My amplifier getting hot is it normal

Kamranbites · January 19

My amplifier is getting too hot (the pins where I connected the speakers and the capacitors, back side of it).

Also I have noticed when volume is little high it gets hot

Capacitors are 35V as you can see in attached picture.

Amplifier is XY-15W

8-24V power support

Using 12V 3A

Speakers are 3Ω 10+10

Chip used on that amplifier is TPA3110D2

OhioYJ · January 19

What do you mean by "too hot." Most electronics can get uncomfortably hot to the touch and still be within normal operating conditions.

Amplifiers will get hot when used, especially if "pushed hard." You'll notice most larger amplifiers have their own built in heatsinks for this reason. So if it's actually over heating, you need a more appropriate amplifier, or need to add cooling.

Kilrah · January 19

Since you know the chip you can look at the datasheet.

At 12V the max power into 4 Ohm is about 12W per channel, with 80% efficiency, so the chip would dissipate 4.8W, nostly to the bottom side so yeah that'll get warm. But also looking at the absolute maximum ratings at 12V min speaker impedance is 3.2 Ohm so 3 would be beyond "likely to kill the chip".

mariushm · January 19

It should get warm to hot, but not hot enough that you can't keep the finger on the chip.

The amplifier chip is "optimized" for 4 ohm or 8 ohm speakers, 3 ohm is a bit low but will still work, but could decrease efficiency.

My advice... get some aluminum or copper sheet, get some hex standoffs and a thermal pad ... put the thermal pad between the circuit board (under the chip on that solder on the bottom) and screw the board to the standoffs - you want some standoffs so that you won't have a short circuit between the copper/aluminum base and the pins of the speaker and power terminals.

You could skip standoffs and use a thinner thermal pad, if you put 2-3 layers of electrical tape on the metal under the pins to prevent short circuits.