Newbie Electrical Help

[nick9892 0]

Ok guys I recently put in an 18" fi bl with a Sundown Sae-1200dv2 into a 2009 ford escape. The box is around 7 cubes tuned to 32 hertz. Amp is being ran at 1 ohm. All power and ground wire is being ran in 1/0 Knu. Under the hood i have only upgraded my battery negative to chassis ground power wire to 1/0 ga. Everything is properly installed wiring wise, I'm having a problem with the amp going into protection mode when playing music higher volumes. The bass boost is all the way down on the amp and the gain is set to 1/2 and everything else was set by a buddy of mine more experienced with car audio. What happens is when i have the gain on my knob turned up to about 3/4 maybe a little less, and crank up the volume to around 50/62(pioneer premier headunit) i'm not having really any problems with the amp, but once that gain knob goes over about 3/4 of the way to max with the volume up as previously stated, the amp kicks right into protection mode. Which then i turn town the volume and it comes right out of protection mode. So I'm wondering if this is most likely a low voltage problem causing this as i don't have a voltage meter installed to visually see what I'm getting. I have a stock alt and stock battery and like i said earlier all 1/0. So just looking to get some input from you guys. i also tried to read up on similar topics and i can assure you guys all my wiring and impedance issues are correct and my amp's ground is to a bolt scraped to the chassis metal. I'm not really sure what the problem is so thanks for any help guys i really appreciate it.

Nick

Edited April 10, 2010 by nick9892

[CrazyKenKid 64]

so you didnt' complete the big3 upgrade! (alt to battery, the positive run)

other then that at 1200rms you have a currnet pull of about 100amps(at 12volts)! now i need to aks what is your rating of your alt? and front battery?

also most likey it is going into protect due to lach of voltage i would definitally get a voltmeter on the terminals JSUt to see what kind a voltage the amp is getting then go form there

as for the GAIN how did you set it? via dmm? or just by ear?

[shizzzon 461]

are your lights dimming fairly low when this happens?

From past experience with several other pioneer units... right before it goes into protect, does the bass sound aggressively distorted in any way?

If the sub sounds different, like it's trying to do too much right before it goes into protect, your rca preouts may be going out or are already damaged.

Pioneer units are 100% prone to this and they need to fix this issue ASAP.

I'm not saying that is your problem but if you do not have a voltage problem... i'd be unplugging the rca line from the headunit and plug something else up to it like an ipod or something and see if it still does it.

[Kanaworm$ 292]

Ok guys I recently put in an 18" fi bl with a Sundown Sae-1200dv2 into a 2009 ford escape. The box is around 7 cubes tuned to 32 hertz. All power and ground wire is being ran in 1/0 Knu. Under the hood i have only upgraded my battery negative to chassis ground power wire to 1/0 ga. Everything is properly installed wiring wise, I'm having a problem with the amp going into protection mode when playing music higher volumes. The bass boost is all the way down on the amp and the gain is set to 1/2 and everything else was set by a buddy of mine more experienced with car audio. What happens is when i have the gain on my knob turned up to about 3/4 maybe a little less, and crank up the volume to around 50/62(pioneer premier headunit) i'm not having really any problems with the amp, but once that gain knob goes over about 3/4 of the way to max with the volume up as previously stated, the amp kicks right into protection mode. Which then i turn town the volume and it comes right out of protection mode. So I'm wondering if this is most likely a low voltage problem causing this as i don't have a voltage meter installed to visually see what I'm getting. I have a stock alt and stock battery and like i said earlier all 1/0. So just looking to get some input from you guys. i also tried to read up on similar topics and i can assure you guys all my wiring is correct and my amp's ground is to a bolt scraped to the chassis metal. I'm not really sure what the problem is so thanks for any help guys i really appreciate it.

Nick

What is the impedence of the suwoofer? Complete the "Big 3" on the positive side.

