My friend ordered a Cap for his system and I keep yelling at him for running his system w/o it installed. he is messing up his batt. and alternator. EXACTLY how do u go about installing one, he says you need to charge it up somehow and whatnot......If i had instruction i could do it but i kinda lack that as of now.

 

there should be instructions w/ it. but if not there should be a resistor included. you connect the resistor to your power source then connect the resistor to the cap. what that does is give it a low voltage charge. I think some body even said that they used a test light. I think it was jim85iroc that does/did.

 

yea, a test light works too.

Charging it:

Ground it out to the battery. Take a test light and connect one end to the positive terminal and the other end to the postiive terminal on the cap. Keep taking it off so it doesnt get hot, like 4 second intervals. The light will go dimmer and dimmer till it eventually doesnt come on anymore. Its charged now.

Installing it:

THe negative end gets grounded to your car. The power wire from the battery and power wire to the amp connect together on the positive terminal. Closer to the amp is better.

Later,
Tim

 

what problems would u get if u dont run a capasitor? becuz after we installed my system and did alittle test where u have the car running and the lights on and see if they kinda dim then that means i need a capasitor right? but it didnt dim or fliker much but we also had the headunit turned up to 25 when it only goes to 31 dont know why only 31 but thats pinonerr for ya.

the highest ive turned my system up too was 20 in the past. becuz when im in the car 10 is loud enuff 15 is fricken loud and the power for the amps are only turned on half way. but what damage if any will my system do if i dont run a cap. ?

 

absolutely no damage. Systems are meant to be played, not a max volume all the time, but they're are meant for abuse. If no light dimming then there's no requirement for a cap, they only control voltage pass to the battery and amp....
If you have a dimming problem, then you could use a cap to assist in voltage passage, but you do not NEED one. If no dimming there's no extra strain no your electrical system. They never hurt though. But mind you that caps in no way improve sound, they only assist in taking strain off of the charging system.

 

ok kool then im not goin to worry about one then.

 

The large capacitor acts like a 'flywheel' to store electricity, so long as you have heavy-gauge cable from the amplifier to the battery a capacitor won't do much for you.

I believe the capacitors are marketed hype for the most part, I can't believe the prices on these things. You can pick up the same parts at computer/electronic surplus places for dirt.

The switching power supplies in the amplifiers demand tens of thousands of short bursts of high current every second from the car's 12V system, having a capacitor near the amplifier helps to maintain a 'solid' low-impedance source of 12V DC for the amp's supplies. The car battery does the same thing, it is most capable of hundreds of Amps of current so long as the wire used is heavy with good connections.

I haven't done any before/after testing, but I can only see the capacitor helping if your amp's DC power lead is coiled up and has become an inductor.

 

MY car nuts friend would say the same thing, caps are worthless. all you need are two battries. 1 up front, 1 in the rear.

his system will make you want out of the car, makes every organ in your body vibrate, ive gotten a horse throat from just sitting there.

2 alternators isnt a bad idea either.

get one for an 80s olds 98, it came with a cs144 alt, 144 amp stock cause it has some many power options.

or autozone has 108amps alts for 60 bucks.

I dont know much but pick up stuf here in there and my friend system is rock solid. 6-8 amps and speakers everywhere.

 

80s olds huh... So I could probably go to a junk yard and pick one up for 20 bucks and hope it works. Well a warranty from autozone sounds better.

 

yep its the upgrade alt listed for my car, 86 bird, biggest one they have and 108 amps for 60 bucks is not a bad deal.

for the price of two of them you got one hell of a deal. 216 amps

only problem is it a uni alt, meaning you gotta spin the front plate to make it line up right. take some know how to do that right, only lift the front casing part, just enough to spin it around. do it wrong and you wil hafta go back for another one.


oh and guys, automotive battries are a waste of money. buy only deep cycle marine battries for your car. same thing, no different but meant to push out lots of juice for a long time. more reserve mins the better. no diferent that a car batt except it will run a system without the car running for hrs and still start later.

 

and how would you mount 2 alt. or even regulate them

 

you dont need to regulate them. if you remove your ac you can put one there, if your car had a smog pump or get the smog pump and bracket you can put one there, gotta get creative. just like a car you run an alt. to each battrie.

now you can hook up a toggle switch, the small red wire that goes to an alt is like the on switch, if you put a switch on that wire. but if you forget to turn it on before you start your car, and turn it on under load, itwill blow. seen my friend do that a few times, you can tun them off any time you want. just cant turn it on under load.

its not that hard, just gotta get creative, no real problems, you can run them both all the time if you wish.

 

Don't even get two alt's. A total waste of money unless you are a full-time SPL competitor (with many kW's of power). I would also recommend against having two batteries. The only thing having a second battery will do is add more load to the alt and give you more 'key-off' listening time.

 

Ya call up your friend, tell him you know what needs to be done.

When you guys meet up, you tell him how to do it, and say "Go ahead and charge it. I'll be back in a few minutes. I gotta go take a dump."

AJ

 

MCSS is right here. Havving a second battery does absolutely nothing for the light dimming problem. It gives you the ability to play your stereo for a longer period of time WITHOUT the car running, but thats all. Batteries have a much different ESR than a capacitor, which is why it doesnt help you in that sense (i believe thats why, if im wrong someone correct me here).

I also believethe only instance in which a second battery (marine or otherwise) will help you in that situation is to set up an isolator, so that it is not sharing the drain from the engine.

In any instance, a cap would be a much easier solution to the problem.

Also, having two batteries will but a bigger strain on youre charging system.

 

You really dont need any of it, there is a guy online who makes his own 3watt tube amps that cracked the foundation of his house.


yea 3 watts

 

http://decware.com/menu1.shtml

hes up to 5watts now, only 2grand for one of those.

cant find it but he built a horn out of cement in his basement and on a 3watt amp it cracked his foundation.