Clock Beat Amplifier Software
Dec 17, 2014. Re: tallcase clock tick or beat counter or regulator as an Android app or cheap devic. I've been using the eTimer PC software that has been talked about previously on this forum, for watches. Can't remember now if there is an option for clocks but you can input a custom rate if you know what you are going.
BONUS: for the LM386 amplifier with bass boost circuit to see which components to use for good sound quality. LM386 BasicsThe LM386 is quite a versatile chip. Only a couple resistors and capacitors are needed to make a working audio amplifier.
The chip has options for gain control and bass boost, and it can also be turned into an oscillator capable of outputting sine waves or square waves.There are three varieties of the LM386, each with different output power ratings:. LM386N-1: 0.325 Watts. LM386N-3: 0.700 Watts. LM386N-4: 1.00 WattsThe actual output power you get will depend on your supply voltage and speaker impedance. The datasheet has graphs that will tell you. I used a 9V battery for the power supply and it works great, but you can go down to 4V or up to 12V.The pinout is shown in the diagram below:Download the datasheet for more information about the output power, distortion characteristics, and minimum/maximum ratings:The LM386 is a type of operational amplifier (Op-Amp). Operational amplifiers have a basic task.
They take an input potential (voltage) and produce an output potential that’s tens, hundreds, or thousands of times the magnitude of the input potential. In an amplifier circuit, the LM386 takes an audio input signal and increases its potential anywhere from 20 to 200 times.
That amplification is what’s known as the voltage gain. Gain vs VolumeAfter you build this amp and play with the volume and gain controls, you’ll notice that both appear to raise or lower the intensity of sound coming out of the speaker. So what’s the difference then? Gain is the amplification of the input potential and is a characteristic of the amplifier. Volume lets you adjust the sound level within the range of amplification set by the gain. Gain sets the range of possible volume levels. For example, if your gain is set to 20, the range of volume is 0 to 20.
If your gain is set to 200, the range of volume is 0 to 200.Gain control can be achieved by connecting a 10 μF capacitor between pins 1 and 8. Without a capacitor between pins 1 and 8, the gain will be set to 20.
With the 10 μF capacitor, the gain will be set to 200. The gain can be changed to any value between 20 and 200 by placing a resistor (or potentiometer) in series with the capacitor. A Minimal LM386 Audio AmplifierNow that we have a little background information on the LM386, let’s start by building a bare bones LM386 amplifier with the minimum amount of components needed to make it work. That way you can compare it to the better sounding one we’ll build later on.Here’s the schematic. Here’s how to wire it if you’re using a breadboard:In the wiring diagram above, the audio input ground flows through the same path as the audio output ground.
The output ground is “noisy” and will cause distortion in the input signal if it’s wired this way. The audio input ground is sensitive to any interference and any noise picked up will get amplified through the amplifier.Make it a goal to keep the input ground separate from other ground paths as much as possible. For example, you can connect the grounds for the power supply, input, and output directly to the ground pin (pin 4) of the LM386 like this:This will reduce the distance the input ground flows through the output ground. Connecting it like this should sound better than the first circuit, but you”ll probably still notice some noise, static and popping.
We’ll fix that in the next circuit by adding decoupling capacitors and a couple RC filters. A Great Sounding LM386 Audio AmplifierNow that you’ve seen the bare minimum of what it takes to make an audio amplifier with the LM386, lets build a higher fidelity version with an adjustable gain control.Note: Most of the component values in this circuit aren’t critical. If you don’t have a particular value, try substituting something close and it will probably work.Here’s the schematic:Several things in this circuit make it sound better:. A 470 pF capacitor between the positive input signal and ground, which filters radio interference picked up by the audio input wires. 100 μF and 0.1 μF capacitors between the positive and negative power rails to decouple the power supply.
The 100 μF capacitor will filter low frequency noise while the 0.1 μF capacitor will filter high frequency noise. A 0.1 μF capacitor between pins 4 and 6, for additional decoupling of the power supply to the chip. A 10K Ohm resistor and a 10 μF capacitor in series between pin 7 and ground to decouple the audio input signal.This diagram will show you how to connect everything if you’re using a breadboard:One thing to keep in mind when you’re wiring any audio amplifier is that the cleanest sound will result from keeping all wire connections and components as close to the chip as possible. Keeping the wires as short as possible will also help. The LM386 Audio Amplifier with Bass BoostA cool feature of the LM386 is the option to add an adjustable bass boost to the amplifier. You’ll probably find that this is the best sounding circuit. The bass boost is basically just a low pass filter, and it removes most of the noise not taken out by the decoupling capacitors.
All you need for the bass boost circuit is a 0.033 μF capacitor and a 10K Ohm potentiometer in series between pins 1 and 5:Here’s the wiring diagram:An easy way to connect the audio input in these circuits is by cutting the 3.5 mm audio jack from an old set of headphones and wiring it to breadboard pins. Check out this article, to see how to do this with some common types of headphones.Here’s the video version of this tutorial if you want to watch me build the amps and listen to them:Thanks for reading! Hope you had fun experimenting with these amps as much as I did. If you’re ready to build some even better sounding and more powerful amps, we have tutorials on a few others:.The LM3886 is by far the best sounding amplifier, but it’s a fairly involved project.
