Tagged: PAM8403 IC

Adding MORE POWER to puny speakers

A recurring theme in Tim Allen’s show-in-a-show Tool Time (Home Improvement) was MORE POWER. Tim Allen used to take regular devices and boost them up with more high-rated components. My last two DIY projects are like that.

A website was selling a portable USB speaker at a discounted price of Rs. 53. (The delivered piece does not look like the photo on the website.) I was not successful in applying the discount but a co-worker managed to do so. However, he was disappointed to find that that it used a puny speaker with almost no power in its output. I replaced the original speaker with a regular better-rated one. The circuit board uses a PAM 8002 speaker amplifier IC. It is originally meant for cell phone speakers but it is able to drive this speaker as well, but not as great as the PAM 8403.

Original plastic speaker and the bigger paper speaker.

I hot-glued the speaker at the top. Now, the middle part needs to be covered up.

A low-cost DIY desktop USB speaker

This plastic bottle came as a “free” item with a Horlicks pack. I put a speaker on top of it and harnessed it with a three-piece rubberband restraint. Inside the bottle, I have a PAM 8403 IC board, which I had described before. The board make the job of creating an amplified speaker a simple matter of making connections to a DC jack, speakers, and stereo input jack. Just three sets of connections. Total cost would be less than Rs. 150. Performance is almost as good as the JBL Micro bluetooth speaker. Now, I feel like an idiot for having spent over Rs. 3000 on the latter.

Desktop USB speaker made from a plastic bottle.

The PAM 8403 IC board is a stereo speaker. It has two outputs. I have different lightweight speaker hanging in mid-air inside the bottle. I also have a blinking LED to tell me if it is powered on. I have also made a DC stereo cable today. In the photo, I am using a stereo cable I got with a Pinnacle TV tuner eons ago.

Oh, yes, I use that phone. It is a ladies Alcatel phone. It is a beautiful phone and the envy of everyone who sees it.