Soarer Central: How to Instructions for Installing an Amplifier

Soarer Central ICE - In Car Entertainment ICE Chat How to Instructions for Installing an Amplifier

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Will Adams
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Friday, July 14, 2006 - 12:04 pm, by: Will Adams (Draco)

Pretty much Daniel. Given the actual dimensions of the actual unit it won't fit properly and it will tend to sway a bit. This will then have an a great ability to snag itself on the sub or speaker.

I could probably make a bracket to keep it snug somehow in that spot.

Regarding the black thing I believe it is there to release the air pressure in the boot when you close it.

Will Adams
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Friday, July 14, 2006 - 09:13 pm, by: Will Adams (Draco)

I purchased a 4 gauge amplifier wiring kit today. I have routed all the wires to where they need to go, and have almost finished the bracket for the mounting of the amp. I have decided to stick with those location and the bracket is purely designed to stop the amp from tipping forward, otherwise it is perfectly snug when it's in.

The wires on this thing are huge. I just have to buy a connector (like a spade connector but round, as I seem to be 1 short). Otherwise there is no way in hell that the wire is gonna sit how it is, given the thickness of it.

The main reason for running the 4 gauge wire is due to the AMP having a fuse of 80AMPs.

Will Adams
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Sunday, July 16, 2006 - 12:05 am, by: Will Adams (Draco)

I have installed the sub and the wiring and hooked everything up. So far everything is okay except for the whining I am now getting from the stereo when the car is turned running. While the car is off, it is fine.

I ran the main power wire along the passenger side of the car and ran the RCA cables and the remote turn on switch on the driver's side. To ensure that they were seperated, I ran the cables along the back of the boot (i.e. under the fuel tank, round the right tail light, along the boot, past the left tail light and into the amplifier).

Would this issue be occurring because of the power wire running past the stereo (i.e. snaking it's way past the stereo behind the console)?

I also had a problem with the 4 gauge ground wire, as it was too big to fit onto the amp. So I had to make a new negative wire with 2 bits of "normal sized" wire and use that as the ground. Would this be the problem?

Tom Kneebone
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Sunday, July 16, 2006 - 12:17 am, by: Tom Kneebone (Tomk)

Where have you grounded the amp?

Will Adams
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Sunday, July 16, 2006 - 12:24 am, by: Will Adams (Draco)

Tom here's a picture of the amp installed. I have placed a red arrow where the ground currently is.

The blue wire that you see on the top right is a dud set of RCA wires. These are not connected anywhere.

Will Adams
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Sunday, July 16, 2006 - 12:47 pm, by: Will Adams (Draco)

Okay found the problem. It was the grounding

I disconnected my little wire ground and played with the actual plug that comes with the kit to plug it onto the amp. The plug had a huge eye which has now been modded to fit. A new screw for the extra length and this time stripped off more paint from the location as per above. Wired in the 4 gauge ground to that spot and fitted the amp back in.

Finally no more engine whine through my speakers. Phew!!

Here is a picture of the rear trim I cannabilised to allow the amp to breathe.

Daniel Czechowski
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Monday, July 17, 2006 - 10:32 am, by: Daniel Czechowski (Dan)

Looks nice and neat Will! How did you end up attaching the MDF to the car body?

Will Adams
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Monday, July 17, 2006 - 11:56 am, by: Will Adams (Draco)

It's not fully attached at the moment Daniel. It is solid where it is, given that I made a little bracket that pushes against the sub and the frame to keep it in check.

I have a problem now. While driving this morning, the sub was working fine. I got to a particular song and the sub was doing it's thing then all of a sudden it went dead. All I can hear now is this "doop" noise every couple of seconds or so (like popping the speaker). Rest of the stereo works fine.

Got home took the sub out and checked the wiring, it all looked fine. The interesting part though is that when the car and the stereo are off, that "doop" noise keeps going. Checked the amp and the amp is powered down so that's a good thing.

I noticed though that the light next to the power indicator (when the stereo is turned on) that a little red light labelled "RPT IND" is on.

I popped the 2*30AMP fuses out of the amplifier and this stops it popping. I leave it for a while (until all current is gone I guess) and then pop the fuses back in. No popping. The instant I turn the stereo back on and the stereo loads I get the popping again (doop noise).

