 60 seconds (at the moment can be made shorter). Start up time from sleep is 20ms.

- 2A solar multi-chemistry battery charger with MPPT. Optimized specifically for CGIS/thin film panels and LiFePO4 batteries but can be used with any solar panel or DC voltage source and other battery types at slightly reduced efficiency.



Edited by Saturnus - 08 May 2014 at 10:46pm

Saturnus,

Thanks for the information, the new amp / controller sounds great and may be an option depending on how quick I get the speakers and timber put together. If you need a test bed let me know and happy to Beta test it for you?

I also like the idea of the minidsp set up as suggested by BitSmasher, I have a few other projects which this could be useful on so will get one to play with anyway.

Thanks,

Dupe...

Thats pretty close, I better get some wood bought.

Dupe....

Updated first post and added links to suppliers etc.


Dupe...

The normal advice is that one maxamp (or amp6) match with one 10W thin film panel and one 7.2Ah battery.

Given that you have 2 maxamp's I'd reckon a 15W thin film panel and a 9-10Ah lifepo4 or 2x 7.2Ah SLA would match and actually make the battery life about 2-3 months in the summer if care is taken that it's placed in the Sun every day.

That's because a 2-way maxamp where each only have one channel doing bass and the other treble uses far less power than if both channels did full-range. A guesstimate would be that each amp would consume 0.25A at absolute max volume and half that turned down just a notch or two.

Edited by Saturnus - 12 May 2014 at 2:31pm

And even if there doesn't appear to be sun, you'll still get some output from the panels.