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ulrisa

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Posts posted by ulrisa

  1. Posted

    Rick: I currently have a D1 sub so I would wire them both to make a 1 ohm load vs the 2 ohm load it is at now. Then I would drop the gain to match the same overall wattage.

     

    Thanks for the replies guys, I thought the alt would probably be the best way to go. Has anyone noticed a significant increase in performance with the same equipment with an alt swap out? The voltage isn't super unstable as it is set right now, but I feel like if I had more power on tap I could safely increase the gain without overheating the sub.

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  2. Posted

    Hi-

     

    I have been using a ZCON 18" for about a year now and I love it. It's powered on an IA 40.1. I have an XS D3400 & XS XP3000 for a battery set up, and the stock 120 amp alternator. I've gotten it down so that the sub won't heat up during normal use and it's fairly loud. It get's a bit louder when I can crank it up but it also heats right up since my electrical begins to sag. I am working at a decently paying job for the summer and have decided I can either buy an additional ZCON 18" and making a new box or get a 300 amp singer alternator. I can only do one upgrade at this time, though both is obviously best.

     

    What would you guys think would be more beneficial (loudness-wise)? If I were to add the second 18" I would have to balance the power so it is the same as it is currently, there would just be double the cone area.

     

    I'm leaning towards the alt because it's less overall work, but I'm willing to put extra work in for more spl.

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  3. Posted

    Drilling holes and grommets work well. If you are unable to do this, I'm not sure how this buick is set up but I did an install an a buick lesabre once. It was only 8 awg so I ran the power wire through the door and up into the top of the hood protected by a sturdy rubber hose. If you have the same clearance that that car had between door, interior, and hood this is a good way to go. I was amazed at how well such a rig worked lol.

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  4. Posted

    That's why I use a pac. Knob. It allows me to lower or raise the signal going to the amplifier to a fine degree allowing you to turn it up or down.

     

    I do the same with my crossover, it works quite well.

     

    I think a majority of the issue at hand with the DD-1 is a lack of understanding by the defending party. Its been said a thousand times it seems, but the DD-1 does not make your gain setting any more safe than setting it by any other method. The only truly safe way to set it is by taking the time to listen to distortion, time being quite scalable to understand what distortion sounds like, and the time it takes for you to immediately notice a problem and turn it down. If a user does not truly understand what distortion sounds like, within reason, distort the speaker on purpose. This is how you can teach your ear to differentiate the difference if you really have no idea. Once you know what it sounds like, adjust accordingly. If you have a hard time with this, set the gain lower for a safety net. Most people should be able to discern a difference pretty rapidly, which is why I use a level knob near the driver's seat so that I can adjust it easily.

     

    It seems to me that people think the DD-1, multimeter, o-scope, etc, are the reference to trust. In some cases in the real world such as this, your own senses are better tools to trust. If you think about it, the only way you could get a tool to give you the best possible scenario for SPL on music would be to have a tool that could automatically change your gain in a specific pattern for a specific song. That becomes a pointless and complex venture very quickly.

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  6. Posted

    You could probably go 200, but if you have 250's they will work. To answer your earlier question having two batteries is going to even out the distribution of power better, so there will likely be less amperage flowing through your main power wire than there would be with just one battery. If any short did occur, it would probably be more than 250 amps anyway haha, the only thing to be careful of is using a fuse that is too high of a rating for the wire. This is the same set up I've used for years, it's a really safe way to go.

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  7. Posted · Edited by ulrisa

    Breaking wep takes under 10min.

    If router uses wps, 24 hours max.

    If using wpa, deauth clients, and record handshake upon reconnection. Might take 5 minutes, might take a few days until a wireless device is used. Either way they get the hash. Only safe guard is a strong password. Ub3R+c0d31 is not strong.

    Once they're on the network they can grab just about every login. Hit up the bank site, and the connection is no longer ssl https because its been stripped down to a standard http connection.

    OS patched up to date, no vulnerabilities, safe right? When iTunes, windows mail, filezilla, Microsoft update, etc all start up they connect to a server to check for updates, and the dns request can be spoofed so they connect to the wrong server, and download a fake update.

    That's definitely a lot of work to single someone random out for all that, and I doubt it'll happen, but its possible, and as Matt said, not very difficult.

     

    While it's possible to crack all of these types of encryption, using a mac filter will take care of any of this for the most part. It's pretty difficult to realistically crack a wireless network unless you really know what you are doing. If you have  MAC filter in place on your router though, it's WAY harder to get connected. The router will simply block a computer based on it's hardware id, so unless someone physically breaks in and finds out what your hardware ids are, they aren't getting connected. If someone were willing to do that you must have some important shit on lock haha.

