Wave Shield just not loud enough... HELP?

Adafruit Ethernet, Motor, Proto, Wave, Datalogger, GPS Shields - etc!

Moderators: adafruit_support_bill, adafruit

Please be positive and constructive with your questions and comments.
Locked
User avatar
murdza
 
Posts: 13
Joined: Tue Nov 30, 2010 12:27 pm

Wave Shield just not loud enough... HELP?

Post by murdza »

Hello

I'd like to make the Wave Shield louder.. I have it inside of a metal enclosure ( http://youtu.be/B2Ow5ZFAYuQ?hd=1 ), with a perforated speaker grill.

I am using a 50mm speaker/.5W/8 ohm and the project is powered by 9v battery. The MAX dia speaker size this enclosure will support is 49mm.

Does anyone have any recommendations on ways to make this a lot louder? Would a speaker with lower impedance increase the volume?

thx for your help!!

m2

adafruit
 
Posts: 12151
Joined: Thu Apr 06, 2006 4:21 pm

Re: Wave Shield just not loud enough... HELP?

Post by adafruit »

no, 8 is the minimum. if you want it louder, you'll need a separate amp which will need a much better battery than a 9V

User avatar
murdza
 
Posts: 13
Joined: Tue Nov 30, 2010 12:27 pm

Re: Wave Shield just not loud enough... HELP?

Post by murdza »

are there any different/more powerful amps that I could solder onto the board? I just need it a little louder - that's all, but it has to fit within the enclosure...

thx for the help!

User avatar
adafruit_support_bill
 
Posts: 88093
Joined: Sat Feb 07, 2009 10:11 am

Re: Wave Shield just not loud enough... HELP?

Post by adafruit_support_bill »

You might check out the Velleman kits. One of their smaller amplifier kits might fit.

User avatar
murdza
 
Posts: 13
Joined: Tue Nov 30, 2010 12:27 pm

Re: Wave Shield just not loud enough... HELP?

Post by murdza »

THX -

the VELLEMAN K8066 3W MONO AMPLIFIER looks like it just might fit..

@3W, that should be more than loud enough vs. the .1W std.

thx again!
m2

User avatar
botbilder
 
Posts: 18
Joined: Thu Dec 09, 2010 2:07 am

Re: Wave Shield just not loud enough... HELP?

Post by botbilder »

I built a little 1W amp from a kit on an external 9V-powered board, and it is now loud enough for room listening with a 3-inch 1.5W 8-ohm speaker:

http://www.circuitspecialists.com/prod.itml/icOid/4069

Unfortunately, the output of the Wave shield (from the speaker leads) overdrives the external amp at all but the lowest settings of the shield's volume wheel. It's very finicky and tends to sound either muted or distorted.

Is there someplace on the shield to "tap" a low-voltage audio signal before it gets boosted by the op-amp?

I'm already doing something similar to the pumpkin project, where I'm sampling the output signal at R7 in order to drive an analog "VU meter" with PWM:

http://www.ladyada.net/images/pumpkin/analogwire.jpg

User avatar
botbilder
 
Posts: 18
Joined: Thu Dec 09, 2010 2:07 am

Re: Wave Shield just not loud enough... HELP?

Post by botbilder »

I eventually got decent results by maxing the Wave shield output (volume wheel up all the way) and putting a 120K resistor in series with the 10K attenuator pot on the amplifier kit. Now the loudest wave files will just barely overdrive the amp with its attenuator pot all the way up.

Locked
Please be positive and constructive with your questions and comments.

Return to “Arduino Shields from Adafruit”