I am going to replace the 2 * 30AMP fuses, but not sure if this will fix the problem?

Will Adams
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Monday, July 17, 2006 - 12:12 pm, by: Will Adams (Draco)

Okay read my instruction manual and it indicates that the "RPT IND" light is part of the "3-way SMART PROTECTION" thing that is in place. Basically designed to shut the amplifier down to protect it from damage.

The 3 different types of things it looks for is:

(1) DC Protection - detection of any voltage spikes (i.e. over driven or clipped)

(2) Short Circuit

(3) Thermal (excessive heat)

I doubt it would be thermal, as I was running it in it's current format yesterday afternoon. Also it had only been running for a short period of time.

Wonder what it could be?

Will Adams
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Monday, July 17, 2006 - 02:48 pm, by: Will Adams (Draco)

I redid the wiring on the power supply and also the ground to ensure that it was all fine. I changed the actual crossover itself back to FLAT with a frequency of 75Hz to ensure that it is not getting to much power again.

Any help??

Sean Camelin
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Monday, July 17, 2006 - 03:35 pm, by: Sean Camelin (Krener)

This would be a process of elimination to find the cause.
Have the amplifier gains been set correctly?
Have you set the bridge mode correctly?
Has the 'remote' wire been connected to the correct o/p of the head unit?
Is you + lead connected straight to the battery and is the connection a nice clean one?
Is the ground terminal to the battery nice and tight, and is the body earth nice and clean?
I don't mean to ask silly questions, but often the fault with car audio installations is people missing a simple step in setup rather than a component fault from new.
If thew above is ok then.........
Do you have a multi meter???If not then try the following.
Unplug your RCA leads and disconnect your speaker from the amplifier terminals.
Remove your fuses again and walk away for about 10 minutes.
Place your fuses back in and check the protection light.
If it's not on then turn the ignition switch to accessories and observe the protection light.
If it's still not on then check your sub wiring to make sure it isn't shorted to ground, and if it's ok then connect your speaker wires to the amp in the correct position.
Check the indicator light.
If it's not on then connect your RCA leads (make sure your volume is set to low on the headunit!) and check the indicator light again.

Will Adams
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Monday, July 17, 2006 - 04:17 pm, by: Will Adams (Draco)

Sean most of these steps I have gone through as previously indicated, but will go through them again.

The amplifier was working prior to this morning - all day yesterday and partially this morning

Sean Camelin wrote on Monday, July 17, 2006 - 03:35 pm:
have the amplifier gains been set correctly?
the amplifier has 3 things that I can set - mode for 2CH; Crossover Freq at Flat or LPF (Low Pass Filter) and the relevant Hertz 75 or 100. All options have been tried.

Have you set the bridge mode correctly?

this is labelled on the stereo and as mode is set to 2Ch I have connected the wires as per the instruction manual and the labelling

Has the 'remote' wire been connected to the correct o/p of the head unit?

yes as the amp turns itself on and off with the stereo

Is you + lead connected straight to the battery and is the connection a nice clean one?

yes it is, fresh install and wires are clean and perfect

Is the ground terminal to the battery nice and tight, and is the body earth nice and clean?

yes it is. Redid connection this morning to ensure it was

I don't mean to ask silly questions, but often the fault with car audio installations is people missing a simple step in setup rather than a component fault from new.

as stated the amp was working it just stopped this morning. The sub is just popping

Do you have a multi meter???If not then try the following.

Unplug your RCA leads and disconnect your speaker from the amplifier terminals.
Remove your fuses again and walk away for about 10 minutes.
Place your fuses back in and check the protection light.
If it's not on then turn the ignition switch to accessories and observe the protection light.
If it's still not on then check your sub wiring to make sure it isn't shorted to ground, and if it's ok then connect your speaker wires to the amp in the correct position.
Check the indicator light.
If it's not on then connect your RCA leads (make sure your volume is set to low on the headunit!) and check the indicator light again.

Okay undid everything one more time and this time followed the final steps here Sam. Disconnected the Fuses, Speakers and RCA plugs. So only the power, ground and power on wires are connected. No red indicator light.

