Big 3 shopping list.
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Joined: 09-26-07
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From: VA Beach
Oh yea....goto your car, setup your music to as loud as you would be "jamming" out to, and take some voltage readings at that 500/1 (one probe on B+ one on GND) and post what voltage you're getting during bass drops, etc.
I think we have to be fair and apply this to rockford as well :P....their T line and the 360's are alright, everything else is pretty much ****.
Ground the amplifiers to your battery if you can and then ground the battery to your frame rail.....make sure to upgrade that groud from your frame to your engine...keep in mind that the true ground of any running vehicle is the alternator case (cases in JJ's car), so the ground strap from the frame to the engine is, imo, the most important. If you're really worried about dimming lights, grab that extra battery (helps with the current draw), grab an HID kit, and change all the incandescent bulbs in your car to LEDs; that is, if the big three doesn't help.
By the way, if you do an extra battery, make sure its the same as the stock one...If you want to upgrade to kinetik, either get 1 1800, or 2 800's.....don't tie these in to your stock battery, they will only fight eachother due to their different properties (e.g. ESR, equivalent series resistance) and one will get more charge than another, draw more from the alt, etc.
Ground the amplifiers to your battery if you can and then ground the battery to your frame rail.....make sure to upgrade that groud from your frame to your engine...keep in mind that the true ground of any running vehicle is the alternator case (cases in JJ's car), so the ground strap from the frame to the engine is, imo, the most important. If you're really worried about dimming lights, grab that extra battery (helps with the current draw), grab an HID kit, and change all the incandescent bulbs in your car to LEDs; that is, if the big three doesn't help.
By the way, if you do an extra battery, make sure its the same as the stock one...If you want to upgrade to kinetik, either get 1 1800, or 2 800's.....don't tie these in to your stock battery, they will only fight eachother due to their different properties (e.g. ESR, equivalent series resistance) and one will get more charge than another, draw more from the alt, etc.
Well what could be causing my lights to dim so bad? Is there something that I could have done wrong?
Im gonna ground my amps to another spot and check all my terminals to make sure they are crimped tight. Anything else I should check?
By the way my lights would dim when I had just my Pioneer 600w amp installed and only got worse with my jl amp.
Im gonna ground my amps to another spot and check all my terminals to make sure they are crimped tight. Anything else I should check?
By the way my lights would dim when I had just my Pioneer 600w amp installed and only got worse with my jl amp.
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Joined: 08-22-07
Posts: 230
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From: Hampton Va
Tomorrow at work ill see if i can borrow my friends DMM to check my voltage. (I should do that anyway to make sure my gains are set right.)
And as far as grounds go I think I'm going to drill a hole in the sheet metal and put a bolt through that to ground the battery to. I can do a run or two of 4g to that from the battery to see of it helps.
Thanks for all the suggestions and advice everyone.
And as far as grounds go I think I'm going to drill a hole in the sheet metal and put a bolt through that to ground the battery to. I can do a run or two of 4g to that from the battery to see of it helps.
Thanks for all the suggestions and advice everyone.
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Joined: 08-22-07
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From: Hampton Va
Just a quick update, as far as the volts go. At first, when I had music playing the volts were jumping around anywhere from 30 to 70 volts! I'm not sure if its normal for it to go so high, but when it does go that high its only for a fraction of a second. Later I got a 50 Hz test tone (as recommended by JL) and checked the volts, they were holding steady around 40. So then I adjusted my gain so that it was at 31 volts (recommended by JL).
So my gain was up a little too high, but now that it has been corrected my lights still blink just as bad.
So my gain was up a little too high, but now that it has been corrected my lights still blink just as bad.
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Joined: 09-26-07
Posts: 822
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From: VA Beach
honestly i was talking about the voltage coming off of your negative and positive terminals for you amplifiers power, ranging anywhere from 10-14 volts.....your high level input voltage should not have hit 70 with that 500/1...thats ridic
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