Recovering bad AudioFX boards

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evanfort
 
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Joined: Wed May 14, 2014 10:54 pm

Recovering bad AudioFX boards

Post by evanfort »

I love the little audiofx board. I make escape room props as a side gig and have the audiofx boards in 20 or 30 props and they have a nice, simple interface that makes life easier.

They seem to fail though. I typically power them from the 5v rails on from an arduino uno (official genuine). On a few of the recent ones, I've put in a buck converter in front of the board, but not enough time has passed to tell me if that's a fix. I would expect that 5v from a regulated arduino should not be a problem, so I'm not sure why they fail. I've had to replace about 10 of them over the last few years.

I just looked at them under thermal camera and it looks like the main IC is getting really hot. I expected it to be some sort of voltage regulator that I could replace, but even when powering it from a USB port, something is shorted in the main IC.

Has anyone been able to fix these or should I just toss them?

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mikeysklar
 
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Re: Recovering bad AudioFX boards

Post by mikeysklar »

The Audio FX boards are quite power hungry. Were you using the Audio FX boards with built-in amplifier?
Powering with Amplifer

The 2x2W amplifier version of the Sound Board is a pretty beefy 2x2W amplifier. If you are using 2 x 4 ohm speakers, that means you could be seeing as much as 2 Amp spikes of current. (In reality, assume spikes of 1A since audio isn't a DC load). Power with good charged batteries like AA's or even AAA's. For lipoly batteries, a 500mAh battery is minimal! Go for 1200mAh or more if you plan on playing it loud
The onboard regulator the UNO uses is only designed for up to 500mA normal usage and 800mA max off the 5v pin. The Audio FX even without amp will be too much load and require being powered separately off board through your buck or other wall wart.

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evanfort
 
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Re: Recovering bad AudioFX boards

Post by evanfort »

I don’t use the one with amplifier. I just use powered pc speakers, but I see why it might be too much amperage, but would that cause the board to burn out.

But, I suppose it’s good enough to just power it on its own in the future.

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