Monday, April 23, 2007 - 09:45 pm, by: Will Adams(Draco)
Here's the scenario:
Amps were working perfectly fine after I had installed my Head Unit. After a bit of tuning I put the Head Unit back in to the console, however (as I discovered later) I had not shielded the "auto antenna" / "remote switch" from the Head Unit. So since then my amps have not powered up at all. The rest of the stereo works perfectly fine, so didn't blow a radio fuse.
I have checked the fuses and replaced a couple (including the ones on the battery). Although the Head Unit does have an in-line fuse to protect the Head Unit. However it would appear somehow that this wire has now been completely disabled.
I proceeded to get the Multimeter out and see if a signal was coming from the Head Unit down the auto antenna wires. Tested the wire and it is not getting any signal.
I also then attempted to connect the wire directly from the unit (rather than existing cabling) to one of 3 amps. All 3 amps work, yet none of them were turned on by the head unit. I checked all the fuses to make sure there wasn't a problem at the battery end.
My question (finally) is whether there is another way to actually get the amp fired up to run my sub. I assume I could probably connect a wire from the "accessory" wire and run it direct to the amp and see if this powers it up. Obviously this would have an in-line fuse on it to stop it from shortening it out and something worse. However if I do this, what are the other problems? Additionally would the RCA signal still be received by the amp to run the sub (as the remote turn on switch is not active from the HU)?
Brian Timms TryHard New South Wales TT Soarer Goodness.
Monday, April 23, 2007 - 11:29 pm, by: Brian Timms(Turbo_brian)
Easiest way to test the amps are still working is to bridge the remote wire and the Positive wire on the amps.
This is pretty much exactly the same as what the remote wire does (place 12v+ into the remote input on the amp).
Doing this should power them up immediately, and if the head unit is also going, you should have clear signal, give it a go and see what you get.
Also, running a +ive wire from the accessories is fine, BUT place a small 5amp fuse strait after you tap into the accessories, to protect what is an important feature of the car.
Worse case scenario, you blow a 5amp fuse and have to replace a fuse and check a cable, but this will remote activate the amps without an issue.
B.
Will Adams DieHard WA Soarer GT-T L (My 4th Soarer)
Tuesday, April 24, 2007 - 09:06 am, by: Brian Timms(Turbo_brian)
You dont need to leave it like that, just bridge it as you have diagrammed above to test it (I used to have an amp powered up this way before I got a proper headunit with remote wire, never got flat battery, and used to leave the car for anything from 1 to 4 days without use.
Test and see how it goes, worst case, wire the remote amp trigger wire to the same red wire as the headunit.
B.
Will Adams DieHard WA Soarer GT-T L (My 4th Soarer)
Tuesday, April 24, 2007 - 09:10 am, by: Will Adams(Draco)
I'll run the test tonight. If it works, I will just run the trigger wire from the accessory switch from the HU to the amp. After that I will then have 2 amps for sale. Awesome.
Brian Timms TryHard New South Wales TT Soarer Goodness.
Tuesday, April 24, 2007 - 09:56 am, by: Will Adams(Draco)
Will have them up tonight when I get home Brian. From memory:
1 is a 2 Channel Kicker amp, and the other is a 4 channel MAX Power amp.
I had these amps in the car powering the sub and also the front speakers. However as I have now had the front speakers rewired, I will only need to use 1 amp to run the sub. I also had a spare amp from my last car. So hence I will have 2 amps up for sale.
Brian Timms TryHard New South Wales TT Soarer Goodness.
Tuesday, April 24, 2007 - 07:47 pm, by: Will Adams(Draco)
Well I bridged it and it worked beautifully. Now the next thing I have to figure out is how the hell the sub's been wired. The sub was wired into the 4 channel amp, and has 4 speaker cables routed from it to the amp and then obviously to the RCA leads of the previous deck. The last sub I ran only used 2. It would appear as though it was configured to run on 4 seperate channels looking at the way it was wired up last time. Any suggestions on how I rewire this to a 2 channel (which will be bridged). I will have a closer look at the amp tomorrow and should be able to have a better understanding of how it's wired up.
Brian Timms TryHard New South Wales TT Soarer Goodness.
Wednesday, April 25, 2007 - 12:06 am, by: Brian Timms(Turbo_brian)
What sub are you running, I saw a stereo Fussion Sub when I was in Belingen, and it was a simple case of missing 2 of the inputs, and just running 2 leads from the Sub to the 2 channel bridged amp, and then RCA's for the left and right (sorry, red and black) to the headunit subwoofer RCA outputs.
