Build report follow up

[Hungeryhippie]

just to follow up on my build of the little Gem II, its all completed now, boxed up and all. Some differences that I did was, instead of using a DPDT switch for switching the gain between all or nothing, I used two SPST switches and put a 680ohm res on one and a 270ohm res on the other, so now I have four gain settings, making it a bit more versatile I think. I included bits from the little gem as well like the 220uF cap before the speaker, and a 0.01uF input cap. Its all built into a little wooden combo unit with an elliptical speaker from an old cassette deck. It also has an output jack which cuts the internal speaker so it can be plugged into bigger speakers n stuff, It also has a 9V battery inside and a mains adapter input too.

So all in all a cool little amp. I might be able to take some pictures of it but unsure of how to share them with you.

Also a little note about how it nearly drove me mad last night, it was all boxed up and I was playing it and it sounded absolutely awful I couldn't figure out what was going on, the notes wouldn't sustain they would break up and fizzle out, half an hour of checking and re checking resulted in finding out the battery had dropped to 6v!!!!!!!!!!! plugged into the mains adaptor it was all fine.  :oops:

Its always the last thing you check hey.

[Kleber AG]

 Cool

I should buil one of them to me  
Must buy another LM386

Congrats on new amp.
Kleber AG

[Mark Hammer]

I strongly endorse powering anything you intend to use with a speaker (as opposed to headphones) with a battery-pack of either AA or AAA cells (C cells are fine too but obviously bulky).  A sixpack will give you a dependable 9v and an 8-pack (not that much bigger really) will give you a nice sturdy 12v, more power, and a longer usable life.