Altoids Amp

You may have seen the DIY altoids amp somewhere else, but this one is easier than the other plans I have seen. This project can be completed in one sitting, depending on how long that
sitting is and how precise you make everything. It will cost you about 10-15 dollars depending on what you have lying around the house. Sorry the pictures aren't up, I am having a problem uploading them.

Step 1: Time to void a warranty!

Tools:

-small Phillips head screw driver
-electrical tape or duct tape
-hot glue gun (optional)
-wire strippers (won't be mentioned, but they will come in handy)
-drill or dremmel tool (to cut through altoids can)


Supplies:

-cheapest cassette walkman you can find (get one without AM/FM, that requires more space, and it won't fit in the altoids can. It should cost around 5$, mine is a Durabrand model 820M...real high quality stuff here folks)
-altoids can (empty, eat up)
-toggle switch
-audio in jack (like what you plug your guitar into)
-x2 AA battery holder (side-by-side, not end to end )(x2 means holds two batteries, not two holders)
-extra wire (not neccessary, but will probably come in handy)

NOTE: If you don't use the same exact stuff I do, yours may not fit into the altoids can, if it won't fit, find another case, I recommend the cassette player case.

Take the tape player apart, do it carefully, you may need to know how it goes back together later. Get the chip with electronics out IN ONE PIECE. The motor and switches may be
attached, these will need to be removed in a later step, but first, you need find out how pressing the play button connects power to the amplifier. Follow the power wires from the
battery compartment, one of them should be interrupted, when you press the play button, it will become uninterrupted, this is where you will hook up the toggle switch, in the place of
the play button. Also, in my tape player, there was a switch labeled "bass boost", I had to cut a little of the case plastic to get the switch out in one piece, but I guess if you wanted, you could just remove it.

Comments

[J.Reynolds09]

I think that you could just leave the playback head in tack and add some wire to the existing connection. Then it could still play tapes and if it had a recording feature then you could possible record what you play as well. Just find a spot not in the way to mount your 1/4" input jack and leave it all mounted in the walkman case. Just a thought, feel free to correct me if I'm wrong though.

[skuishingbugs]

so, when you call this an amp, is it an actual amplifying coil? or does this just connect the output from a (guitar, aux input, etc...) to a set of speakers or headphones?

[Charger_06]

you can just connect the motor wires together to by pass it. Thats just like a closed circuit.

[evilmadcow]

I agree.

[collince]

I am not the best with tech stuff... So do you have any pictures? If not that's fine there are plenty of YouTube videos! Really cool project anyway! Thanks!

[tubbychick3n]

Can someone help me out? I am trying to do this with a radio (from the dollar store) and i have no idea where to put the 1/4 jack.

[recordmasta001]

try this

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dr_6F22HGY

[carpe_noctem]

bust open the cassette deck (if there is one) if you're doin what i think you are doin and this radio is only a radio, then i'm not completely sure but i think you can bust it open and solder in the jack after removing the leads to the radio tuner. on the radios i've gutted it was a cylindrical coil of copper wire. I think your gonna have to improvise a bit

[knex_mepalm]

This is awesome! and Hi from http://www.ipodtouchfans.com/forums/showthread.php?p=2405333#post2405333

[wooowmeato]

try using the macro setting on your camera next time it will help drastically, thanks for the guide! cheers! :)

[chessdude3]

can I use a portable CD player?

[Sick_Nixon]

it would be better to plug a speaker right to the output, at least if you are going to use it for  guitar. you coud put this in a bigger case and solder a 1/8 male jack to the speaker (and plug it in the output jack)to make it simpler. you should also shield it with foil if you choose to do so. what would be nice is to add distortion of some kind. if anybody knows something...

[guitarfan]

 could i use a old computer speakers?

[mdog93]

How could you adapt this to amplify a guitar?

[11richie21]

i think you use a jack converter?...

[mdog93]

k, i dont rely know what that is- is it just a component? mdog

[11richie21]

well if your jack is like a headphone jack you can buy a converter from the ipod section at the store like wal-mart. looks kind of like that drawing
_
<===(_() <-- bigger jack for mikes and other stuff!