Pitty your not closer to Sydney, would love to have helped you out on the stereo installs and removals
B.
Will Adams DieHard WA Soarer GT-T L (My 4th Soarer)
Thursday, April 26, 2007 - 08:35 am, by: Will Adams(Draco)
Got the sub running after I had some time yesterday morning to do it. Everything works fine, and sub is being turned on with the accessory switch. However my sub isn't as loud as my last one, and more than likely this is due to the sub running at a higher ohm than the last one. The last sub (which was a factory original) was running at 2ohms (bridged), and I suspect that this one is running at 4 ohm, so hence not as "bassy" as the last one.
As the sub has a Left & Right input, I am wondering if I connect the L+ & R+, and obviously the L- & R-, then bridge it whether or not this will give me back my bass?
Will Adams DieHard WA Soarer GT-T L (My 4th Soarer)
Friday, April 27, 2007 - 09:03 am, by: Will Adams(Draco)
So to state that again.............
As the sub has 2 outputs, a left and right channel, I was wondering if I connect both the positive leads from the sub and then plug it into the positive end of the amplifier, and subsequently do the same thing with the negative leads but connected to the negative end of the amplifier, whether this would damaged the sub at all? As the connection on the amp would be bridged, this would give much more bass and hopefully leave the rear speakers to do most of the mid-range and stuff.
Will Adams DieHard WA Soarer GT-T L (My 4th Soarer)
Friday, April 27, 2007 - 10:39 am, by: Leon Wright(Techman)
The first picture isn't good, the 2 voice coils need to be getting the same signals!!!!
As for the second picture, if you have it bridged you shouldn't have to do it like that, there should be 1 - and 1 +. You put the - on the negative on one side, link the positive from that side to the negative on the other, then put your positive cable on the positive terminal. If that makes sense?
I'm assuming it's a dual voice coil... If it isn't I have no idea what's going on! Where do you live, maybe you could swing by my joint on the weekend and I can take a look for you!
Will Adams DieHard WA Soarer GT-T L (My 4th Soarer)
Friday, April 27, 2007 - 01:39 pm, by: Will Adams(Draco)
Leon, the first picture is the current setup. So if I can explain it better.
The sub has a positive and negative terminal on either side of it. So hence there are 4 cables coming from the sub (2 positive and 2 negative). The way the sub was hooked up in the car when I first got it, was that these 4 wires ran to the amp. Positive and Negative for the left channel and a Positive and Negative for the right channel.
I have replicated this on my own amp and plugged the wires in exactly the same way. So hence the output from the HU to the amp is via one set of RCA cables (so 1 positive and negative), which then by way of the amp branches out to the 4 wires connected from the amp running to the sub.
In regards to the second picture I had my amp bridged before. So 1 positive and 1 negative from the amp to the 1 positive and 1 negative on the sub.
With this sub because it has the extra channel, I wanted to join the 2 positive wires from the sub (and obviously the negative wires as well) and then run these to the amp (so in effect getting 1 positive and 1 negative).
Or from what you are saying is that, from the sub connect 1 positive wire to the negative on one side, and 1 positive to the negative on the other side and then run these wires to the amp?
Would you mind drawing a diagram, would be easier.
Friday, April 27, 2007 - 03:18 pm, by: Leon Wright(Techman)
What brand/model number sub is it? I'm guessing it's dual voice coil. This setup would be ok, *IF* the amp is really up spec *AND* the input to both channels is mono (or a switch on the amp to combine the L+R channels)
Just be careful of your OHM loads because when you chain the voice coils like this it will increase the load. If the voice coils are 4ohms each, it will mean there will be a 2 ohm load when connected in series. Read the specs on the amp, if it is capable of a 2 ohm load when bridged, it should be ok, but it may get hot and cut on hot days (depending on amp quality and heat dissipation properties). If the Sub has dual 2ohm voice coils it will put a 1 ohm load on the amp and you would need a bloody good amp to drive it!
Tuesday, May 01, 2007 - 08:27 am, by: Will Adams(Draco)
Thanks Leon. From what else I have read on the web this is known as a "series" configuration as opposed to my old configuration as being an "independent" configuration. I think what I was suggesting was a "parallel" configuration.
I wired the sub up as a "series" configuration and this has changed the stereo for the better I think. The sub has got back that extra little oomph! that I was after.
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