0/1 wire under vehicle run
01-11-2010, 07:55 AM
#43
0 Watt CAFz'r
Join Date: Apr 2008
Posts: 34
the first thing i would do is to install a proper ground for your stuff that shouldnt be opposed by anyone. running a 300A wire for power and a sheet of 16 guage floor pan for a ground is kind of silly. and also with any kind of DC load your car will start to have serious electrical problems and rust due to DC electrolysis. i am willing to bet that your floor pan is warm after a long enough amp load.
2nd opinion. buy a digital multi meter and do the math. under stereo load measure your volts on your battery. then add up all the RMS ratings on your amps it should look like 1000/13 or something like that. this is amp draw of your system. if its over 105 you need a bigger alternator if its under 105 you dont. use commeon sense if your gain is set to 30% then you arent using all the power available. its NOT accurate but it will be close. do not try to measure amp draw using your multimeter without a DC voltage shunt.
3rd i have heard lots of things good and bad for caps and i get a kick out of people who buy them. normally stereos take from a battery then the batt is charged by a alt. when you put a cap in line the amps take from the cap first, where does the cap fill up from????? it just fills from the battery again! my favorite argument for caps is, "well you see its the speed at which things fill and drain" electricty travels at the speed of light people. sure resistors and chokes can alter this (sorta). but these arent used in this type of capacitor. if caps did work every stereo shop would have a display with a cap inline and one out of line and you could see the difference.
2nd opinion. buy a digital multi meter and do the math. under stereo load measure your volts on your battery. then add up all the RMS ratings on your amps it should look like 1000/13 or something like that. this is amp draw of your system. if its over 105 you need a bigger alternator if its under 105 you dont. use commeon sense if your gain is set to 30% then you arent using all the power available. its NOT accurate but it will be close. do not try to measure amp draw using your multimeter without a DC voltage shunt.
3rd i have heard lots of things good and bad for caps and i get a kick out of people who buy them. normally stereos take from a battery then the batt is charged by a alt. when you put a cap in line the amps take from the cap first, where does the cap fill up from????? it just fills from the battery again! my favorite argument for caps is, "well you see its the speed at which things fill and drain" electricty travels at the speed of light people. sure resistors and chokes can alter this (sorta). but these arent used in this type of capacitor. if caps did work every stereo shop would have a display with a cap inline and one out of line and you could see the difference.
01-11-2010, 08:03 AM
#44
50 Watt CAFz'r
Thread Starter
Join Date: Nov 2008
Posts: 286
1 - Getting the ground back to my battery is my next step.Just waiting until payday for the wire. And yes, in retrospect it does seem kinda of silly to ground to chassis with that kind of power.
2 - I have a DNN. Vehicle not running I am at 12.6. Vehicle running I am at 14.4 however I am yet to watch what the voltage does during heavy bass transients.
3 - I am not even touching this one. I have no intention of this turning in to a caps good/bad thread. There are definitely enough of those out there.
2 - I have a DNN. Vehicle not running I am at 12.6. Vehicle running I am at 14.4 however I am yet to watch what the voltage does during heavy bass transients.
3 - I am not even touching this one. I have no intention of this turning in to a caps good/bad thread. There are definitely enough of those out there.
01-11-2010, 02:51 PM
#46
Administrator
Join Date: Feb 2006
Posts: 16,855
the first thing i would do is to install a proper ground for your stuff that shouldnt be opposed by anyone. running a 300A wire for power and a sheet of 16 guage floor pan for a ground is kind of silly. and also with any kind of DC load your car will start to have serious electrical problems and rust due to DC electrolysis. i am willing to bet that your floor pan is warm after a long enough amp load.
At least you won't generally make things worse by running a ground cable back to the front. My advice - ground that cable in the trunk along with your amps and then at the battery. This makes use of both the cable and the car.
2nd opinion. buy a digital multi meter and do the math. under stereo load measure your volts on your battery. then add up all the RMS ratings on your amps it should look like 1000/13 or something like that. this is amp draw of your system. if its over 105 you need a bigger alternator if its under 105 you dont. use commeon sense if your gain is set to 30% then you arent using all the power available. its NOT accurate but it will be close. do not try to measure amp draw using your multimeter without a DC voltage shunt.
3rd i have heard lots of things good and bad for caps and i get a kick out of people who buy them. normally stereos take from a battery then the batt is charged by a alt. when you put a cap in line the amps take from the cap first, where does the cap fill up from????? it just fills from the battery again! my favorite argument for caps is, "well you see its the speed at which things fill and drain" electricty travels at the speed of light people. sure resistors and chokes can alter this (sorta). but these arent used in this type of capacitor. if caps did work every stereo shop would have a display with a cap inline and one out of line and you could see the difference.
3rd i have heard lots of things good and bad for caps and i get a kick out of people who buy them. normally stereos take from a battery then the batt is charged by a alt. when you put a cap in line the amps take from the cap first, where does the cap fill up from????? it just fills from the battery again! my favorite argument for caps is, "well you see its the speed at which things fill and drain" electricty travels at the speed of light people. sure resistors and chokes can alter this (sorta). but these arent used in this type of capacitor. if caps did work every stereo shop would have a display with a cap inline and one out of line and you could see the difference.
01-11-2010, 03:12 PM
#47
500 Watt CAFz'r
Join Date: Oct 2009
Posts: 730
running a 300A wire for power and a sheet of 16 guage floor pan for a ground is kind of silly. and also with any kind of DC load your car will start to have serious electrical problems and rust due to DC electrolysis. i am willing to bet that your floor pan is warm after a long enough amp load.
Not to be rude, but seriously? Where did you find this kind of information?
01-11-2010, 09:20 PM
#50
the first thing i would do is to install a proper ground for your stuff that shouldnt be opposed by anyone. running a 300A wire for power and a sheet of 16 guage floor pan for a ground is kind of silly. and also with any kind of DC load your car will start to have serious electrical problems and rust due to DC electrolysis. i am willing to bet that your floor pan is warm after a long enough amp load.
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So I did some basic electrical calculations based on sheet resistance.
Based on conductivity of steel, , a 2 meter wide sheet, 2 meters long and 1 mm thick I got a resistance of 0.0016 Ohms... This is the same as 17 feet of 0 gauge wire.. So this seems to be quite balanced in terms of the power loss.
As for your heating! um again. I dont think this is significant... even at 300 amps going thru .002 ohms, we get 180 watts.. not quite enough to keep up with the heat radiation capability of a 2x2 meter sheet of steel. The same for the power wire... 180 watts disipated by 300 amps over 17 feet of zero gauge is 10 watts per foot.. I think we are safe.
Remember at 300 amps @ 14 volts that is 4200 watts...so loosing about 10% thru the power wire and ground. Think my numbers are close.. would like feedback
I see so much throwing up in the air of ideas without any one making the basic investigations using engineering science and math to back up what they are saying.
