Over in the BITX20 yahoo group there have been some comments about the shortcomings of the widely used LM386 audio amplifier chip. Many people don't like it because it is noisy. I don't like it because it is a chip. (In my BITX rigs I have replaced it with a simple discrete component audio amplifier.) So this morning I was pleased to find this video on the Maker blog that presents a very good use for all those LM386 devices: We can turn them into robot brains!
Make's video and web page on this project are both very good. One paragraph in the page kind of captures the reasons I dislike the LM386:
How It Works
The core of the “Herbie” circuit is the LM386 power amplifier chip. To simplify a bit, we can think of the chip as a “black box” with inputs and outputs that respond in predictable ways, and don’t have to completely understand what’s going on inside.http://makezine.com/projects/sunbeam-seeker-bot/
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Let's not get silly with our hatred for the 386. It is my "go-to" audio amp when everything else is failing. The 386 might help me to figure out if it's my discreet component audio amp or the signal coming into the audio chain.
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