Plugged in the Fuses and got red indicator light. Removed Fuses and tried again without anything connected, no red indicator light.

Hooked up sub wires and no red indicator light.
Hooked up RCA leads and no red indicator light.

Everything connected and plugged back in the 2 30AMP fuses and red power light. At this point I suspect it might be what I first though, the fuses (which I haven't replaced just yet) or something internal. Will replace fuses and see what happens.

Will Adams
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Monday, July 17, 2006 - 05:34 pm, by: Will Adams (Draco)

I have tried some new fuses within the AMP. It would appear to be an internal AMP fault that's causing the issue. Plug the new fuses in, and straight away the red indicator light comes on. Before I give up completely on the amp, I will go and get it tested.

Mark Paddick
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Monday, July 17, 2006 - 07:17 pm, by: Mark Paddick (Sparks)

Shorted speaker wiring, either to itself or earth.
Speaker impedance too low for the amp.
Probably the latter.
Quite often the internal protection circuitry will not reset after it is tripped or the amp has suffered internal damage.

Sean Camelin
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Monday, July 17, 2006 - 08:23 pm, by: Sean Camelin (Krener)

Mark Paddick wrote on Monday, July 17, 2006 - 07:17 pm:
Quite often the internal protection circuitry will not reset after it is tripped

Unless power is disconnected and then reconnected, or the fault is remedied.

Mark Paddick
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Tuesday, July 18, 2006 - 01:01 am, by: Mark Paddick (Sparks)

That's the way they are supposed to work but since a lot of amps are now made in China quite often the reset does not work as the SCR or similar device used in the protection circuit actually shorts when the protection is activated.
In fact some engineers design the protection circuit with a switching device that is underrated so that the protection circuit acts as a 'once-only' switch and cannot be reset without replacing that part.

Will Adams
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Tuesday, July 18, 2006 - 10:21 am, by: Will Adams (Draco)

Well I went back to the same place that had the amplifier tested (before I installed it). Originally it was working but after the test yesterday afternoon, it was found that the amp no longer gave an output signal. An internal fault appears to be the issue here. So as it would cost me at least a $100 to actually get somebody to just start looking at it, and also given that the amp is a couple of years old, I up'd and bought myself a new amp. It's a 2 channel Pioneer amplifier that is bridgeable. Installed it and so far everything is working fine.

Bass delivery is great. The sub works a treat (thanks Ben). System is now complete (except for reverse camera & GPS).

Daniel Czechowski
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Tuesday, July 18, 2006 - 11:01 am, by: Daniel Czechowski (Dan)

Post up some pics of the new install then Will. Hehe, b een meaning to ask you how your reverse camera is going too, so have you figured it out yet?

Will Adams
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Tuesday, July 18, 2006 - 11:12 am, by: Will Adams (Draco)

Daniel I am going to have to revisit the install, given that the new amplifier is a lot smaller than the broken one. It's is precariously mounted at the moment, so have to sit back down with it and figure how it's going to mount now.

If anything it will probably sit where the other one was, but the whole bracket idea will need to be redesigned.

Haven't worked out the camera yet, as I still haven't gotten round to actually buying the thing. I have some RCA leads running near the power wire for the stereo which I will use for the camera. It will really just be a matter of installing the camera and then running the relevant wires.

Will Adams
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Tuesday, July 18, 2006 - 11:15 am, by: Will Adams (Draco)

Here is a picture of the new amp

Sean Camelin
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Tuesday, July 18, 2006 - 12:14 pm, by: Sean Camelin (Krener)

Mark Paddick wrote on Tuesday, July 18, 2006 - 01:01 am:
That's the way they are supposed to work but since a lot of amps are now made in China quite often the reset does not work as the SCR or similar device used in the protection circuit actually shorts when the protection is activated.
In fact some engineers design the protection circuit with a switching device that is underrated so that the protection circuit acts as a 'once-only' switch and cannot be reset without replacing that part.

Gotta love the way they do that.
Thats why I advise people save a little longer and purchase something a little better, less chance of being stung.
In Wills case it is just unlucky.
That Pioneer looks alright, glad it's sorted out for you Will.