boombox from car audio parts??

[highteknology]

I was over at a friend's house this weekend and he had a pretty sweet little setup. He had an Optima red top battery hooked up to a car CD player with two little 5 1/4" speakers right next to his grill. This way we could play music and such with out running extensions cords or anything.

My question(s) is, what parts are needed to make this happen? Obviously the battery, head unit, speakers, wires etc. but i'm unsure of how to wire the battery and such to power the head unit. I also have 2 old 12" woofers and an amp that i would want to hook up. where do i ground them though? that's my biggest question would be the grounds and supplying the head unit with power directly from the battery.

[PlayStation3]

it wouldn't be all that hard. the ground is the negtive terminal the postive is the postive terminal the only hard part would be wiring the head unit.

[highteknology]

Originally Posted by PlayStation3

it wouldn't be all that hard. the ground is the negtive terminal the postive is the postive terminal the only hard part would be wiring the head unit.

wouldn't i just wire the wires from the head unit to the speakers? i.e. run the front right speaker to the right speaker and the front left to the left speaker?

would the ground from an amp run to the negative battery terminal as well?

[PaulD]

yes, the speakers will be connected normally

The headunit will be powered from the battery, so the gnd will be connected to the battery "-" and the const & switched 12V will be connected to the "+" battery terminal.

[AWP9521]

I have seen a lot of them over the years, truck drivers that do a lot of "slip seating" (moving from truck to truck) build units like you describe only without the battery, they will have a 12V lighter plug and a fairly long cord to plug into the trucks cigarette lighter socket for powering the box when they move from truck to truck, normally they will contain a Stereo System of some sort as well as their CB Radio.

Personally I wouldn't use a Power Amp, Most Head Units today have a max of 50 watts/channel peak power which even at half of that power level should be fairly clean, I would look for some efficient speakers that produce a higher SPL (A dB measurement at 1 watt of power at a distance of 1 meter from the speaker, the higher the dB number @1watt/m the more efficient the speaker is) say around 92dB or higher, they will still give good volume at low wattage but still have some loudness at moderate volume so you won't drain the battery quite as fast. Running any kind of Power Amp at all will run that battery down a lot quicker. If your 12's are efficient (Woofers usually run at a lower SPL than mids and tweeters do) enough (say 90dB or higher) you can still use those without the amp and get decent sound, just remember to separate the 12's from any other speakers in the box or you stand to damage the smaller speakers.

But keep in mind, your talking slepping around a heavy battery, and a fairly large box if you are gonna run 12's plus any other speakers and a head unit, not exactly boombox portability.

[pimprolla112]

forget a battery use a power converter, they have them online and they can powr up to 50amps. Usually around 200-300 for a good one. And 50 amps will power a couple amps and a cd player with no effort. All you need is a wall outlet and your good to go. And have a battery for those days when you are out from society.

I built one off a battery for my robotics team back in school, 1-10" mtx 2-6x9's and a set of 5 1/4 speakers. Worked good but the battery didnt last to long since it was one from my corolla.

[highteknology]

really the main reason i want to build one is because my friends and i tend to do a lot of camping. we always have to bring a little boombox and have no way of hookin up our ipod or anything like that to it. i thought this would be a cool solution and would get decently loud.

[PaulD]

is the vehicle usually close by when you are camping

[highteknology]

Originally Posted by PaulD

is the vehicle usually close by when you are camping

yes. i don't want to run the car all the time though. i guess i can just turn the car on with out starting the engine huh? the only problem here is I usually take the family suburban camping. it just has a stock stereo. I don't wanna wire it up to where i could hook up my subs etc. it may just be the easiest thing though.

[AWP9521]

My thoughts and mine only so nothing meant by them.

Getting away from the hustle and bustle of life is usually one of the reasons to go camping, you do it to "get away from it all and relax and take in some nature". Somehow I find it hard to believe a droning subwoofer setup echoing though the woods and the valeys and whatnot would be an appreciated way of getting back to nature in others eyes who are trying to do the same thing. One of those "there is a time and a place for everything" kinda thoughts, ya know? Just don't seem like the right kind of place to me.

Like I said, my opinion only.

[PaulD]

ummm .... subs don't really go in a "boombox." Just get a second battery and run an isolator, then run a makeshift power cord from the vehicle to the box.