Ruby is in Heat

[MetalUpYerEye]

Hey guys, I threw together a Ruby for my brother last night and when I fired it up it worked great but the 386 is generating an unusual amount of heat. Like enough to burn your fingers. Enough that I could feel the 3" wide enclosure warm to the touch after about a minute. Any ideas on what could be causing this unusual 386 heat wave?

I also had a question about my Dr. Boogey. I put a fresh battery in it when I boxed it and the next day it was being finnicky so I checked the battery and it was like half dead. I had played it for maybe 2 hours tops, does the Dr. usually eat batteries that fast?

Thanks again guys

Josh

[petemoore]

Hey guys, I threw together a Ruby for my brother last night and when I fired it up it worked great but the 386 is generating an unusual amount of heat.
  "Unusual is actually quite "common' and to be expected [I think your ruby works right]. A little chip like this moving enough current to drive a speaker is bound to produce heat byproduct...
  I put a heat dissipation shield on my lm386 that generates all the heat [the first one on my board is a PS divider {?'IIRC]..
  Like enough to burn your fingers. Enough that I could feel the 3" wide enclosure warm to the touch after about a minute. Any ideas on what could be causing this unusual 386 heat wave?
  LM386...little chip pouring out current...
  There's not much you can do about this other than turn the volume down or improve the chips ability to dissipate heat.
  I used a 2'' x 2'' copper sheet, marked a chip sized square in the center, then cut lines from the edge to the four corners, bent the 'flaps' I'd created up [so as to allow unrestricted chip install between tall capacitors], I drilled a couple holes in the shield, and used a copper wire to tie the [JB Weld] epoxy-topped chip/heat shield together, for drying...the smashed flat portion of the [solid core] tie wire ends up between the chip and socket.
  There's probably a chip shield available?...@@ny rate, a heat shield allows much more current over the short and long run to flow through the LM386 greatly *Diminished chances for thermal runaway.
 
 

[MetalUpYerEye]

I understand what you're saying, the reason why I said unusual is because I have another Ruby in the same enclosure driving the same speakers and to my knowledge it has never gotten even warm to the touch. Maybe I need to go back and test the old Ruby too, it may be generating the same heat in which case theres probably nothing to worry about.