for people running +1500watts

[Sonicxtacy02]

what are you doin to supply power to the system. I just added a 1000 watt amp and it seems to draw so much power from the system that the front amp shuts down. I know there are people with more than me, so what are ya doin?

[roly_39]

1. What are the fuse ratings on your amps?<BR>2. How big is your power wire? 8-4?<BR>3. What are you running for a battery?<BR>4. Do you have a capacitor?<P>After answering these questions we'll be able to help you better. By fuse ratings i mean check the side of all your amps and see how big the fuse is (20-30 amps). Some bigger amps could have two fuses.

[VizualXTC]

I'm sayin you either need a better alternator, power cap, or extra battery. I'm only runnin 600W and I'm havin no probs. I wish I could help more dood.

[loudsubz]

1. Run a bigger power wire, 1/0 awg is good.<BR>2. Upgrade the ground from the chasis to battery<BR>3. Get an Yellow Top Optima or equivelant battery under the hood<P>Sorry but thats off the top of my head now, im tired.

[Sonicxtacy02]

ok this is off the top of my head, not sure the numbers for the fuses<P>1000 watt amp-2 yellows<BR>500 watt amp- 1 yellow<BR>200 watt amp 1 blue (maybe red)<P>I dont have an cap and i'm not sure that i need it for full range speakers, the large amp doesnt dim the lights or anything, just seems to be having a prob with that one 200 watt amp. I am running all three amps with 8 power wire to a dist. block (grounds are on dist. block too), and running 4 guage from that to a die hard battery. I would love to upgrade that but i just bought it 6 months ago and in having it tested by NTB it was the maximum in all ratings, dont wanna waste it ya know.

[codyhoover]

is that 1500max or rms? because if your talking rms your gonna need a bigger or second alternator. if its max..........<BR>-run 0/1 awg power and groud<BR>-1 farad capacitor per 1000w.......so 2 farads<BR>-battery will not really help sound quallity but it will extend how long the system will run with the car off<BR>-run a single really good ground(back to battery would be ideal)<P>with that size of a system you NEED capacitors. if not your lights will dim(or go out) or in extream cases i'v seen a stereo draw so much power it missfired and killed the engine(240sx w/ pair of precicion power pcx-2400 )<BR>my car is at 820w max and without a cap my headlights/interior lights dim quite noticably with every base hit.

[Sonicxtacy02]

i fixed the problem by hooking the ground to the battery. As for the capacitors, i dont think i need them. all amps are running quite fine without them and i'm still not dimming. I tested the draw with a full load (Full AC, lights, strobes, fogs) and the draw was still within acceptable range. I'm sticking with a cap. oh and its its a total of 1800 watts max.

[psurollsovau]

you grounded the amp to the battery? that sounds like a pain in the a--. also for some reason this makes me think you might screw up the battery [img]shrug.gif"%20border="0[/img] . ive never seen anyone ground a amp to the battery.

[Sonicxtacy02]

its no more troubling than running the power to the battery. And it certainly wouldnt mess anything up. Afterall, the car (frame) is grounded to the battery also. There isnt some magical force that makes the frame grounded (thought i used to think so myself too) ITS THE FORCE I TELL YOU THE FORCE!!!!<P>Seriously, only thing it could possibly do is cause more engine noise, but i have that supressed.<p>[ April 02, 2002: Message edited by: Sonicxtacy02 ]

[codyhoover]

Grounding it to the battery directly sould eliminate any engine noise. the whining engine noise that gets higher with rpm is caused by the ignition system, which is grounded to the frame. so by not using the frame you effectivly seperate the two circuits and should have no engine noise. if for some odd reason you still do, you can get get an isolation block. its essentually a distribution block directly off the battery but has some internal circuitry that electrically seperates all the attached components. if that doesnt work your car truely is possesed by the devil.

