Power Amplifier Circuit diagram
Saturday, October 17, 2009
Power Amplifier Circuit diagram-This project was a sort of challenge: designing an audio amplifier capable of delivering a decent output power with a minimum parts count, without sacrificing quality.
The Power Amplifier section employs only three transistors and a handful of resistors and capacitors in a shunt feedback configuration but can deliver more than 18W into 8 Ohm with <0.08%>
Setting up the Power Amplifier:
The setup of this amplifier must be done carefully and with no haste:
- Connect the Power Supply Unit (previously tested separately) to the Power Amplifier but not the Preamp: the input of the Power Amplifier must be left open.
- Rotate the cursor of R4 fully towards Q1 Collector.
- Set the cursor of R3 to about the middle of its travel.
- Connect a suitable loudspeaker or a 8 Ohm 20W resistor to the amplifier output.
- Connect a Multimeter, set to measure about 50V fsd, across the positive end of C5 and the negative ground.
- Switch on the supply and rotate R3 very slowly in order to read about 23V on the Multimeter display.
- Switch off the supply, disconnect the Multimeter and reconnect it, set to measure at least 1Amp fsd, in series to the positive supply (the possible use of a second Multimeter in this place will be very welcomed).
- Switch on the supply and rotate R4 very slowly until a reading of about 120mA is displayed.
- Check again the voltage at the positive end of C5 and readjust R3 if necessary.
- If R3 was readjusted, R4 will surely require some readjustment.
- Wait about 15 minutes, watch if the current is varying and readjust if necessary.
- Please note that R3 and R4 are very sensitive: very small movements will cause rather high voltage or current variations, so be careful.
- Those lucky enough to reach an oscilloscope and a 1KHz sine wave generator, can drive the amplifier to the maximum output power and adjust R3 in order to obtain a symmetrical clipping of the sine wave displayed.