If you’re just starting to build audio amplifiers, I’d recommend working your way up to it by starting with the TDA2003, then moving up to the TDA2050.Be sure to subscribe to keep updated on our posts as soon as they are published. And feel free to leave a comment if you have any questions or need help with anything in this article. Actually, that is a film capacitor and film capacitors do have a polarity, even if they are “non polarized”.
The reason is that there is always an outer shield, with film caps. In other words, there are two foils that are rolled together and the foil that ends up on the outside should be connected to the negative, because that relatively large area of metal foil picks up interference, which results in noise in an amp. You need an oscilloscope to measure this. Go to YouTube and search for “are non polarized capacitors polarized” and you will see. Hi, I am building a project similar to this, however it will feature four of these units(four LM386’s with four speakers) in parallel.
The idea is that they share the same audio signal but have a different volume, controlled by a multiple channel digital potentiometer (AD5204/6) through an Arduino. Any suggestions on whether the audio signal can just be parallel(or would I need separate audio signals?) and the 4 LM386’s connected to the same power source? Thanks in advance for helping already getting far with building it. Hi, In one part of the circuit there are two decoupling caps connecting the positive rail to ground. One of those caps is a 0.1 μF. Then there is a 0.1 μF cap from pin 4 (which is also connected to ground) to pin 6 (which is also connected to positive rail).
I know very little about electronics, but to me it seems that the 0.1 μF cap connecting pins 4 and 6 is the same thing as connecting a cap between the positive and negative rails. Is it a mistake, or should there be a total of three caps connecting the positive rail to ground, of which two caps are 0.1 μF? Thanks for this article, i was looking for something like this!I converted my old car stereo to use bluetooth, by bridging the bluetooth module’s audio output into the chip directly, into the input pins (Philips TEA0675T, if it helps). However, i’m getting a considerable volume difference from the radio (the bluetooth device is much lower) and i’d like to create an amplifier as yours.Couple of questions: The potentiometers are not required, i suppose, if i am ok with having full volume all the time;Also, what sort of regulator do you think i’d need to run the system at 12v instead of 9v?Thanks in advance!. Dear sirResenltly i purchased the Arduino Duo board for INR 1200 but when i conected to my laptop asked me to download soft ware and i down loaded. It is asking me to write a programme.
Do i need to learn C programme.so how to learn c programme from basics. Do i spend money for that. I am at your mercy sir if any amount to bepaid i am ready to payI am your fan. By seeing articles only i merged the 1& 8 pins of LM386 which turned in to amazing sound.
Since then you happened to be my 1 st choice.sorry for disturbing you sir.S Prakash Rao5India. Very good video and tutorial.
I built a few things with this chip utilising the differential input. As a tester for a particular system. If a signal wasn’t getting to an amp, simply remover the xlr, plug it into this circuit and listen through headphones/iems.
Makes a fantastic headphone amplifier for our drummer as well. He says he only ever needs around 45% of its potential with good iems.I’ve made single supply versions of these but never dual supply. I imagine it would be the same as an opamp. But I wondered if you could bridge two chips to double (or near enough) the output? So the lm386n-4 could make a 2w amplifier. (our trombone player is so deaf and earthquake wouldn’t wake him up lol)Thanks again for a great tutorial.I’ll try not to ask the same questions over and over lol????. I built this according to the information above, and double-checked the schematics in the LM386 datasheet, but for some reason I do not get a change in volume when adjusting the volume potentiometer.
Here’s some troubleshooting I’ve tried.-I used a DMM to confirm my potentiometer is working correctly.-I have set the gain to both 20 and 200. In neither case do I hear a change in volume when adjusting the potentiometer.-I tried replacing the potentiometer with a 10 Ohm resistor, and then quickly swapped out a 10 kOhm resistor. This would allow me to hear what should be the lowest and highest volumes quickly, rather than gradually. There was no volume difference using the 10 Ohm versus 10 kOhm resistor.I’m taking a break and plan to come back and look closely through the datasheet of the LM386 and see if that sheds any light on this. Perhaps I’ll swing by RadioShack and grab another LM386.
Since I still hear music, I don’t suspect the LM386 is defective, but they’re cheap so it’s worth try.Anybody else having this problem, or have any suggestions?. Google classified a amplifier and use one of the tip 121 as transistor. Just be aware of your heat dissipation and that they’re quite inefficient. You’ll need ac coupling (dc blocking) caps on input and output as well. Maybe 10uf on input and 220uf on output. Class a amps have more potential in terms of audio quality but Are harder to design due to having to properly bias the transistor. (this is taken care of in amplifier ics).
Class a amps are no good for a battery powered solution because of all the water energy. IMHO, use the chip. Decoupling means disconnecting two electronic circuit stages (against cc) from each other.C47 aren’t for decoupling. They are there to short spikes and RF to ground.
The LM386 cannot amplify more than the input voltage, if you have a 1V input signal the output will max out at 5V. So the input signal will get oversteered fairly quick.
