DIY E-Caller.....Need some electrical HELP! (now fixed)

dbask

dbask

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Ok lads and ladies,

I've decided to try and put together a homemade e-caller for coyotes with some things I have laying around the house. I am not skilled in the electrical department and the smoke in my face is proof of that. I'm posting in hope of getting this solved and if I can get it working I'm hoping it will help some other guys on a budget as well.

Basically, I have 2 self amplified speakers. They are 12v DC 2A max input and have a 20 W max output. Now instead of going out and buying the proper battery set-up as I probably should, the only thing I have laying around is a small, 12v battery booster pack. This isn't your massive, start the tractor in the dead of winter battery pack, but merely a small, 7ah 300A pack. It has the booster alligator clips and a cigarette charger style receptacle for powering 12v accessories.

Being the genius I am, I hooked the battery up to the speakers via the booster clips and quickly burnt some wire. The speakers are protected by an inline fuse that I had installed so no harm done.

Help me out guys, can I make this work? I'm not concerned about the weight/practicality of the setup, as it will fit nicely in a backpack and I don't travel far on foot when calling. Just want to have a set-up that will get the job done on my budget. I know there must be a way to make these two work together, I just don't have to know-how to do it. Hopefully someone on here can lend a hand.

Thanks in advance!
 
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I'm no electrician.................or lady

I think I understand your described components. So take that as you will.

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Is it possible you connected the battery leads with the wrong polarity? If the self amplified speakers had a 120 VAC power adapter they will usually show the polarity of the center/outside connector on the nameplate that the device is expecting.

A fully charged lead acid battery will hover between 12.6-13.0 V depending on the chemistry, which shouldn't be enough to cause problems with the speaker input power section. If you had the charger on the battery pack though it could have been >14.0V which begins to approach the range which could cause issues depending on the quality of the input power regulator.
 
Speakers are not 12 volt powered by them selves, you need something to play the disc or cassette, then you need an amp, then the speakers are driven by the amp. Now you said the speakers have a built in amp circuit, that's all fine and well however they still need a sound signal from something and they can amplify the sound over and above the signal input. If the amps in the speakers are to be powered by a separate source then they will have 2 wires marked + and - as well as 2 wires that accept the sound signal from a player or separate amp. If they only have 2 wires then they are intended to only accept the sound signal and amplify it through a feedback loop in the speaker /amp circuitry built in to the speakers.
 
I'm not following you on the self amplified speakers but I just built my own e caller as well. I got everything off amazon, a exterior power horn for $30 (damn you, I just looked it up for this and its on sale for under 10), a 12v amplifier for $15 that has a 3.5mm audio in jack, and a trailer breakaway battery for $15. Plus a bit of cabling and It works great. Once you figure out how to wire your speakers a battery like mine would be a good fit.

I would think they would have a 12v +/- for the amplifier and a +/- for the audio source, I don't see how it would work any other way. Did you possibly hook it up to the wrong leads, I couldn't be sure without actually looking at it though.
 
Think I have it sorted. Appears to be a weak spot in wire casing that I originally thought was part of the overheat damage. Looks like the whole roll was damaged, as there's a line of small holes across the rest of the roll too. Rookie mistake!

Going to take it for a longer trial run tomorrow to make sure it's all "smoke free". Then just have to mount it up and we should be ready for the weekend.
 
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