Mini Guitar Amplifier

I made this little amplifier out of parts I pulled off of dead electronics so a more appropriate name would be a JunkAmp.

Here's a schematic I put together for people to reference. Download it by Right-Clicking then "Save as..." or "Save Link as...".

The image gets cutoff but just Right-click and "View Image" to see it all.



Here are the parts you will need.

LM386 Amplifier chip (8 pins)

10 ohm Resistor

10 microFarad (uF) Polarized Capacitor

220 microFarad (uF) Polarized Capacitor

0.047 microFarad (uF) Non-Polarized Capacitor

One Speaker: 8 ohm, 0.5 Watt speaker (I used a 8 ohm, 2 watt speaker in the video).

One 1/4 inch audio plug jack.

One 9 volt Battery.

One 9 volt Battery connector.

PCB Board

Wire. It's easier to use stranded wire, since it is more flexible.

Notes:

Polarized means there is a Positive and Negative end of the component. For the Capacitors, there is a white stripe on the side of the cylinder that leads from one of the leads (pin). That stripe indicates which side is Negative.

Since we are using a 9 volt battery for this project the Working Voltage of the Polarized Capacitors have to be higher than 9 volts, or else you will damage the Capacitor. The Working Voltage is usually written next to the White Stripe that I mentioned above and is just written as "9v" or greater.

The non-Polarized Capacitor does not have a polarity (+ -)so it doesn't matter which way it is positioned. Since the non-polarized capacitor is so small, the numbers on it will be written as "473" to indicate it's a 0.047 uF capacitor.

Edit: Jan. 17 2011

 I've gotten a few questions about adding additional features and so I drew up a second schematic that shows how to add an LED for an indicator light, Power switch and a volume pot.

To add a little distortion, remove the 10 uF capacitor and replace it with a simple wire connecting Pin 1 and 8. The capacitor stabilizes the sound wave, but removing it will cause some distortion. Keep pin 1 and 8 connected though, this keeps the gain as high as possible.

If you have any questions, just email me at aDimWit@hotmail.com

Mini Guitar Amplifier by Justin Bread is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

Both images embedded on this post are Attribution-NonCommercial Creative Commons licensed.

Sound effects

I posted this as kind of a reference for other people who need sound effects. These are a few sites that people recommended and I use them occasionally too. To download stuff from the Planethalflife, you need a Gamespy account but it is all free.

http://editor321.planethalflife.gamespy.com/sounds.htm

http://www.findsounds.com/

http://flashkit.com/soundfx/

http://www.soundsnap.com/

http://sound-effects.com/

I hope these links help. If you have a suggestion, email me at aDimWit@hotmail.com and I'll add it to this post.

Weapon Review

I was hoping this video would answer a lot of questions about where I get the weapons and stuff like that. When I made this I thought a lot of these weapons were still available or easy to find on the net (the vast wasteland of information). But I, and a few other people, have had a lot of trouble finding some of these sets. I think the company that makes these guns releases a few sets a year, and releases them in limited numbers, so a lot of the guns I showed here might no longer be available. Luckily, there are still a few cool sets a available.

http://www.21stcenturytoys.com/

http://www.21stcenturytoys.com/buy.html

http://www.monkeydepot.com/

http://www.monkeydepot.com/product_p/usf0011-dd088.htm

http://www.monkeydepot.com/21st_Century_Toys_Modern_Modern_Russian_RPG_Set_p/usf0012-dd098.htm

http://www.monkeydepot.com/21st_Century_Toys_Police_Shotgun_Set_p/usf0008-dd080.htm

http://www.monkeydepot.com/21st_Century_Toys_US_WWII_30_Cal_Air_Cooled_p/usf0014-dd131.htm

http://www.monkeydepot.com/21st_Century_Toys_US_WWII_30_Cal_Water_Cooled_p/usf0013-dd129.htm

Note: Some of these links will probably go dead in a few months so tell me if they don't work for you.


Weapon Review by Justin Bread is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.