Creating a portable stereo out of car bits

alexthecheese

alexthecheese

alexthecheese

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Joined
10 Mar 2006
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Hi, I've got a thread in the motors forum with regard to this but would like some input on the actual acoustic design of a portable stereo that I intend to make this weekend out of a car stereo, car/leisure battery and car speakers. Basically a car stereo in a box.

As was mentioned by a nice chap in the other thread, I want to make it - within reason - as acoustically 'sound' as possible so I get as many decibels for my electric money, so it last as long as possible.

Does this involve making a soundbox for the speakers, so it's a separated enclosure from the battery and car stereo?
 
Not really using it as a sub as such, just as a stereo that will last for 5 days of use. We'll be taking it to Glastonbury this year so will need it from Wednesday until Sunday and without taking a load of batteries for a crap stereo I thought building it as a long-life replacement would be kinda cool. :)

I'm looking at getting soemthing like an 85ah/105ah battery, the latter should offer about 50 hours use I hope which should be about enough. It's just a 4 x 45watt head unit with 4 6x9 speakers, possibly just the two though.

What do you think of the solar chargers by the way? We can get them from eBay for about £20ish - do they actually do anything at all?
 
I know what you mean, it will be thoroughly tested next week when we're off to the Norfolk Broads! I will get it in the ear from my mates if it doesnt last a good number of hours as it took me ages to convince them to put their money into it! ;)

What do you mean about the polyfiller gurusan? Just so it's a completely sealed enclosure?

Actually, speaking of which... I'm going to nail/screw and no-nails the thing together, with some support blocks on each corner to keep it strong - like you say, no doubt people will want to sit on the thing so it needs to be strong! But what about sealing the thing so it's airtight as much as possible? Any ideas how I could do that?

An aerial too... didn't think of that. Reckon I could mount in on the inside of the box so it's not on the outside and won't get broken off?

Fingers crossed the car stereo will arrive tomorrow so we'll be able to get cracking. I'll take some pics of construction this week weather permitting. Really looking forward to getting stuck in!
 
Well here we are mate, after a day's ******* about and some money well-spent.... here she is!!

Festival Stereo 1
Festival Stereo 2
Festival Stereo 3

We've got 2 cheap 6x9's hooked up and 2 x 5 1/4 Kenwood speakers. It's a cheapo Sony head unit but does the trick. That's plugged into a 85ah leisure battery that will keep it going for a good few hours!

Really does sound great - apart from a small hole where the speaker cables go into the speaker enclosure it's properly air tight and the bass is great! Gonna pimp it up tomorrow with some sanding and spray paint and we'll be well away.

Very chuffed indeed. :cool:
 
I dont think we need any more to be honest, I've just been checking how much current it takes with my Dad and he reckons about 1 amp on average playing a cd at a decent volume.

The battery is 85ah so it should be at least 70 hours play, and over 5 days of glastonbury that's 14 hours a day (WHICH WE HAVE JUST GOT TICKETS FOR :D )... which should be plenty. ;)
 
Update:

Painted it, put some handles on and started stickering it up. Not very happy with the painting (makes it look so amateur!) so bit disappointed with that, hence the stickers. Hopefully it'll be covered with them soon.

Here's a few pics:

Painted 1
Top bit

Personally I think the handles make it look really cool. ;)
 
daz said:
You realise that 1amp is equivalent to 12 Watts of continuous power, right?

And at high/max volume, the amp is likely to be pushing 15-20W RMS per channel. I don't want to urinate on your bonfire, but make sure you know how long it lasts before you go off to glastonbury all excited. :o :p
Click to expand...

That's fine, my bonfire wasn't that great anyway. ;)

Seriously though, he's got a multimeter and we whopped it up to a decent volume (listenable, nothing overly loud) and it was taking anywhere between 0.8 and about 1.3 amps. So, hopefully it will last a decent length of time. Also, running it at full volume is seriously loud and I doubt we'd ever need it that high. We tested it in my garden and 100ft away it was easily still loud enough!
 
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