this post was submitted on 27 Jan 2024
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My in laws gifted my kid this pretty cool RC car but it makes this awful music that’s REALLY loud. Can I wire a resistor in series on one of the speaker legs to turn the volume down, say 50%?

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[–] buckykat@hexbear.net 13 points 11 months ago (2 children)

Sure, you could also use a potentiometer to give it a volume control dial

[–] EmmaGoldman@hexbear.net 5 points 11 months ago (1 children)

See, the problem with doing this is that the kid will just turn it back up all the way. I think what you'd actually want here is a voltage divider, right? Just putting a resistor in series is going to distort the already crappy audio quality even more which is going to make it sound even worse, just not as loud.

[–] buckykat@hexbear.net 8 points 11 months ago (2 children)

A voltage divider is a resistor in series

[–] EmmaGoldman@hexbear.net 5 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Isn't it multiple parallel resistors in series? Shit, am I forgetting everything from my EE classes a decade ago?

[–] buckykat@hexbear.net 5 points 11 months ago

Remember that voltage divides between series elements (Kirchoff's Voltage Law) while current divides between parallel ones (Kirchoff's Current Law). A voltage divider is literally as simple as two resistors in series, each having a voltage across it proportional to its own resistance divided by the total resistance.

[–] BakedCatboy@lemmy.ml 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I thought a voltage divider is 1 resistor in series and another in parallel? That way you have 2 resistors in series while the component in question sources it's voltage from in between the 2 resistors, dividing the voltage based on the proportion of the resistances of the 2 resistors. Kinda like dividing up a waterfall into 2 waterfalls of separate height that add up to the same total as the original waterfall, and then putting a turbine going from between the waterfalls to the bottom so you only get the lower waterfall's portion of the energy compared to the original waterfall's full height.

[–] buckykat@hexbear.net 1 points 11 months ago

The component in question, in this case the speaker, can be treated as the second resistor.

[–] Assian_Candor@hexbear.net 2 points 11 months ago (1 children)
[–] buckykat@hexbear.net 2 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Hell yeah, working as expected?

[–] Assian_Candor@hexbear.net 2 points 11 months ago (1 children)

It’s perfect, got it down i would say around 40%. It’s still loud but no longer loud in the adjacent room, and ofc now it’s adjustable. Can’t stress how big of a quality of life improvement this represents