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IBU2U low sound level

Posted: Tue May 15, 2018 4:54 pm
by Jay-Em
I got the IBU2ultimate, and hoped the on-board 10w would be enough to power a visaton 8ohm 10w speaker to some serious volume...

Well.. no. It’s even less volume than the standard henglong 3w controller on the same speaker. If I try to crank the volume up, the IBU’s amp starts to crackle with a somewhat digital character, not the speaker, the sure sign of too low power. The speaker isn’t the problem anyways, because it is loud as heck when used with a separate amplifier and battery. Connected the speaker to an older IBU2, and it’s pretty loud. So, there’s something not right with the IBU2U, me thinks.

What is going-on? I got the IBU’s remote volume working fine, but the volume is nothing to write home about. 10w? Hardly. More like 1,5 .. i even used an external volume-pot, to make sure there wasn’t something wrong with the remote.

The .ini has the volume set to 100, so that’s not the problem. I loaded several tank sound sets, and they are all vèry weak afa volume goes.

I’m at a loss here.

Re: IBU2U low sound level

Posted: Tue May 15, 2018 6:09 pm
by c.rainford73
On my IBU2U setting overall volume in the inifiles causes distortion at 100%

Go into the card and set overall volume at 65-70% distortion gone and my js-2 cranks with the same speaker.

Re: IBU2U low sound level

Posted: Tue May 15, 2018 6:09 pm
by c.rainford73
Before doing this I had the same problem crackling and very low sound. Worked on this with Ian and I tried it out. Works excellent now.

Re: IBU2U low sound level

Posted: Tue May 15, 2018 9:04 pm
by Jay-Em
With “cranks” You mean that it’s louder @ 65 to 70 than with the volume set at 100 in the .ini?

That sounds a bit counter-intuitive, to say the least. No harm in trying, but, well.. that would be odd.

Re: IBU2U low sound level

Posted: Tue May 15, 2018 9:47 pm
by midlife306
Mine did the same thing.
The volume setting in the ini file is like the signal gain on a traditional car stereo amp, it’s the same method to set it, put your volume to full on your remote and start increasing your ini volume setting until you hear distortion, back the ini off a tad & your good to go
Cheers
Wayne


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Re: IBU2U low sound level

Posted: Wed May 16, 2018 5:15 am
by Jay-Em
Well, the distortion disappears, when the ini is set to about 75%, true dat. However, as logic dictates, and I already surmised, the volume is just lower. Lower than f.i. The TK22, or the older IBU’s in my stable, who are about 3watts. The volume with the little round HengLong speaker on an RX18 is about the same. I don’t even want to know what kind of whispering tank I’ll get if I set the IBU2U to the advised 20% for a stock HengLong speaker.

So, 10- to 15watts of music power on the IBU2U ? I don’t think so. Maybe 10w RMS with 10% distortion. As stated, with a separate 12w Kemo amp on the older-gen IBU, pushing no more than about 5, maybe 6watts @ 4ohm on 7.4v, the volume is way louder on every small speaker that I have tested it with. Among them, an 8ohm 5w SBE laptopspeaker-type, a 10w 8ohm FRS7 Visaton, a 10w 4ohm FRS Visaton and the metal-domed “new” HengLong/Taigen speaker, and no distortionto to speak of.

So, in retrospect, I think the manufacturer of the IBU2U is a tad “optimistic” afa the music power of his controller goes. It’s no louder than its forefather, tbh.

Shame that I have no idea whatsoever how the pins of the external audio-header are arranged. I bet there’s a correctly galvanically divided/separated circuit for powering an external amp from the battery somewhere. But I’m not going to experiment with a €179.- costing piece of electronics, thankyouverymuch.. :P

Luckily it has enough other positive things going for it, the voice-assisted calibration is a breath of fresh air. The last firmware makes control eerily precise, the thing can make my T-90 crawl at an almost imperceptable pace, and stay fully controllable. The separate smoker heater- and fan drive works like a charm on my modded HL smoker with fan. And -though not as loud as I had hoped based on the rather optimistic specs- the possibility of balancing of the sounds in the ini itself is pretty nifty. No more turret motor that’s louder than the main gun, f.i. So, apart from the disappointing sound pressure, it’s a great tank controller. Rather expensive, though.

Only other tiiiny niggle : The machine gun sound doesn’t always trigger the LED, and lags a bit.

Re: IBU2U low sound level

Posted: Wed May 16, 2018 7:56 am
by midlife306
Annnd relax lol
Volume is reduced the higher the ohm value of your speaker.
If your speaker was 4 ohm I think you would have less of a problem.
Cheers
Wayne


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Re: IBU2U low sound level

Posted: Wed May 16, 2018 11:16 am
by Raminator
I'd assume the IBU2U is much the same as the IBU2 and has a 4 ohm impedance amplifier, so if you match it with a 4 ohm speaker you'll be a lot better off. There was a night and day difference between my IBU2 running through an 8 ohm and a 4 ohm speaker.

Re: IBU2U low sound level

Posted: Wed May 16, 2018 11:34 am
by silversurfer1947
Just to clarify, when output is described as music power, it is a measure of the peak power and is frequently used to make an amplifier seem more powerful than it is. RMS is somewhat more complicated, but in simple terms, it is peak power divided by the square root of 2. Thus an amplifier described as 10 watts music power, would roughly be 7 watts RMS. It is also meaningless unless the speaker resistance is specified. 7 watts RMS with an 8 ohm speaker would be 14 watts RMS with a 4 ohm speaker. One then has to consider perceived loudness from the the speaker. This is a whole different ball game and gets in to complicated maths. There is a long Wikipedia entry under Audio Power, if you wish to investigate further.

Re: IBU2U low sound level

Posted: Wed May 16, 2018 3:41 pm
by Jay-Em
As stated, I tested a 4ohm 10w Visaton, and there was no difference. Still way too quiet. So, yes, I tested with 4ohm speakers as well (of course, otherwise the testing would be of no value)

I may not be the sharpest tool in the shed, but I’m smart enough to test with different impendances on same wattage speakers. :P

It is, apparently, what it is, so for now I’ve settled for the small round HengLong speaker. Until I get an external amp running, It’ll have to do.

(Tip: for a deeper sound, with a less ‘scratchy metallic over-tone” stick some dense foam to the hole on the underside. No idea why that hole is there. )