     

    There are ways to get in obviously or these multibillion dollar corporations wouldn't get hacked, but that is a lot of effort just to access someone's personal accounts.

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  8. Posted

    I'm not familiar with the car, so this is just a thought. I would avoid using the speaker level outputs if possible where he has a stock sub because it's likely there is filtering going on at the head unit to not send those bass frequencies to the rear speakers. I would imagine the volume cap is also built into the stock head unit, theres no reason to use discrete components for something like that these days. It going to suck to hear, but he's probably better off replacing the head unit or getting a processing unit like an ms-8 (probably not of this calibur) to properly get it booming. Those stock head units in modern cars can be a bitch to work with.

     

    Good Luck!

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  9. Posted

    It may seem like it has been fixed, but if the amp is indeed broken and the output filtering is out of wack, it's probably a lose component in the filtering section of the amp. Those brands of amplifiers are not known for bad outputs. Just throwing it out there if it crops up again. Don't be afraid to take the cover off and wiggle around components and look for broken traces, unless it is under warranty haha.

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  13. Posted

    Hi all-

     

    I have been battling with alternator whine for a majority of my car audio hobby. I have tried countless things. I had just made an LC filter to filter out noise in the power line of my radio thinking it was finally it, but unfortuately it remained. Then it dawned on me, I have 2 amps for speakers in my car now and I tried disconnecting the one I've had for years. The noise went away, which is great to finally know what is causing it. The problem is I don't have the cash to buy a new amp for my midbass.

     

    Does anyone have any idea where to start troubleshooting inside the amp for something like this? I'm a fourth year electrical engineering student, so I'm quite confident when it comes to the internals; I just don't know where I should start.

     

    If you need any more info just let me know. The amp in question is a 4 channel RF T400-4

    Thanks!

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  17. Posted

    Off the top of my head, check the head unit settings and make sure nothing is wrong. Check the crossover settings on the amp, and make sure it is set correctly. Using a multimeter make sure the subs are at the correct resistance. If none of this works, also check the ac voltage of the rca leads and see if any voltage is coming from the head unit. If not, this would indicate bad rcas or bad outputs/bad settings.

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  21. Posted

    I recently installed a Pioneer AVH-3200BT in my new car. I've been having alternator whine issues, and I've been trying to figure it out. I thought it may be the pico fuse at first but the head unit still has connectivity between the chassis and rca shield. I tried a ground loop isolator and it made it worse. I ran a new ground direct from the head unit and the whine went away, but a static remained. At first it was bearable, but it's gotten louder for whatever reason.

    At one point today when I was troubleshooting it today, I removed the ground wire and the head unit stayed on! Confused, I tried to figure out how it was grounding, and it turns out it is grounding through the RCA's. The second I removed the new ground line, the whine came back louder than ever. This is definitely where the issue is coming from, but how would the unit ground through the RCA's? Has anyone heard of this?

    Thanks.

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  22. Posted

    Yeah I think you're just overthinking it. Just do your big 3 and get it outta the way, it's such a small amount of wire it's not like it's really costing you that much to do it.

    Are you coming to Sanford on the 29th?

    Oohh I didn't know there was a show on the 29th. I will try my best to get down there, I haven't had much time lately. I'm getting my ZCON 18 in this week though :).

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  25. Posted · Edited by ulrisa

    The long run cables to the rear is to help keep the voltage up for your alternator.

    If that ground cable you have ran from rear to front attaches to your front battery, then it would be wise of you to run an extra power AND ground cable from the alt to the front battery.

    The front battery itself doesn't need an extra ground on it.

    This will help keep the voltage high from the alt to the front battery since your rear battery has been decided to attach to the front battery.

    Ok, so what you are recommending is basically upgrading the alternator's circuitry to the front battery because the long ground run eliminates the need for an upgraded chasiss ground. How much would an upgrade from a stock 120 amp max alt really affect the stability of voltage? See what I calculated in my next reply, I'm not sure if I did it right.

    You are looking at it the wrong way. Calculate voltage drop vs current then you will see the benefit.

    Well I decided to use the NEM standard to make it easier so this is what I came up with.

    V = I*R

    1/0 awg, V = 120 amps (max rating) x ((4 feet x .0983 constant)/1000) = .047v or 0.3% drop (assuming 14.4v), 1.8 micro amps are lost in transmission

    8 awg, V = 120 amps (max rating) x ((4 feet x .6282 constant)/1000) = .30v or 2% drop (assuming 14.4v), 753 micro amps are lost in transmission

    Looking at it this way, even at the max end of the spectrum which I know my stock alt will never reach, I don't see a major benefit. I suppose when I think of a .3 v drop vs .047 v it has it's benefit but I'm not sure if its worth the cost.

    Let me know if I'm still on the wrong track.

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