Pan Galactic Ghetto Blaster

Basic operation is very simple. Connect it to power using the Anderson connector. If house current is around I use triplite powersupply in the small toolbox. Plug an external music source into the RCA jacks, you can use a walkman, iPod, a laptop or even a home stereo component, as long as it has volume control. Turn the volume down on the music source, to start with. Turn all of the switches on, and slowly turn the volume up.

The clipping protection on the amplifier is pretty aggressive, so if you turn the volume up too loud, the amplifier will just turn itself all of the way off.

The ghetto blaster, closed up. Note the velcro on the top for keeping the music source from sliding off if the PGGB is being carried around on its handtruck. In the back left corner of the PGGB there are four switches. From right to left:
Main: Controls the main power. If this is off, nothing will come on.
Amp: Controls the amplifier. This must be on in order to get sound.
Lamp: Controls a red LED. Used when DJing in the dark.
Fan: The Rockford Fosgate amp has very aggressive thermal cutoffs. If you want to run the PGGB at anything over "idle", turn the fan on to keep the amp from cutting out.

Flip the switch back to turn it on, forward to turn it off. The easiest/safest is to just flip all the switches back, whether you need the LED to see by or not. On the right side of the PGGB are the speaker plugs. This picture shows it with the internal speakers plugged in. External speakers can be plugged in instead. There are RCA jacks for four line level inputs, and four buttons for selecting which input. Use the button on the left to select the leftmost signal. The buttons and their matching inputs are labeled in these photos. If you are having trouble with one of the channels, try another. Channel 1 is sometimes a bit flaky. These pictures show my powerbook "g4est" plugged into the PGGB as a music source. I have g4est sitting on the plexiglass shelf that folds down out of the lid. The PGGB can run off of either the internal battery, or external power. The 12V power is connected via the polarized Anderson connectors. The cable on the right, with just the red and black wires, is the lead that attaches to the battery. It is labeled "BAT" in these photos.

The lead on the left, with the heavy cable and the fuse is the power input. It is labeled "IN" in these photos.

These photos show the PGGB running off the internal battery.
These pictures show the PGGB hooked up to the external power supply. It is usually kept in the small diamondplate toolbox. Plug the power supply into the "IN" cable of the PGGB, plug the power cord into the wall and turn on the red switch on the front of it, to power the PGGB. These pictures show the extension cable for running the PGGB off of a cigarette lighter in a car.