{"id":2490,"date":"2026-03-30T23:11:48","date_gmt":"2026-03-31T04:11:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.paleotechnologist.net\/?p=2490"},"modified":"2026-03-30T23:11:49","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T04:11:49","slug":"components-lm386-audio-amplifier","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.paleotechnologist.net\/?p=2490","title":{"rendered":"Components: LM386 audio amplifier"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">You sometimes hear electronics types talk about &#8220;jellybean&#8221; components. They&#8217;re not necessarily referring to the shape, so much as that such parts are likely to be stocked on hand in reasonable quantity in even a modest electronics lab, often in bins to be dispensed as needed like candy. The 2N2222 transistor, 555 timer, and &#8216;741 op amp are other such parts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The LM386 audio amplifier is one such &#8220;jellybean&#8221; part. Although as a digital partisan, when I hear &#8220;386,&#8221; I think of the <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/I386\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Intel 80386<\/a>, the LM386 audio amplifier chip is a very useful part for projects that include a speaker. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ti.com\/lit\/ds\/symlink\/lm386.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\" noreferrer noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1020\" height=\"762\" src=\"https:\/\/www.paleotechnologist.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/LM386.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-5401\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.paleotechnologist.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/LM386.png 1020w, https:\/\/www.paleotechnologist.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/LM386-300x224.png 300w, https:\/\/www.paleotechnologist.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/LM386-768x574.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1020px) 100vw, 1020px\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Pinout of the LM386. (Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ti.com\/lit\/ds\/symlink\/lm386.pdf\">TI datasheet<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"> The LM386 is straightforward enough to use: Provide ground, suitable supply voltage (5-12VDC or so), and a low-level audio signal on the non-inverting input. Leave the gain pins disconnected for the default gain of 20, and connect a speaker via a 250uF series cap, with a 500nF+10R series pair to ground from the output, and you&#8217;re good to go. The input is nice and high impedance, so it can be driven by pretty much anything.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The LM386 audio amplifier is a convenient way to add a speaker amp to electronics projects. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.paleotechnologist.net\/?p=2490\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[219,383,284,265,238],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2490","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-analog","category-audio-analog","category-building-blocks","category-components-electronics","category-electronics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.paleotechnologist.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2490","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.paleotechnologist.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.paleotechnologist.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.paleotechnologist.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.paleotechnologist.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2490"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.paleotechnologist.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2490\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5402,"href":"https:\/\/www.paleotechnologist.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2490\/revisions\/5402"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.paleotechnologist.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2490"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.paleotechnologist.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2490"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.paleotechnologist.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2490"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}