[codyhoover]

caps are useless? <BR>right if you really want to know how they work and what they do, here it goes. <P>a capacitor is an electrical storage device similar to a battery only the potential is created by the collapsing of a magnetic field instead of a chemical reaction, allowing caps to have a lot higher current discharge rate. <P>when your stereo is on the amount of power used varies with changes in the music. when the system draws large amounts of power the magnetic field in the cap begins to collaps and discharge more power. when the system draws less power the capacitor recharges by rebuilding the magnetic field. on the stereo side of the cap the power requirements are constantly changing but on the engine side there is a constant power draw by the cap.<P>when the engine is on the battery does nothing. all the power is provided by the alternator. the capacitor make it so the alternator does not have to try and keep up with the alternating power load developed by a stereo. capacitores use no power themselves so they in no way put more load on the electrical system<P>as for batteries being a load on the electrical system, it doesnt matter if you have 1 or 25 batteries, they're not going to draw more current while recharging simply because theres more of them. <P>i know the intention is good but it really does people no good when you get on here and talk about stuff you dont have a clue about. its no wonder people get confused on this board because when someone askes a question they have to try and figure out who knows what there talking about and who is talking out ther a--.(sorry....pet pieve of mine)<P> -cody

[BumpNGlow]

thats a good technical explination cody, but the one thing you left out is how caps hurt you. Caps are awesome for driving around.. .they supply the power needed for heavy demands from the amp. The problem with caps comes when you compete. If your alternator can't keep up with your system while you are burping your sub, and your battery drains, the cap steps in and supplies a lil bit of power... the problem is, when you rest for a second(change tones or restart the burps), the cap has to get recharged from the alternator... so now, the battery is not getting 100% of the juice b/c the cap is "stealing" some. Now when the next burp comes, the cap is useless, and so is your battery.... thus, low voltage to the amp, and low power......<P>Caps are great for systems that don't compete, or if you have a very nice alternator and you just need a lil extra boost(but don't want an additional battery).

[codyhoover]

but capasitors have a much higher discharge rate than bateries. if your system needs more current than the battery can discharge, then what? the system cant draw the power off the battery so it sucks it off everything else, lighting system, ignition, fuel system. your lights will start dimming with the music and engine performance can go down the shitter. drycells are a little better than wet but still nowhere near capacitors.<P>probably one of thoughs questions thats up to personal preferance. my stereo sounds better and hits much harder with the capacitor so i'm sticking with it.

[loudsubz]

This was from RC forum on Carsound.<P>Why Caps suck:<P>1) Even if the cap has low internal resistance, it still has some. The more current you try to pull out, the more it's output voltage will drop. Caps are supposed to provide current to keep the voltage from sagging. <P>2) Caps don't store very much energy. A 1.0F cap stores 98 joules at 14V. A 65 amp/hour battery stores almost 3,000,000 joules at 12.8V. A joule is a watt per second. The 1F cap could theoretically provide 98 watts for a period of 1 second. <P>3) 10 volts represents the point where a car stereo can no longer remain operable. If we look at how much energy a cap can provide down to 10v the result is 48 joules. The car battery can still provide 2.5 million. Point here is that 1/2 of the cap's capacity is actually usable. <P>4) (similar to (1) ) All electronic components have internal resistance. Even if the cap is good, when we try to draw large quantities of current, the output voltage will drop. If we ask for too much current, the cap will do squat since the output voltage would drop below 10v. <P>5) A 9v battery can do 20x more work than a 14v/1.5F cap <P>6) In real world tests with a 2kW stereo, power-on listening makes a big difference in residual voltage compared to power-off. Cap has an insignificant impact. Average voltage remains at 12.xxx whether the cap is in or not, not 14.xxx as some would assume. <P>Furthermore, as the stereo draws more current than the alternator can produce, the voltage will drop. The Cap will attempt to supply 14v at the requested current level. Chances are if the Alternator is not able to keep up, the draw is large. The cap will suffer internal resistance and do squat. The battery will begin supplying current at 12.x volts and will continue to do so due to its millions of joules. Ironically, when the musical peak is complete, the cap will present a load to the battery/alternator. <P>7) The amount of caps necessary to achieve a satisfactory amount of joules with a low enough ESR is 15+, regardless of size. The combined ESR shrinks when these devices are in parallel. 15 caps cost more than a good battery or two. <P>8) Factory alt/battery is adequate for a 2kW stereo. <P>Moral of the story: Spend your money on a battery with a low ESR. This will help the battery to supply current without as much of a drop in voltage. Caps look good in your car but do very little to help your stereo. Headlights dim because the alternator experiences ESR drop when it tries to supply max current. A cap can help with this but it actually increases the load on the alt. ESR comes into play during charging as well.