I admit it: I'm a total geek. I love electronics, programming, 3D printing, 3D art, and vintage Apple hardware. I'm always juggling half a dozen projects. I also enjoy documenting it all: my successes, my failures, my experiences... and everything geeky along the way.

Mini Audio Amp, Take 1… and 2 | Kevin Rye.net - Main

Kevin Rye

Geek Extraordinaire. Yeh, I said it.

Mini Audio Amp, Take 1… and 2

Rev 2 of my LCD clock is a little slow going. I took a step to the side to wrap up rev 1.1 of my 7 segment clock. I’ve submitted my Eagle file to OSH Park as well as the laser file for the acrylic to Ponoko. All my parts are on-hand. I’m just waiting for the PCBs and the acrylic and I’ll be able to put the wraps on that one.

In the meantime, my mini audio amp practice boards came in. I wasn’t too sure if I’d be able to solder the TPA2005D1 chip or not. Rather than waste $45 on the LCD Clock V2 PCB and make a mess of it, I figured it would be a good idea to make a practice board based off SparkFun’s breakout board. If I can’t solder the part by hand, then I’ll just incorporate SparkFun’s audio amp breakout into my clock PCB as a daughterboard; similar to what I did with the SpeakJet board.

Here’s the mini audio amp PCB I had made.

miniAudioAmPCB_0003

miniAudioAmPCB_0004

It’s a tad bit smaller than SparkFun’s since I removed the volume pot and the pads for the optional resistors. Originally I was just going to put a bunch of TPA2005D1s parts on a PCB and call it a day, but I figured if I pull it off, might as well make the boards functional. They may come in handy in the future.

mini audio amp_0004

Man is this thing tiny!

mini audio amp_0008

As it turns out, I ordered the wrong part from DigiKey. Curse you impossible to navigate DigiKey part finder! I ordered the 8MSOP package instead of the 8SON one. As tiny as it is, it’s still bigger than the 8SON package.

soldering_audio_amp1_0004

This might be a good thing! After seeing them side-by-side, it’s pretty clear that the 8MSOP is the way to go. I’m convinced. There’s no way I’m going to be able to solder an 8SON package.

soldering_audio_amp1DSC_0004_0014

What does this mean? This means I need to respin the board. It should be as easy as right-clicking on the chip and changing the package for the part. Unfortunately, Eagle gives me an error about pins not being connected when I try it. I can’t even edit the part because it’s not in SparkFun’s library.

sparkfunEagleParterror

I had to create my own.

Screen Shot 2013-07-02 at 5.46.12 PM

I could have just used a regular 8MSOP package, but the TPA2005D1 needs to have an additional ground pad under the chip for heat transfer. Adding a few vias also helps to dissipate the heat by turning both ground plains into heatsinks. The TPA2005D1 is pretty efficient and doesn’t get too hot, but the spec sheet is pretty specific about adding it. SparkFun added it to their board, so I’m adding it too.

Screen Shot 2013-07-02 at 5.46.32 PM

Once the package and the symbol were complete, I combined them to create a new device.

Screen Shot 2013-07-02 at 5.50.20 PM

I then dropped it into the SparkFun breakout board and moved things around to make space. Normally I slave over the details and make things perfect, but this is just for solder practice, so I banged it out in about an hour. (Including the TPA2005D1 design.)

Screen Shot 2013-07-02 at 5.43.40 PM

It’ll only cost $3.25 to have 3 made. I kept “V1.0” on there. I guess I should have changed it to “V2.0” but I guess I could just pretend the other board never happened.

Audio Amp V2 frontAudio Amp V2 back

See this project from start to finish:
LCD Clock Version 2 - Design Decisions
Mini Audio Amp, Take 1… and 2
Mini Audio Amp - Version 2 Build
LCD Clock Version 2 - Part I
LCD Clock Version 2 - Part II