[beehard44]

lol u just made ur first 3D ASCII drawing!!!
a cylinder!
(_()
lol

[mdog93]

oh yh, sorry i know bout that but i think thers sumthin bout the elelctronics which means it wouldn't work with a guitar. ther has been discussions bout using it with a guitar in the past and they have come out as it wudnt work. but i'd like to know how you could make it work. mdog

[zvillesurfer]

i built this for a guitar. it doesnt work very well and i think its because of the fact that when you amplify, say, an ipod, you are amplifying an already strong signal, so you dont have to amplify it very much. On a guitar, you have to crank it up so loud that it gets very distorted and there is a lot of feedback. afterwards i tried it with an ipod and it was very static, although i think i fried something while using it because i dont think it always sounded this bad.

[z-man6233]

ahh but active pickups like EMGs have an internal preamp so the signal is still strong

[mdog93]

yeah, i still think there must be a solution to it, i just don't know enough about it to work out the electronics side of things. mdog

[11richie21]

not really sure

[mdog93]

kk thanjs anyway

[1578bb]

Hey i made one and it works great. Found the amp chip on a broken tape player outside and everything worked as said. THanks =)

[adamgillies]

 Is this a headphone amp? Or does it actually amplify out loud?

[kevinsa5]

 In one of the steps it says there's a headphone jack, but you could send it through one of those mini speakers to make it audible without any headphones. I suppose you could conceivably turn the volume up all the way and route it through speakers inside the tin instead of a headphone jack, but I'm not sure if the voltage would be high enough for that. 

[grubblybubbly]

i want to make one of these and an "altoids electric guitar"!!! that would be cool.

[Jodex]

Yes, hot glue is very much super useful.

[cdousley]

what does this do i thought it was for guitair

[gibsonlp96]

It is for guitar. You can plug in speakers to the headphone jack, or use headphones so you and only you can hear yourself play. It's one of those things you can use when you don't have an actual amplifier.

[avwos]

It would be cool, to mount it in the body of the guitar :D

[kike13]

hey do u thnk u could at least make a video of how to make 1 it'll help

[kike13]

does any body no were i can gt a bass control for a BX-10 epicenter??

[cdousley]

unit042 everything is better in an altoids can a pocket amp is from 40-70 dollars this is a few dollars

[papadekaitlyn]

The trim pot is the actual volume control for the walkman. The little volume wheel engaged that trim pot to adjust the volume on the headphones when the original unit was still intact.

[Jesus10555]

I havent started this project yet, but I just wanted to throw this out there. If after you disconnect the motor and it doesnt work, you said find a way to bypass it, I just wanted to mention so it might help some. That you could probably hook up an Led (which would look cool too) and that should work, as it will complete the circuit that is required. (and an Led is smaller than a motor {I dont know how big a cassette motor is, so ... I might be wrong about the Led being smaller} but either way, you can put the Led on the outside of the can

[magganrchy]

That would work, or you could just cut real close to the motor on each wire, then attach the wires (there should be enough slack for that) I'll probably add an LED just for fun though

[papadekaitlyn]

Do note that if you were to wire in an LED that you have to also add a resistor in series with it to keep the LED from frying out. Also, it would probably be better to add a resistor between the two motor wires if a bypass were required instead of tying them together. Check the resistance of the motor by touching each of the motor leads with the lead of a muti-meter (or an ohmmeter if you're fancy) and choose a resistor to match. That could prevent chip failure from voltage overload later on. Of course I am an amateur, so by all means take my comments lightly... :D (If you want fried LEDs or silicon anyways ;)

[Sunshine33]

Help for an electronics noob? :)

The wires coming from the tape head is a flatwire (I think that's what you call it?) and is soldered tothe back of it and leads to a 'chip' on the board.
This is what it looks like:
http://img262.imageshack.us/img262/41/img0059f.jpg
http://img18.imageshack.us/img18/1905/img0062rpm.jpg

Can I still make it work? Which wires would I attach where on the jack? (I have a mono, but If I need a stereo one, I can get one)
It says CN30 on the board just above the 'chip' that the flatwire leads to.

Help is greatly appreciated!!