Boom box build (another one, but first for me)

[tomzarbo]

Looking good Wogg.
I do a lot of filling too, you just can't see it underneath the veneer!

Still loving the look.

TomZ

[davidroberts]

IMO Rockford Fosgate was unrivaled in the 90s in the effort they put into making sure their dealers were the best trained in the industry. I never made it down to the Arizona headquarters but their fabulous distributor in Canada, Korbon Trading, used to run similar trainings Canada wide every year where they would bring up Ron Trout, Wayne Harris, Garry Springgay, Mark Fakuda, etc as presenters. They had courses both for electric and acoustic theory and also for installation.

I attended several in those years and It absolutely gave their dealers a considerable edge over their competition.

Mark and Wayne were very much under rated in their time. Mark for fabrication and Wayne electronics wise.

[wogg]

Dang it... the KAB-250v3 board seems to have just died before I had a chance to build it :( Email to tech support...

I tested it last month, worked fine with all the accessories. Today I decided I wanted to watch it on the scope with the 19V supply hooked up to see what kind of power levels it had. I did a DATS sweep on the ND90's, was going to target 350Hz where they're 4 ohm and near resistive, then watch for when it clips on the scope.

It started out making noise but popping and clicking like a loose wire.. then nothing. The logic is still working fine though, my phone pairs up immediately and thinks it has a bluetooth output.. but nothing. Attempted on battery only and without the battery pack at all, without volume knob extension, and powered off / on many times. Every time it pairs up and plays nothing.

Dang it.

[wogg]

Good news... I had no idea those boards were covered by a 5 year warranty. A quick discussion with PE and I have a replacement on its way.

+1 for Dayton and PE.

[Dukk]

5 years?! Impressive!

[wogg]

MDF time today for the rest of the cabinet. Cut a 2'x4' 1/2" project panel up to make the inside walls and the top and bottom.

Inside wall test, looks alright



Then I took my ~1/2" oversized top and bottom and clamped it down to the frame to run the trim router around. I put the router on the Jasper jig to give me more stability. First around the front.



Then I applied painter tape along the seam and flipped the box to re-clamp and trim the back side.

[wogg]

Once the shape was cut for the top and bottom, I setup the table with the 1/4" rabbet bit and calibrated it. I ran the rabbet around the top and bottom panels to match the inset of the frame, leaving just 1/4" of MDF lip around the finished box.



Test fit, ready for some assembly.



I swear I measured the amp and battery boards and planned accordingly, however a test layout on the inside divider board indicates my planning sucked. There's no way to fit these boards side by side in the center cavity, especially once you add the front and rear panel jacks, LED's, connectors, volume knob... all that.



New plan: The boards will be mounted opposite side of 1 of the divider boards, so the battery will end up in one of the speaker sides. Not ideal, I'll slide the divider in slightly to compensate for the little bit of volume difference. I'm also pretty sure I won't be stressing those batteries out enough to worry about thermals. If a lithium battery goes up, there's no stopping it no matter where it is so I'm trusting the quality of the batteries and controller from Dayton.

[Wolf]

Can you mount them to opposite sides of the MDF board and do it that way?

Later,
Wolf

[wogg]

Can you mount them to opposite sides of the MDF board and do it that way? Later, Wolf

Not quite enough width in the chamber, was counting on them being side by side to keep the whole thing as narrow as possible. Should've just added 1/2" one way or another.

[Wolf]

Then can you mount them to thinner substrate? Then they could be on opposed walls with their own board, or back to back on say 1.4" hardboard with connections around the edge.

I think it's plausible somehow,
Wolf

[wogg]

Got the front and back panels ready today. On the front: green power LED, blue pairing LED, power toggle, aux input and volume.

On the back: power input, pairing button, and red charging LED.

im OK with the battery board in a speaker side work around, the whole bottom panel is removable so it'll be easy to service. While 1/4" hardboard would probably give me just enough room, it would still be pretty tight.

[tomzarbo]

Looks good, I like the aluminum panels, that's classy looking.
It's amazing how quickly there gets to be a BUNCH of wires inside these things isn't it?
Don't feel bad on being off by a little with the board and amp, I've done it too. A few times. It's going to work fine in the end, that's all that matters. It'll be better balanced weight-wise that way too!

It's really coming out nice, thanks for posting up pics as you go, I enjoy seeing how other folks go about doing this stuff.

TomZ

[wogg]

Thanks Tom!

LOL... that middle chamber is going to look like a small furry critter nested in there.

Obvious solution would be to cut up those harnesses and use only necessary length, but there's really no functional need to do that. I think I'll use a few small zip ties to organize it just a bit while assembling, like I do when I get all OCD putting together a computer chassis.

I figured that aluminum + the old school toggle and LED holders will make a cool retro looking aesthetic. It'll scream DIY a bit, but that's not a terrible thing. Pro tip: That aluminum stock (2" wide whatever from big box hardware) was just a tad too thick, everything barely locks down but the aux jack needed a little 1/2" drill bit grinding from the back side to get the nut on.

[Liberator of Magic Smoke]

Very nice work. I like thick aluminum for projects like that. It's pretty easy to cut a relief on the back side with a Forstner bit in a drill press. Sometimes I end up threading the aluminum instead, if the threads on the switch or indicator or whatever aren't some oddball size.

[Dukk]

Aluminum accents look great. I have also used aluminum flashing as a laminate over wood with great results. Keeps the cost down when doing a larger panel.