OK, here's a couple pictures of my boom boxes. It all started when I realised I had all the ingredients for a home made ghetto blaster: my brother had left me with a little car amplifier, and I had a spare pair of bookshelf speakers... I bought a big car battery and sat that centrally, with the bookshelf speakers either side, and the car amp flanking between the speakers above the battery. A solid wooden framework and it was ... almost portable. This version one had been good for roadtrips, busting it out at the beach or at the foot of the rockclimbing crag. No photos of that one unfortunately. But it gave the inspiration for version two. It had to be lighter weight, so smaller batteries, and a solar boost.
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Same bookshelf speakers, same car amp, two smaller gelcell batteries (or are they AGM? Who cares!) Slightly more portable with the addition of the solar cell. This did quite a few good rockclimbing missions (it stayed at the bottom with the belayer...), and gives good grunty volumes all day long. For now it mostly lives on the porch, until the kiddies are grown up enough that we can get away again
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I've never had to charge this one off the mains. Cool eh!
So the wifey likes the concept, but this isn't really an inside device. She suggested I build a "kitchen radio". Rightoh! Design specification requirements capture meeting, and we're away. Again, solar powered, but this time the panel is mounted to the outside of the house, with wirings run to the kitchen. I used up the old cloth-covered wires that I ripped out of the house when I decided to make it more safe by instaling modern wiring. For the final stretch I used up some motor winding wire which is more decorative. (I think. Some don't).
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It's all built into a much more presentable box as you can see. The amplifier at the heart of it is one of those wee T-class (tripath) amps off of alibaba for your $15. It's great (to answer previous post's question!), and it's powering a pair of the most efficient car speakers I could find. Just little, what are they 9 or 12 cm I think. It's got a small gel cell inside, a solar charging regulator, extra smoothing caps at the board, and a BEC running a USB power source to charge the ipods.
The on lamp is one of my own crafting, and warrants individual description. I had some cool Glow in the Dark powder. (Not the woosy oldfashioned stuff that you get in stars on girls' bedroom ceilings, but the newfashioned stuff - google strontium aluminate). I ordered some UV leds. I got an old nylon breadboard, and cut a rod of it, drilled a blind hole to the diameter of the LED, filled the hole with glow powder, and stuffed the LED in behind it, potting it in with glue. So the UV led rarks up the GITD powder, and when you switch it off, the bright green/blue glow of the UV+GITD changes to straight green of GITD, and fades slowly away through the translucent nylon. Two and a half dozen of those badboys strung up as xmas lamps would make anyone jealous.
OK bye
Eric
:wink: 
