So i got my capacitor today... I hooked it up just like the diagram said and i charged it properly too.
It works good... my lights dont dim anymore... YES!!
So my question is, when i turn off my car (which includes cd player and amp), is the LCD on the capacitor supposed to stay on? Cuz it just displays "12.3" when nothing is even on... any suggestions?
Thanks guys!!

 

I believe thats there so that if your running your stereo without the engine turned on, you are able to monitor your voltage so you dont get down to low and are unable to start.
the current to run it would be minimal. so yes it probably should be on

I dont know anything about them, but thats what i would think.

 

thats what i thought too cuz its not like the cap is powering anything... hmmm... still, it doesnt seem right for some reason...

 

it stays on for a lil while while it drains power, is it a power acoustic?

 

Naw, its an American Legacy 1.6 farad cap... its for my 1000 watt amp... and it works great, my lights dont dim no more.. but yeah, it does stay on for a while.... does urs do that?

its been 35 minutes and the LCD display is still on.... i am worried

so what, nobody knows?

 

The cap stores an electrical charge, that is what it is there for. When you turn the car off it takes a while to bleed off all that stored charge, you're good.

 

THANK U soo much... i was worried it was guna drain my battery or something... i really appreciate it so it doesnt mean its wasting power right, i just wana make sure thanks again!!!

 

yes and no honestly

the way my fosgate cap was setup was it would display the voltage until there was a steady number for 5 mins or so (according to the manual) then the lcd would shut off... but from experaince it took quite a while longer to keep the voltage steady for 5 mins. Also to answer you question if its wasting power the answer is yet. it takes some power to keep the display on but its a really low amount. So if you cap was the only thing powering the display and it sayed on until there was no power left it would take quite a while to drain the cap entirely. And your battery has a bunch more power avail then the cap so unless the thing is on forever for a few years then i wouldnt worry about your battery draining

 

holy giant sig batman, you need to shrink that thing

 

Hmm.. I see, that makes sense... Im just really excited cuz now that i got the cap i can bump my muzic at nite where as before i couldnt cuz my lites would dim.. but yeah, ur probably right, it shouldnt drain my battery til it dies.. It looks really cool when the muzic is playing... the digits bounce around all crazy.. excuse me while i take this moment to laugh at my local stereo shop.. they were trying to charge me $30 to install it and it only took me 45 minutes to mount it properly, charge it, and hook it up... LOL. Saved myself some $

Really? it looks small on my laptop.. any smaller and ima need glasses! Lol I'll see what i can do reign

Aite i changed my sig...

 

I guess I can explain this a little clearer. The capacitor is a high-speed storage device. When you turn on your car, it charges up to the battery voltage and holds that charge.
When your amp needs more current, the capacitor supplies that current faster than the battery can. Your system should sound better because the amp isn't starving when it has to put out loud bass notes. That's why your lights don't dim anymore, the amp is getting the current it needs from the cap, without sucking power from the lights.

When you turn off the amp the cap doesn't have any electrical path to discharge through, so it takes quite a while for that charge to bleed off. If you unhooked that cap it could stay charged for days.

Hope this helps

 

right but the fact of the matter is the lcd or led whatever does use energy and does "waste" it by being on. But theres so much in contrast to what it uses theres no need to worry about it.

 

If you get a large enough cap, that sucker could easily keep the little display going for a couple of days. Don't ask...

 

Thanks for the reply guys, it just started freakin me out... but yeah, now i see how it works.. i went to my car this morning and the LED was off... and my car started up perfectly.. thanks

Ok one more question is it safe to ground the cap together with the amp?

 

you mean on the same point? The best way is to have 2 seperate grounds for each and run them to the same point

 

emperor, yeah thats what i did... i grounded them seperately but they are one the same 12v source that is located on the amp... yup its hooked up right considering i followed the instructions correctly.

 

I know this is an old post but i was worried about the same thing ...thanks for the info and i know it stores power and not drain it!!!!

 

Almost 9 years after the OP.

Impressive.

 

Hey ,just installed my capasitor in my car ,works great 12.5 to 14.7 area but when i shut car off led says 18.8 andthe little blue power light on top stay on wtf ,the 18.8 goes dim when shut car off but power light stays on i ask is cause all the YouTube video say they should shut off in about 60 seconds but that not what all the post say here please help cause i dont want to have to go out and my car dead cause the cap dident shut off,