Battery Powered Portable Amplifier

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Phone Horn Passive Amplifier

I've seen a few of these projects online lately and really wanted to have a go myself - got my opportunity this week when I picked up an old decorative bugle for £1 at the car boot.

It only took an hour or two to complete, and made for an excellent evening's tinkering.

I had a rough idea of the shape I wanted, so set about chopping down the horn, using my all-time favourite tool a copper pipe cutter, the kind you keep tightening and rotating, like in the opening credits for Cool Hand Luke but on a smaller scale.

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Portable - Mini Amplifier Speaker

In this instructable, I will show you how to make a simple amplifier speaker with common components, it's not just simple but portable. It uses LM386N IC which is a low voltage audio power amplifier. When the project is finished you will have a working simple circuit that can connect with any device as an input, such as Ipod, MP3 player, even your laptop and PC.

This is the video of my portable amplifier speaker
(change the quality for a better view)

The sound quality of this circuit is pretty good.

OK, lets get started!

Here is all you will need:
- (1) Small drug case
- (1) Perfboard
- (1) IC LM 386
- (1) 8 Pin DIP IC Socket
- (1) 3.5mm stereo jack female
- (2) 3.5mm stereo jack male
- (1) Potensio 5K
- (1) Potensio 1K
- (2) Potensio Knob (optional)
- (1) Resistor 10 Ohm
- (2) Ceramic Capacitor 0,01uF
- (1) Electrolit Capacitor 100uF
- (1) Electrolit Capacitor 220uF
- (1) Speaker 8 Ohm (0,5 - 0,6 watt)
- (1) 9 V battery
- (1) 9 V battery Clip
- (1) On-off Switch
- Shrink tubing
- Jumper wire
- Rainbow wire (optional)
- Male header extended (optional)
- Blackhousing / female 1x1 header (optional)

Tools:
- Soldering iron
- Solder
- Hot glue
- Mini drill
- Pliers
- Cutter
- Helping hands (if you don't have it, you can build it from my helping hands instructable)

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Pocket Stereo Amplifier

a while a go i came across this instructable: Rechargable pocket sized amplifier
and loved the idea of a pocket sized audio amp but was disappointed but its lack of capability, namely only using mono amplification and only having 1 output option 
hence the idea for the stereo amplifier was born
doing a little digging on  amplifier IC's I found the LM 386 a mono amplifier ic with some extra capability's like bass boost and 200 times gain settings (but more on those later)

So how do you take a Mono amplifier and make a stereo? easy, stack 2 side by side

this amp also contains 3 output modes: internal speakers, external 3.5mm jack and RCA

Materials and components:
(image 1)
2 - LM386 (mono-audio amp)
2 - 8 pin ic holder
2 - 3.5 mm audio socket
2 - speakers
2 - 2 pole 2 throw switch 
2 - 33nF capacitors
2 - 47nF capacitors
2 - 10µF capacitors
2 - 220µF capacitors
2 - 10? resistors (colour bands brown, black, black)
2 - 10K? resistors (colour bands brown, black, orange)
1 - double RCA socket
1 - 2 gang linear 10k potentiometer
1 - potentiometer knob 
1 - 2 pole 3 throw switch
1 - 1 pole 2 throw switch
1 - 9V battery
1 - 9V battery clip
1 - ultra mini experimenters board or other small perf board
1 - project box
- mutli- coloured single strand copper wire, (not shown)
- masking tape (not shown)
2 - screws (not shown)

Tools:
(image 2)
- soldering iron
- hot glue gun
- solder sucker 
- solder
- wire cutters
- pliers
- screw driver set
- multimeter
- dremel or a drill
- ruler (not shown)
- sandpaper (not shown)
- glue (not shown)

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Make Your Own Cigar Box Guitar / Mp3 Player Amplifier

I've wanted to create a Cigar Box Guitar and Amp for quite some time, and it seems like the Instructable Sound Hack and Battery Powered contestst were just the extra incentive I needed to give it a try.

This Instructable shows how to create a Cigar Box Amplifier, of course it can also be used as an MP3 player or Phone amplifier. I decided to build the amplifier before the guitar since it's certainly easier, but hopefully a Cigar Box Guitar Instructable will follow soon!

If you haven't heard of Cigar Box Guitars, you should check them out. YouTube has lots of videos demonstrating amazing sound from these 3 stringed instruments. 

Here's an example of a CBG in Action:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iIIEhH7xOXg

Actually they don't all have 3 strings, but hey this is about the amplifier anyway,
let's build one!What's Needed for this Guitar Box Amplifier Instructable?
Cigar Box - I have a friend who occasionally smokes a cigar, he tells me they are all legal (at least somewhere in the world ;-) ). I noticed these can also be found at Yard Sales, on eBay and sometimes for free in Tobacco Stores. LM386 chip based amplifier circuit - I got a kit for this from http://tymkrs.com/, (some sites sell pre-soldered kits as well) but you can likely make your own. Parts needed are: Potentiometer, LM386 Chip, Resistor, 2 Capacitors, 9V battery connector and Guitar jack. 8 Ohm Speaker (I got mine from an old projection TV) Switch (optional) - didn't come with the kit, but I thought it would be handy to save on batteries. Wire Miscellaneous parts for decoration, most important is something to cover the speaker, (I used the plastic which originally covered the speaker on the TV). Optional: Handle, Legs, battery holder, Something to cover keep the box closed,  Tools Needed for This Instructable: Drill  Soldering Iron and Solder (unless you buy a pre-soldered kit) Hole Saw (optional) to cut the speaker hole (or use a drill and Dremmel or X-Acto knife) Now that you have your parts... 
Step One is to solder together the kit, as seen in the picture below. 
(It's a good idea to get a general feel for where all the parts are going to be installed before you actually start cutting wire and soldering. You'll notice I left way too much slack on my speaker wire)

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