The default gain is 20. I use a 12V supply and a pot meter to attenuate the input signal to something below 0.6V. Of course if you find that 5V is ‘loud’ enough you can use it.From what I’ve read the LM386 is not a very efficient amp as it is a class A amp and it produces a DC component. A class D would be better (but much more complex).If your buck converter is efficient enough you can make the battery last longer. Thank you for this circuit. I built a stereo amp a while ago and fixed me some nice pc speakers. Although I tested the circuit with my oscilloscope there’s two things I don’t fully grasp:1.
Why do we need 100uF and 0.1uF at the power source. Isn’t the 0.1uF not enought to filter out higher frequencies?
Or is the 100uF acting as a buffer for the bass?2. I understood from your other tutorials that C2 and R1 act as low pass filter. When I google for RC low pass filter the load is connected between the resistor and capacitor. Here C2 and R1 are in series. I have tested it and I see indeed that it works as a low pass filter. Could you tell me more about the theory here?Thanks btw for this great article and all the others!.
Hi Everybody,I have tried and tried and tried to build this amp in every different way. I have spent probably more than 24 hours working on this. I even built the schematic for the “Great sounding LM386 audio amplifier” EXACTLY. I have been trying to play Back in Black by ACDC to test it. Finally, with this design, I can just barely make out the big notes, as louder crackles than the constant crackles that it produces. When I pause, it is absolutely silent, so I fixed that.
I know the design is not the issue, since I’m using the one above. I double checked, and triple checked, and checked enough times that I didn’t even sleep last night. Obviously there is something stupid and non design related that I’m missing, but I can’t find answers anywhere on the internet. It sounds like no one else is having this problem.
I am at my wit’s end trying to figure this out, and as an electrical engineering student, I’m really starting to beat myself up over it. Please, if anyone knows what might be going on, I will give you my firstborn child in exchange for the answer. This can be frustrating, I know. There are many possibilities.
You might have a faulty component. Just build another circuit without reusing any single component from your current build. See if it works. I once had a problem and it boiled down to a connection with the alligator clip.
I bought a new set of jumper wires and one of the jumper wires had a broken connection between the alligator clip and the wire. So, use everything new and start from scratch.
The circuit works, although that one cap is useless, as has been pointed out by many previous people. First of all thank you for this great tutorial. Nice and easy to follow. Inspired by this project, I have built a stereo amplifier using two LM386. Basically speaking, I have doubled the schematic, sharing same 12V power supply, and using stereo pots.Assembly was ok. Amp is working ok, but I noticed one channel volume is a bit lower compared to the other. Tried swapping speakers, but same issue occurs.
I think problem is in one or more components. What should I do to debug? Which component could be faulty?
I can upload schematic if you need.Thank you in advance.
Many people have difficulties following and understanding conversations in situations like in a restaurant, in meetings, or just have a hard time understanding conversations in noisy daily life.The ExSilent HearYouNow app will help you understand conversations better.ExSilent is a Dutch manufacturer of hearing aids, operating worldwide. The company’s goal is to lower the barrier for people who could use a hearing aid because of hearing loss, but who are not ready for one yet.The HearYouNow app is a free amplification tool that uses state of the art ExSilent technology. It is your personal sound amplifier. Adjust it to your personal needs! You will understand conversations better in situations such as:.in a restaurant.during a meeting.at a (birthday) party.watching television.wherever and whenever you like to hear the sounds around you more clearlyIn order for it to work properly, you will have to connect a headphone to the iPhone.With this app it is possible to customize the sound performance depending on your specific needs. Don in FL, Replay closes appAfter installing this app on my iPhone 5 and spending some time testing its functionality, I discovered that tapping the Replay button consistently closed (crashed) this app.I also was disappointed that the app's amplification is insufficient. I tested by setting the volume very low on my TV about 10 feet away so that I could just barely hear and understand the dialog.
Clock Beat Amplifier Software Downloads
In Far mode at maximum volume and mid-range at its highest setting, the app amplified the sound just slightly louder than the TV. In Near mode there was no discernible difference.Based on these issues, I can give this app only 3 stars. Blergous, Works as advertisedApp works as presented.
With earbuds plugged in and in near mode, sound inside of the room are plainly heard Nd amplified. Near mode seems to cut out a lot of background noise. I was astonished to discover that there is SOME functionality with Bluetooth wireless headphones (LG Tone).
Performance was no where near as solid as with wired earbuds, but it was working. Other apps of this type have not worked with wireless headphones. Quite impressed! Would be five stars if wireless headphones performed better.There is nothing in the description or in the app that suggests that it will work with wireless headphones, as a matter of fact, the app doesn't recognize that headphones are even present, but as mentioned above, basic function was there. Spock99, A Little MiracleMy mother-in-law is hospitalized. Her expensive hearing aids are adjusted too far down for her to hear conversations. She is unable to go back to the audiologist until her health improves.
As an interim solution this app has been outstanding. It allows her to be truly back in the conversation.I haven't tried it but believe this would also be an excellent app for those whose hearing doesn't quite work in restaurants with the background noise.
Wearing earbuds may look a little quirky but it would be well with it to be back hearing your dinner mates.I love the concept of the app.