Here is a nice read on setting the gains .... How To: Set your Amplifier Gain - SSA Car Audio Forum

[nick9892 0]

so you didnt' complete the big3 upgrade! (alt to battery, the positive run)

other then that at 1200rms you have a currnet pull of about 100amps(at 12volts)! now i need to aks what is your rating of your alt? and front battery?

also most likey it is going into protect due to lach of voltage i would definitally get a voltmeter on the terminals JSUt to see what kind a voltage the amp is getting then go form there

as for the GAIN how did you set it? via dmm? or just by ear?

I believe the stock alt is 150 amps and i'm not sure of the ca for my stock battery. the gains were set by ear but it was set by someone installing car audio systems for years. (He's out of town or i'd ask him for help btw)

[nick9892 0]

so you didnt' complete the big3 upgrade! (alt to battery, the positive run)

other then that at 1200rms you have a currnet pull of about 100amps(at 12volts)! now i need to aks what is your rating of your alt? and front battery?

also most likey it is going into protect due to lach of voltage i would definitally get a voltmeter on the terminals JSUt to see what kind a voltage the amp is getting then go form there

as for the GAIN how did you set it? via dmm? or just by ear?

I believe the stock alt is 150 amps and i'm not sure of the ca for my stock battery. the gains were set by ear but it was set by someone installing car audio systems for years. (He's out of town or i'd ask him for help btw)

So my head unit is only a year old p410ub model but i'll look into that. I'm positive my gains aren't the issue. There is a fair amount of dimming at night with my headiights, i'd say its as much if not less than when i ran a crunch p.1500 around 750 rms.

[CrazyKenKid 64]

i still say get a dmm (digital volt meter) on it just to see what kind a voltage you are getting to the AMP then we can diagnos from there!

[nick9892 0]

If voltage is my problem I'm just gonna pick up a kinetik hc800 online and sit it in my trunk, i have a huge space under the floor perfect for a batt. This particular battery does 750 ca so i believe it should be enough

[CrazyKenKid 64]

are you using this amp at the full potential?

[nick9892 0]

Ok I'll look into getting a dmm then, i mean its most likely a low voltage problem if not a bad ground then.

[nick9892 0]

Yes amp is being ran at full potential

[CrazyKenKid 64]

like is say don't waste the money if you don't have to right?

if it is a h/u issue or a grounding that can be fixed easire and cost free...

also did you get a d1 sub so you are running at 2ohm?

[CrazyKenKid 64]

while you are pumping do you rev your car?

maybe try to rev up to 2k rpm and then pump it and see what happens?

[nick9892 0]

like is say don't waste the money if you don't have to right?

if it is a h/u issue or a grounding that can be fixed easire and cost free...

also did you get a d1 sub so you are running at 2ohm?

subs d2 amps ran to 1 ohm

[shizzzon 461]

if u add another battery, you need a voltmeter installed to monitor the rear battery.

IF, which i do not believe at this moment, that your front battery is severely discharged, adding a second battery will only lead to prolong overworking of the alternator and one would need a remote voltmeter to monitor a change in voltage when the stereo is low or off. You don't want an alt to burn up from trying to charge low batts.

But, enough speculation...

Don't decide anything without knowing some fact about what's going on.

[CrazyKenKid 64]

if u add another battery, you need a voltmeter installed to monitor the rear battery.

IF, which i do not believe at this moment, that your front battery is severely discharged, adding a second battery will only lead to prolong overworking of the alternator and one would need a remote voltmeter to monitor a change in voltage when the stereo is low or off. You don't want an alt to burn up from trying to charge low batts.

But, enough speculation...

Don't decide anything without knowing some fact about what's going on.

X2!

[nick9892 0]

Ok i'll do what you said tmrw and I'll see what happens. My bud might have a dmm if not i'll look into one.

[CrazyKenKid 64]

don't spend to much on 1 pop into radio shack and get a el-cheap-o one lol! not go spendign a ton on 1 jsut to CHECK voltage you know

[SUNDOWN/FI BEATIN 0]

I run my stock alt with 1 run of 1/0 to a battery bank for 4 group 31 batts in the back.. i dont run an extra voltage meter.. never have in any of my setups... .. adding an extra battery gives you more reserve capacity on your charging circuit.. a major upgrade that i plan on doin is competing the charging circuit by running a ground front to back...